Refueling convenience and range satisfaction in electric mobility: Investigating consumer willingness to use battery swap services for electric vehicles

Abstract

Battery swap service (BSS) is a game-changing innovation for achieving electric vehicle (EV) refueling, driving range satisfaction, and convenience. BSS is an avenue for swapping a worn-out EV battery for a pre-charged one, eliminating the long charging times of batteries. However, consumer adoption of BSS is overlooked, lacking empirical support. BSS is encouraged as it makes clean ‘fuel’ readily available for EV use. Consumer willingness to patronize BSS is pivotal to EV usage, sustainable transport, and pollution mitigation. Consequently, the innovation diffusion theory is extended with attitude, perceived risk, green self-identity, and task-technology fit to investigate consumer willingness to use BSS. Utilizing a partial least squares-structural equation model (PLS-SEM), 618 responses were analyzed. The outcome revealed that relative advantage, compatibility, attitude, green self-identity, and task-technology fit positively impacted willingness to use BSS. Perceived risk had a significant adverse effect on willingness to use BSS. Attitude mediated the impact of relative advantage and task-technology fit. Also, perceived risk negatively affected attitude. Further, ANOVA analysis confirmed the impact of consumer demography on the willingness to use BSS. Policies involving swapping standardization and synchronization, public sensitization, monetary incentives, and battery performance enhancement are recommended for enhancing BSS acceptance, usage, and proliferation.