Psychological antecedents of electric vehicle adoption in the West Bank

Abstract

The global electric vehicle (EV) market overgrew in the previous decade. This paper investigates the factors affecting EV purchase intention in the West Bank, Palestine. This study adopts the exploratory sequential mixed methods approach by conducting unstructured interviews and questionnaires in a developing country context. We obtained 384 survey responses from EV owners and non-EV owners – this study used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) tool for empirical analysis. The study results show that environmental concerns, subjective norms, cognitive status, incentive policies, and product perception significantly affect consumers’ intentions to purchase EVs in the West Bank. Environmental concerns indirectly correlate with consumers’ intentions to purchase EVs through attitudes as a mediator. However, perceived behavior control has no significant impact on purchasing intent. These results will help policymakers in improving transportation policies.