Interested but unsure: Public attitudes toward electric vehicles in China

Efforts to commercialize green vehicles by the Chinese government have been met with surprisingly subdued consumer responses and with sales targets that fall far short to targets. This paper examines the barriers to the adoption of green vehicles in China from a consumer perspective, focusing on battery-only vehicles (BEVs). A web-based survey was conducted to solicit views from Chinese residents in November 2012. The results indicated that although the majority of respondents expressed interests in BEVs and agreed that BEVs were good for the environment and were cheaper to run, many respondents expressed concerns over them being inconvenient to charge, long charging times, limited battery longevity, limited vehicle range and high price. The greatest barrier was inconvenience to charge. The results also show that the level of interest, perception, and demands are significantly influenced by gender, age, income, education, and car ownership status.