Suggested Citation:
Jenn, Alan, J.H. Lee, Scott Hardman, Gil Tal (2020) An In-Depth Examination of Electric Vehicle Incentives: Consumer Heterogeneity and Changing Response over Time. Transportation Research Part A 132, 97 - 109

The authors investigate the impacts of a combination of incentives on the purchase decision of electric vehicle buyers in California from 2010 through 2017. The authors employ a comprehensive survey on over 14,000 purchasers of electric vehicles in the state of California. The survey covers a swath of purchase intentions, general demographics, and importance of various incentives. The authors' results indicate that the most important incentives for plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners are the federal tax credit, the state rebate, and the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane access. In addition, the importance of the incentives and their associated effect on purchase behavior has been changing over time: respondents are less likely to not change their decision and more likely to not buy a vehicle at all as time passes and the technology moves away from early adopters.

Key words: Consumer behavior, demographics, electric vehicles, high occupancy vehicle lanes, incentives, purchasing, surveys, taxes, time duration