Determinants of vehicle fuel-type preference in developing countries: a case of Turkey

Abstract

Motor vehicles play a major role in global warming. The main contribution of motor vehicles comes from the emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). This study aims to identify the factors affecting the preferences for vehicle fuel types in Turkey. To meet this objective, a survey was conducted with 1983 participants in different regions of Turkey by the DataProfil survey firm. Results obtained from a multinomial logit model show that variables such as gender, attitudes towards alternative energy sources, social responsibility and sensitivity to environmental problems have an impact on preference of vehicle fuel type.

Influence of Demographics on Consumer Preferences for Alternative Fuel Vehicles: A Review of Choice Modelling Studies and a Study in Portugal

“…Studies developed in North America [5,6,16,26,37,44,83,87] and Europe [21,23,46,77,78,95] reported that younger consumers are more willing to buy greener vehicles (with the exception of [53]). On the other hand, Asian studies, with the exception of [58], found that older consumers have higher propensity to buy AFVs [19,59,61,88]. Therefore, the summarized results are consistent with hypothesis H2.…”

“…Qian and Soopramanien [58] average distance from home to workplace, no. of working members Senturk et al [59] [61] no. family members with driver license Achtnicht et al [20] Hess et al [48] house location, no.…”

“…Focused on FCVs, Ziegler [21] found that younger consumers have higher propensity to choose these vehicles. Concerning HEVs, Senturk et al [59] reported that older consumers prefer these vehicles over gasoline vehicles, which can be justified by their higher sensitivity to the factors that affect negatively their health, whereas Hackbarth and Madlener [23] found that younger consumers are more likely to adopt HEVs. Additionally, there were studies that analyzed the effect of age on AFVs in general: one concluded that preferences for these vehicles increase with age [53] whereas others concluded that age affects negatively the preferences for AFVs [5,16,58,78].…”

“…High levels of income are commonly assumed to be related to high levels of education [61]. It is thus expected that wealthy consumers are better informed about the advantages of AFVs and are more likely to prefer them [19,52,59], by valuating more their operation cost savings [72]. However, this relation cannot be generalized to all AFVs, due to the presence of contradictory results in the studies reviewed.…”

“…Driving habits are mainly expressed by the average vehicle mileage driven annually, weekly or daily [18,19,43,59,67,72] or by the type of route that consumers use more often, city or intercity routes [5,23,58]. On one hand, the influence of driving habits on preferences for AFVs may favor AFVs over diesel or gasoline vehicles as the running costs of AFVs are usually lower.…”