Product bundling for accelerating electric vehicle adoption: A mixed-method empirical analysis of Swiss customers

Abstract

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is accelerating. Knowing which factors determine EV purchases among the first innovative adopters, we now need to understand the preferences of wider customer segments that are currently entering the market. The bundling of EVs with additional services is one strategy for fostering EV adoption among the latter. Early studies have shown the potential of this marketing strategy for increasing EV customer acceptance. However, they often do not empirically test the identified bundles; no investigation to date has analyzed the effect of the most commonly applied bundle in practice – that of EV and charging services. We address this gap and create relevant insights for academia by conducting an online study with potential Swiss EV adopters. We applied two empirical approaches: a between-subject design experiment to study the effect of the essential bundle type on EV purchase willingness, and a choice experiment to identify the preferred bundle type of individual customer segments. We find that bundling EV and charging services increases EV purchase willingness of respondents with little prior knowledge of EVs. The choice experiment identified three customer segments that we name Tech-oriented adopters, Convenience-oriented adopters, and Likely non-adopters. They differ in the importance scores and part-worth utilities they attach to the individual attribute levels and general bundle preferences. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for policy and practice regarding how to promote and utilize bundles to foster EV purchases among later groups of adopters, and propose avenues for further research.