Understanding Consumer Adoption of Light-Duty Electric Vehicles: An Interdisciplinary Literature Review

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the adoption of light-duty electric vehicles (EVs), encompassing a comprehensive review and summary analysis of the existing research in the field to identify forthcoming research directions. An emerging interest in understanding factors that influence and accelerate the widespread adoption of EVs has produced insightful research from a variety of disciplines including transportation, natural resources, and social sciences. Considering the vast variety of research endeavors, it is important to establish a baseline understanding of consumer EV adoption to provide an agenda for future research needed to advance current knowledge. This review focuses on aggregating insights gained from 437 research articles across disciplines. Specifically, we systematically reviewed journal articles on EV adoption with the goal of identifying theories used to understand EV adoption, methods by which data was collected, and key findings related to perceived advantages of, and barriers to, EV adoption. Our results help draw an overarching picture of the state of the art in research on EV adoption across disciplines, and identify remaining gaps. We conclude by showing an evolution of methodological practices in EV research and suggesting potential avenues for future research that may be of interest to both academics and practitioners interested in accelerating the widespread adoption of electrified transportation by consumers.