Is subsidized electric vehicles adoption sustainable: Consumers' perceptions and motivation toward incentive policies, environmental benefits, and risks

Whether the subsidized adoption is sustainable largely depends on consumers' perceptions and motivation toward EVs purchase. In this study, we reveal the mechanism on how perceptions and motivation impact consumers' EV purchase intention. Based on the analysis of 264 respondents, we find that perceived economic benefits, perceived environmental benefits, and perceived risks are correlated with each other. These perceptions can explain and predict attitudes towards EV purchase intention, thus playing primary roles in influencing EV adoption. We further find that regulatory focus (i.e. promotion-focus versus prevention-focus) has profound impacts on perceptions and the constructs of the theory of planned behavior. Promotion-focused respondents are more sensitive to perceived environmental benefits and more easily to form positive attitudes toward EV purchase, whereas the prevention-focused respondents are not. The findings can help policy-makers to make more effective adoption policy by emphasizing EV's environmental benefits to consumers, and guide managers to more accurately activate consumers' purchase intention through the angles of perceptions and motivation.