Comparing high-end and low-end early adopters of battery electric vehicles

Scott Hardman,Eric Shiu,Robert Steinberger-Wilckens

doi:10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.010

Scott Hardman, Eric Shiu + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.010

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Abstract

Battery electric vehicle adoption research has been on going for two decades. The majority of data gathered thus far is taken from studies that sample members of the general population and not actual adopters of the vehicles. This paper presents findings from a study involving 340 adopters of battery electric vehicles. The data is used to corroborate some existing assumptions made about early adopters. The contribution of this paper, however, is the distinction between two groups of adopters. These are high-end adopters and low-end adopters. It is found that each group has a different socio-economic profile and there are also some psychographic differences. Further they have different opinions of their vehicles with high-end adopters viewing their vehicles more preferentially. The future purchase intentions of each group are explored and it is found that high-end adopters are more likely to continue with ownership of battery electric vehicles in subsequent purchases. Finally reasons for this are explored by comparing each adopter group’s opinions of their vehicles to their future purchase intentions. From this is it suggested that time to refuel and range for low-end battery electric vehicles should be improved in order to increase chances of drivers continuing with BEV ownership.

Highlights

The automotive sector is moving towards a transition from primarily petrol and diesel fuelled internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to more sustainable plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) (Poullikkas, 2015; Sierzchula et al, 2014)
Based on data from 340 early adopters of BEVs it has been possible to corroborate a number of assumptions previously made within the literature
In this sample it was found that early adopters have a high-income, with 76.5% earning more than $90,000 per year, this is in agreement with (Hidrue et al, 2011)

Summary

Introduction

The automotive sector is moving towards a transition from primarily petrol and diesel fuelled internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to more sustainable plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) (Poullikkas, 2015; Sierzchula et al, 2014). BEVs are considered to be the most beneficial of these due to them having zero emissions, high efficiencies and having the potential to be fuelled entirely off renewable electricity (Helveston et al, 2014; Nordelöf et al, 2014; Offer et al, 2011; Schneidereit et al, 2015; Sierzchula et al, 2014; Thomas, 2009) In order for these vehicles to have the greatest effect on improving urban air quality, reducing carbon emissions and reducing energy use they need to be deployed in larger numbers than they are at present. It is possible to achieve this through understanding early adopters of BEVs (Schuitema et al, 2013) This will lead to an understanding of where the market for these vehicles lies and how to ensure that BEVs appeal to these markets. Since the BEV market has developed and grown both in terms of the numbers of

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