Comparison of socio-psychological characteristics of conventional and battery electric car buyers

Knowledge about consumer groups is important for effective measures to encourage consumers to adopt fuel-efficient or alternative fuel cars. In this study, a latent class cluster analysis was conducted to differentiate consumer groups among conventional car buyers based on the latest purchased car's features. Consequently, a series of analysis of variance and a partial least square path modelling were performed to compare five conventional car buyer groups and a group of battery electric car buyers on a range of socio-psychological variables. The results indicated that battery electric car buyers had a significantly different socio-psychological profile from any group of conventional car buyers. In general, conventional car buyers evaluated convenience and performance attributes of the car more important than battery electric car buyers. All groups, however, generally held positive attitude and a high level of perceived behavioural control over buying fuel-efficient cars. Meanwhile, they exhibited weak social and personal norms to choose such cars. Implications for design of effective measures are discussed. (C) 2015 Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.