Suggested Citation:
Xing, Yan, Gil Tal, Yunshi Wang (2018) Exploring Mechanisms of Decision Making for Plug-In Electric Vehicle Adoption or Rejection: A Qualitative Study in a Second- and a Third-Tier City in China. Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting

Heavy incentives, both financial and non-financial, are playing important roles in spurring the Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) market in China. However, many of these incentives are not sustainable in the long-run. To meet the goal of 5 million PEVs on roads by 2020 in China, it is critical to find out other intrinsic motivations as well as barriers of PEV buyers to increase PEV adoption rates in a sustainable way even with diminishing incentives for PEV buyers. An effective way to address this question is to explore how consumers go through the decision process to adopt or reject this new vehicle technology. This study focuses on the individual decision process to understand the formation of attitudes and preferences for PEVs as well as the reasons for rejection by employing in-depth qualitative methods in a second-tier and a third-tier city in China, respectively, that offer less aggressive incentives for PEV sales compared to first-tier cities but have still achieved reasonable increases to their PEV markets. The findings suggest that with current technology level, the vehicle social profile, vehicle quality and safety, vehicle technology complexity, and market model availability are important factors affecting decision-making process of PEV adoption. The authors also find that vehicle quality, charging compatibility, and charging safety play critical roles in the long-term sustainable adoption of PEV.

Key words: Acceptance, attitudes, cities, consumer preferences, decision making, motivation, plug-in hybrid vehicles, qualitative analysis