An empirical study on electric vehicle adoption in India: A step towards a greener environment

Abstract

The Indian automobile industry is witnessing a paradigm shift from fossil fuel to green energy. The current study employs an extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to investigate the impact of attitudes, green nudges and perceived behavioural control on the behavioural intention (BI) for adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by Indian consumers. Environmental concern is also added to the model to find its impact on actual buying behaviour (AB). Conclusive research is carried out, and data is collected through a structured questionnaire. 342 respondents were analysed using a two-step investigation approach: Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), followed by an artificial neural network (ANN). Subsequently, two models are formed to determine the predictors of BI and AB. The findings suggest that all three factors positively impact BI and AB. Attitude plays the most significant role in BI (the most important predictor of AB). The study's findings also suggest that the extended TPB model is effective for forecasting customers' adoption intentions towards EVs. Moreover, this research adds to the existing literature on the intention and reluctance of consumers to embrace green technology. The results of this study will have significant implications not only for a greater understanding of customer behaviour regarding the adoption of EVs, but also for exploring their market expansion, product offerings, consumer BI and framing policies.