Electric Vehicle Purchase Behaviour

Investigating factors affecting consumers’ electric vehicle (EV) purchasing behaviour. By defining consumers’ preference factors, targeted corporate marketing and government policies can be developed to accelerate diffusion of EV

Overview

This project is about investigation of the factors affecting consumers’ electric vehicle (EV) purchasing behaviour.  First, we investigate and quantify the effect of not only the observed factors that affect vehicle purchase decisions (i.e. socio-economic characteristics), but also the unobserved characteristics such as attitudes and perceptions towards driving safety, environmental protection, alternative fuels vehicles, and innovative products.

Second, we employ advanced Stated Preference experiments that simulate hypothetical future situations regarding EV and ask the respondents to declare their vehicle purchase preferences.

Third, this project is going to take place in various countries and metropolitan areas allowing for EV diffusion comparisons across different cultures. The first of a set of quantitative case study is London, UK. London has launched strategies to provide infrastructure to support the diffusion of EV with a recent example the EV Delivery Plan of the Mayor of London.

This research investigates the expectations of customers and their reactions under various EV characteristics, services, policies and infrastructure. By defining consumers’ preference factors, targeted corporate marketing and government policies could be developed to accelerate diffusion of EFV.

Key findings

• Purchasing price and accessibility of charging points are significantly affecting the purchase of an EV.
• Various monetary incentives and policies, such as tax reduction, parking fee discounts and VAT exemption, did not influence the purchase of an EV to a statistically significant level.

Impact, Influence & Outreach

• Assist OLEV to re-design the survey for EV purchase.