Smart cities and electric vehicles adoption in Bahrain

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to assess different factors that influence the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in Bahrain and to identify the challenges and opportunities of different stakeholders who are identified in this study as consumers and automobile companies. The sample size was 320. The study concludes that consumer's awareness and purchasing power have a significant impact on their willingness and intention to purchase EVs. Nevertheless, the driving range has no significant impact on consumers' willingness to purchase EVs. On the one hand, governmental financial incentives such as tax exemption/ reduction could encourage participants to purchase EVs. On the other hand, unavailable infrastructure is a significant concern for both automobile companies and consumers. From marketing and economical perspective, EVs will have a new market segment and the future of automobile industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart cities
• electric vehicles
• market segmentation
• consumer awareness
• potential consumers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.