Accounting for attitudes and perceptions influencing users’ willingness to purchase Electric Vehicles through a Hybrid Choice Modeling approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Depending on the context, several factors may affect users’ choices. In this paper, the main focus refers to modeling users’ willingness to purchase a new/innovative technology. This is a crucial task in order to increase the attractiveness of strategies that may be employed to achieve sustainable transportation. In particular this paper aims to investigate the different attributes/determinants that may influence the decision on choosing an Electric Vehicle. As a matter of fact, psychological factors, may play a significant role which should be modeled. Indeed, it is widely recognized that traditional approaches used to interpret and model users’ choice behavior may lead to neglect the numerous non-quantitative factors that may affect users’ behaviors. In particular, the role of attitudes and perception towards EVs advantages/barriers were investigated through the specification of a Hybrid Choice Model where the utility function was specified in accordance with the consolidated Random utility modeling but an alternative approach, based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, was adopted for attitudes and perceptions representation. The purposes of the paper rely on (i) the survey data collection, (ii) data analysis, (iii) purchase behavior modeling. In particular, the main contribution of the paper is in the preliminary investigation of the combination between HCM and AHP method.