The role of instrumental, hedonic and symbolic attributes in the intention to adopt electric vehicles

By G. Schuitema, Jillian Anable, S. Skippon, N. Kinnear. 2013

735 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The aim is to understand how private car drivers’ perception of vehicle attributes may affect their intention to adopt electric vehicles (EVs). Data are obtained from a national online survey of potential EV adopters in the UK. The results indicate that instrumental attributes are important largely because they are associated with other attributes derived from owning and using EVs, including pleasure of driving (hedonic attributes) and identity derived from owning and using EVs (symbolic attributes). People who believe that a pro-environmental self-identity fits with their self-image are more likely to have positive perceptions of EV attributes. Perceptions of EV attributes are only very weakly associated with car-authority identity.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Management Science and Operations Research, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/69c98d3bb1dbaef9c851ad042ed098de52217d19

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

In Management Science and Operations Research

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Citations in the corpus

Analysis of public acceptance of electric vehicles: An empirical study in Shanghai (2018, background): “The research of Schuitema et al., 2013 also showed that the factors affecting consumers' acceptance of EVs are not only the product performance, but also consumers' perceptions of EV driving pleasure and symbolic meaning.”
Using extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict adoption intention of electric vehicles in India (2020, background): “Environmental concern is awareness towards various kinds of environmental problems and issues (Schuitema et al. 2013).”
On the Determinants of Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Literature Review and Guide for the Empirical Economist (2019, background): “People who identify themselves as green are likely to have, for e.g., positive perceptions of electronic vehicle attributes (Schuitema et al., 2013).”
Size matters: How vehicle body type affects consumer preferences for electric vehicles (2017, background): “…Research Part A journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate / t ra The psychological perspective focuses on EVs with respect to user lifestyle, attitudes, symbolism, and perceived evaluations of vehicle attributes (e.g. Mohamed et al. (2016), Morton et al. (2015), Schuitema et al. (2013)).”
Cause I'll Feel Good! An Investigation into the Effects of Anticipated Emotions and Personal Moral Norms on Consumer Pro-Environmental Behavior (2017, methodology): “Anticipated pleasure, excitement, and pride are found to influence the intentions to adopt electric vehicles positively (Schuitema et al., 2013) and mediate the influence of consumer attitude toward the instrumental attributes of electric cars.”