Discontinuance Among California's Electric Vehicle Buyers
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UC Davis Research Reports Title Discontinuance Among California’s Electric Vehicle Buyers: Why are Some Consumers Abandoning Electric Vehicles? Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11n6f4hs Authors Hardman, Scott Tal, Gil Publication Date 2021-04-01 DOI 10.7922/G26971W0 Data Availability The data associated with this publication are available at: https://doi.org/10.25338/B8WS6R eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Discontinuance Among California’s Electric Vehicle Buyers: Why are Some Consumers Abandoning Electric Vehicles? A Research Report from the National Center April 2021 for Sustainable Transportation Scott Hardman, University of California, Davis Gil Tal, University of California, Davis TECHNICAL REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. NCST-UCD-RR-21-04 N/A N/A 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date Discontinuance Among California’s Electric Vehicle Buyers: Why are Some April 2021 Consumers Abandoning Electric Vehicles? 6. Performing Organization Code N/A 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Scott Hardman, PhD, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0476-7909 UCD-ITS-RR-21-07 Gil Tal, PhD, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7843-3664 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. University of California, Davis N/A Institute of Transportation Studies 11. Contract or Grant No. 1605 Tilia Street, Suite 100 USDOT Grant 69A3551747114 Davis, CA 95616 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered U.S. Department of Transportation Final Report (October 2019 – December Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology 2020) 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20590 14. Sponsoring Agency Code USDOT OST-R 15. Supplementary Notes DOI: https://doi.org/10.7922/G26971W0 Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.25338/B8WS6R A peer reviewed publication associated with this project is published in Nature Energy: Hardman, S., Tal, G. Understanding discontinuance among California’s electric vehicle owners. Nature Energy (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00814-9 16. Abstract For the market introduction of electric vehicles to be successful, first-time adopters need to make continual purchases of the vehicles. Discontinuance, the act of abandoning a new technology after once being an adopter, has implications for market growth and could prevent electric vehicles from ever reaching 100% market share. Using results from five surveys of electric vehicle owners, the researchers examine discontinuance among battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle adopters. In this sample, discontinuance occurs at a rate of 21% for plug-in hybrid adopters and 19% for battery electric vehicle adopters. They show that discontinuance is related to dissatisfaction with convenience of charging, owning household vehicles with lower efficiencies, being a later adopter of PEVs, not having Level 2 (220V) charging from home, and not being male. Despite consumers overcoming initial barriers of PEVs, it appears some barriers, notably their refueling style, resurface during ownership and eventually become a barrier to continuing with PEV ownership. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Electric vehicle, market, consumers, survey No restrictions. 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 46 N/A Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized About the National Center for Sustainable Transportation The National Center for Sustainable Transportation is a consortium of leading universities committed to advancing an environmentally sustainable transportation system through cutting- edge research, direct policy engagement, and education of our future leaders. Consortium members include: University of California, Davis; University of California, Riverside; University of Southern California; California State University, Long Beach; Georgia Institute of Technology; and University of Vermont. More information can be found at: ncst.ucdavis.edu. Disclaimer The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the information presented herein. This document is disseminated in the interest of information exchange. The report is funded, partially or entirely, by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program. However, the U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. Acknowledgments This study was funded, partially or entirely, by a grant from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST), supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) through the University Transportation Centers program. The authors would like to thank the NCST and the USDOT for their support of university-based research in transportation, and especially for the funding provided in support of this project. The data collection questionnaire surveys were funded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Thanks to Matthew Favetti for programming and supporting the development of the questionnaire survey used in this study. Discontinuance Among California’s Electric Vehicle Buyers: Why are Some Consumers Abandoning Electric Vehicles? A National Center for Sustainable Transportation Research Report April 2021 Scott Hardman, Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center, University of California, Davis Gil Tal, Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center, University of California, Davis [page intentionally left blank] TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... i 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1. Introduction to Discontinuance ...................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. Electric Vehicle Adopters ................................................................................................ 4 2.2. Electric Vehicle Purchase Motivations ............................................................................ 4 2.3. Barriers to Electric Vehicle Adoption .............................................................................. 5 2.4. Studies on Discontinuance .............................................................................................. 5 3. Method ................................................................................................................................... 6 3.1. Questionnaire Surveys .................................................................................................... 6 3.2. Attitudinal and Lifestyle Factors ..................................................................................... 7 3.3. Statistical Analysis ........................................................................................................... 8 3.4. Binary Logistic Regression ............................................................................................... 8 4. Results ..................................................................................................................................... 9 4.1. Sociodemographic Profile .................................................................................................. 10 4.2. Annual VMT, commute distance, and long-distance trips ........................................... 13 4.3. Satisfaction with previous PEV ..................................................................................... 14 4.4. Charging ........................................................................................................................ 16 4.5. Factors related to BEV discontinuance ......................................................................... 19 4.6. Factors related to PHEV discontinuance....................................................................... 20 4.7. Likelihood to purchase a BEV or PHEV in future purchases ......................................... 23 4.8. Desired attributes in a PHEV or BEV for discontinuers ................................................. 23 5. Discussion.............................................................................................................................. 25 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 26 7. References ............................................................................................................................ 28 Data Management ........................................................................................................................ 33 Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................................... 34 Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................................... 35 Appendix 3 .................................................................................................................................... 37 i List of Tables Table 1. Sociodemographic profile of respondents who continued