Impact of Incentive Policies and Other Socio-Economic Factors on Electric Vehicle Market Share: A Panel Data Analysis from the 20 Countries

• Main Authors: Chenlei Xue, Huaguo Zhou, Qunqi Wu, Xueying Wu, Xingbo Xu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: electric vehicles; incentive policies; socio-economic factors; random effects model
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2928

Under the strong support of policies and incentives, the global electric vehicle (EV) market has been developing rapidly. However, in the context of the overall EV market boom, the promotion policies and incentives for consumers to adopt EVs differ from country to country. It is worth exploring the key factors that affect market share and adoption of EVs, such as incentives, policies, and additional socio-economic factors. The data on EV market share and information on policies and incentives in 20 countries were collected from the published reports and online resources from 2015 to 2019. Random effects model analysis was conducted to explore the effect of various factors on EV market share. The innovation of this article is to combine incentive policies with socio-economic factors and use panel data to analyze the actual adoption behavior of the global EV market. Results show that the tax reduction policy, charger density, and income have significantly positive effects on the penetration of EVs. Thus, it suggested that government should still maintain tax incentives and focus on the deployment of charging infrastructure. Household income, as a socio-economic factor, also plays an important role in the adoption of EVs. This will help policymakers adjust and improve policy emphasis to promote the adoption of EVs.