Modeling usage intention for sustainable transport: Direct, mediation, and moderation effect

Abstract

India is exceptionally backward in public acceptance and diffusion of electric vehicles. Therefore, considering the perspective of the Indian people, policymakers, automakers, and marketers, the primary aim of this study was to develop an effective model comprising selective influencing variables that were relevant in the Indian context and capable of revealing the true intention of Indian people to use electric vehicles (EVs). The structural equation modeling was applied to validate the proposed model. Consistently significant results derived from the three separate studies confirmed that the intention to use electric vehicles in India could be explained as being most significantly related to purchase price, perceived behaviour control, personal norms, environmental concerns, sustainable behaviour, driving range, household income, respectively, among all significant influencing factors. The findings covered the literature gaps by confirming the consistently and comparatively strong partial mediating effect of environmental concerns on the relationship between sustainable behaviour and EVs usage intention, personal norms and EVs usage intention, and the mediating effect of the purchase price on the relationship between the driving range and EVs usage intention. The findings also confirmed a moderating effect of age on the relationship between perceived behaviour control and EVs usage intention. The study propounds some important implications for policymakers, automakers, marketers, and other stakeholders, reflecting on the development of strategies for wide-scale acceptance of EVs in India in the coming years.