Publication Detail

Community and Social Media Use Among Early PEV Drivers

UCD-ITS-RR-13-11

Research Report

Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways (STEPS), Electric Vehicle Research Center

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Suggested Citation:
TyreeHageman, Jennifer, Kenneth S. Kurani, Nicolette Caperello (2013) Community and Social Media Use Among Early PEV Drivers. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-13-11

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are now being offered for sale to consumers. Contemporaneously, multi-way social interactions among individuals, groups, businesses, governments, and other actors are increasingly facilitated by communication technologies: we take this to be “social media.” Can this confluence facilitate the formation of new interest-based communities among plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) buyers? How might this be important to promoting PEVs? These PEV drivers show wide variation in their descriptions of who they believe PEV drivers to be, conceptualizations of a PEV, uses of social media to engage other members of the community, and socially mediated and face-to-face interactions with other PEV drivers. This paper presents the results of 28 in-depth interviews with household PEV drivers in San Diego, California. Better understanding of the relationship between emerging PEV markets, social media and consumer-based communities will affect the ongoing management of transitions to electric-mobility.