Consumer purchase intention of electric vehicles in China: The roles of perception and personality

Electric vehicles (EVs) have been developed rapidly with the strong support of governments in recent years, but the market share of EVs is still small in China and the vast majority of Chinese consumers hesitate to adopt them. Thus, for the successful development of EVs, this paper proposes a personality perception-intention framework to explore consumers' EV adoption behavior. The research model is empirically tested with data collected from 369 participants in China. Results indicate that the EV purchase intention can be explained 57.1% variance by consumer perception and personality. Two types of personality, such as personal innovativeness and environmental concern, significantly affect EV purchase intention directly. They are also significantly mediated by two kinds of perceptions (i.e. positive and negative utilities). The findings give a deeper understanding of EV adoption behavior, and provide recommendations for policymakers and manufacturers on promoting EVs. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.