Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption

ABSTRACT

Electric vehicles (EVs) were recently reintroduced to the global car market. These are an improvement over their predecessors in performance and electric driving range. Although the uptake of EVs has been notable in a short period of time, most government goals for adoption have not been met. This paper reviews a growing body of peer-reviewed literature assessing factors affecting EV adoption. Several important gaps in knowledge are identified. First, there is mixed evidence of the effectiveness of government incentives in encouraging EV uptake and particularly little knowledge in regards to issues of timing and magnitude. The literature shows that public charging infrastructure is an important factor associated with EV uptake, though the direction of causality is yet unclear. Public charging infrastructure can ease range anxiety, particularly for battery electric vehicles, but there is little guidance as to the way in which government should best go about ensuring the provision of infrastructure. Lastly, the nascent EV market means that studies primarily rely on surveys about hypothetical situations. There is strong evidence that actual purchases are much lower than consumers’ stated preferences. Improving understanding of this “attitude–action” gap is important to better informing studies of EV uptake over time.

KEYWORDS:

• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
• battery electric vehicles
• alternative vehicle adoption
• support measures

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The tax credit is based on the battery capacity such that for each additional kilowatt hour (kW h) beyond 5 kW h, an extra $417 is awarded on top of the minimum $2500.

2. Using keyword searches like: EV “adoption”, “policy”, “charging”, “forecast”.

3. Because the emphasis of this literature review is on understanding the state of knowledge in factors affecting EV uptake, this research does not comprehensively include the plethora of studies that forecast EV uptake using simulation models. We do, however, include several for illustrative purposes and to show the limitations of estimating these models using stated preference data. We also include articles (a total of 6) that study factors that affect uptake of HEV. This is by no means intended to be exhaustive but rather illustrative. We draw upon examples from the more extensive literature on HEVs such that it may inform future EV research.

4. Based on base MSRP published rates, using a 2014 consumer price index to normalise prices to $2011.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an award to the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa, from the Florida Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida, as part of grant number DTRT13-G-UTC51 from the US Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program as well as the State of Hawaii.