Profiling Spanish Prospective Buyers of Electric Vehicles Based on Demographics

Abstract

As traffic congestion and air pollution rise at alarming rates in many cities worldwide, new smart technologies are emerging to meet the urban mobility challenge. In addition, automotive firms have transformed their business models to make them more sustainable and to adjust to demand response. Electric vehicles (EVs) represent a viable option to reduce ecological damage and improve public health. However, in the previous literature, no consensus has been reached on the profile of prospective buyers of EVs. Based on a large-scale sample of Spanish citizens and using cluster analysis, our study provides a better understanding of the demographics of such prospective buyers. We identified four types of EV prospective buyers. Our results show that although men have a strong preference for EVs, low-income older women prove to be the most EV-aware group; their automotive driving experience and concern for sustainability could be among the underlying causes of this particular interest. Another valuable insight is the greater partiality of older people for EVs. These findings have many implications for managers, especially in the automotive industry, policymakers, and sustainability strategists. They show that EV prospective buyers should not be approached as a homogeneous group but as a heterogeneous group with different socio-demographic characteristics that might help decision-makers make better business decisions.

Modelling interest in co-adoption of electric vehicles and solar photovoltaics in Australia to identify tailored policy needs

“…Being male increases the probability of adopting only EV and both PV and EV, beyond the positive effect of being male through tech enthusiasm (and while males have lower pro-environmental attitudes, this indirect negative effect gets swamped by the magnitude of the positive direct effect of being male). These findings align with previous studies that have shown a higher tendency for males to adopt EVs 14 , 15 , 17 , 65 .…”