Plug-in Electric Vehicle Market Research on Consumer in Six Cities in China

Abstract

China’s Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PEV) market’s recent surge makes it the world’s largest PEV stock. A series of supportive policies in China contributed greatly to the rapid PEV adoption. However, what role these policies play in encouraging consumers to purchase PEVs rather than conventional vehicles is unknown. Additionally, factors other than incentives that may help maintain the current adoption trend are still unclear. The latter are especially critical in understanding how the market reacts to phasing out subsidies while aiming to achieve the next goal of 5 million PEVs on Chinese roads by 2020. Therefore, in this study we employed both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore these research questions through a cross-sectional study of the current PEV consumer market in six cities in China. The sample size of this study is by far the largest survey of PEV users ever conducted in China. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first study focusing on PEV adoption in third-tier cities in China, where there is much room for PEV sale improvement. Further, collective attitudes toward micro-scale electric vehicles, which have not received much attention due to their smaller market share in big cities, were captured in this study for the first time. The results altogether provide meaningful insights into ways to increase PEV adoption in China and internationally.