Electric vehicle adoption and sustainability: Insights from the bibliometric analysis, cluster analysis, and morphology analysis

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are a new emerging technological advancement that has apprehended the interest of researchers as well as regulators, primarily due to their connection with sustainability in the broadest sense. EVs are recognized by academics as a viable and potentially game-changing type of transportation due to their ability to improve overall energy efficiency and lower emissions of greenhouse gases. Studies on either the technological or environmental aspects of electric vehicles abound in the literature, but a comprehensive sustainability assessment taking all three into account is the subject of relatively little investigation. This research study has performed a bibliometric analysis, cluster analysis, and morphology analysis on ‘EV adoption and Sustainability’ to gain insights into the research field. In total, 291 articles were found suitable from 2003 to Jan 2023. Our assessment only considers review papers, articles, and journals from the Scopus database. After going through this procedure, we found 191 articles worthy of bibliometric study, and 73 were chosen for the cluster analysis and morphology analysis. Vosviewer software has been used to generate two-dimensional bibliographic maps for visualization. This study has used cluster analysis to determine which themes predominate and a morphological analysis of author-supplied keywords to determine which sets of words appear most frequently and how often they appear. Six theme-based clusters have been found from the cluster analysis. We have read all the papers within the clusters, and we have discussed and devised the theme for each cluster as per the content covered in the clusters. The findings of this study have provided a research proposition for future researchers working in this area. This study has also suggested policy, societal, and managerial implications of EV adoption. The proposed study will aid engineers, academics, researchers, and policymakers involved in promoting electric vehicle adoption.