How Does the Public React to the Electric Vehicle Tax Incentive Policy? A Sentiment Analysis

Abstract

While there are arguments suggesting that tax incentives can expedite the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), there are also counterarguments proposing that these incentives may exacerbate external costs. As a result, the government may need to incorporate public opinion as an input in formulating the most suitable approach to promote the adoption of electric vehicles within society. The purpose of this study is to investigate public sentiment on EV tax incentives in Indonesia through Twitter. This study utilizes text mining to examine public attitudes and sentiments toward EV using Twitter data. The sentiment analysis model employed is the Indonesian RoBERTa Base Sentiment Classifier. The data utilized in this study consists of Twitter posts spanning from May 2022 to May 2023. The final dataset for analysis comprises 99,856 tweets, each identified by a unique tweet ID. The results show that neutral sentiment dominating the tweet post from negative and positive sentiment. We also found that 56% are supporters and 44% are opposing groups. Tax incentive policies may not always be supported in terms of being considered unfair or inappropriate. Our finding shows three topics that are important for the public about EV: the price of electric vehicles, environmental issues, and EV infrastructure. This study demonstrates that tax incentives or price subsidies may not consistently receive positive perceptions or full support from society. Certain policies considered by specific stakeholders may diminish the effectiveness and expected outcomes of these measures. Our findings have several contributions for knowledge development and tax policy makers.