The impact of service and government-policy attributes on consumer preferences for electric vehicles in China

This research focuses on the effects of different types of service attributes and context-based government policies, along with product attributes, on Chinese consumers’ adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). Based on a stated choice experiment involving over 1000 respondents in different cities of China, a mixed logit (MXL) model shows that typical product attributes are consistently important for potential car buyers, but that charging service has a mixed effect, depending on the level of service provision and speed. Specifically, the availability of a home charging facility has the strongest influence on consumers’ choice to purchase EVs, and the service speed of public fast service stations is also significant. In relation to government policies, this study finds that in addition to government subsidy, free licensing policy for EVs is very attractive for consumers, compared to the lottery-based licensing for conventional petrol vehicles (PVs). We find that Chinese consumers have the highest willingness to pay for obtaining a free vehicle license for EVs (106,144 RMB on average) and being permitted to install a home charging post (91,039 RMB on average). Our findings imply the importance of considering consumers’ perceived inconvenience associated with using EVs compared to buying and using conventional PVs. Furthermore, policy makers should consider the heterogeneous preference towards EVs when designing intervention policies in the Chinese market.