Who will adopt electric vehicles? Segmenting and exemplifying potential buyer heterogeneity and forthcoming research

Abstract

Market segmentation becomes a crucial tool for evolving transportation technology such as electric vehicles (EVs) in emerging markets to explore and implement for extensive adoption. EVs adoption is expected to grow phenomenally in near future as low emission and low operating cost vehicle, and thus, it drives a considerable amount of forthcoming academic research curiosity. The main aim of this study is to explore and identify distinct sets of potential buyer segments for EVs based on psychographic, behavioral, and socio-economic characterization by employing an integrated research framework of ‘perceived benefits-attitude-intention’, The study applied robust analytical procedures including cluster analysis, multiple discriminant analysis and Chi-square test to operationalize and validate segments from the data collected of 563 respondents using a cross-sectional online survey. The findings posit that the three distinct sets of young consumer groups have been identified and labelled as ‘Conservatives’, ‘Indifferents’, and ‘Enthusiasts’ which are deemed to be buddying EV buyers The implications are recommended, which may offer some pertinent guidance for scholars and policymakers to encourage EVs adoption in the backdrop of emerging sustainable transport market.