Influence of emotion on purchase intention of electric vehicles: a comparative study of consumers with different income levels

Zhengxia He; Yanqing Zhou; Jianming Wang; Wenxing Shen; Wenbo Li; Wenqi Lu

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03253-1

Influence of emotion on purchase intention of electric vehicles: a comparative study of consumers with different income levels

Curr Psychol. 2022 Jun 3:1-16. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03253-1. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhengxia He¹, Yanqing Zhou², Jianming Wang³, Wenxing Shen⁴, Wenbo Li², Wenqi Lu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121 China.
² Business School, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221116 China.
³ School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, 310018 China.
⁴ College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037 China.

Abstract

Promoting electric vehicles (EVs) adoption has become one of the important paths for countries around the world to address climate change and accelerate the transformation of energy system for achieving sustainable development. As one of the important psychological factors, the research on the explanatory power of emotions to EVs purchase intention is still insufficient. This paper collected 400 valid questionnaires all around China. By incorporating emotions and moral norms into the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model, this study used structural equation model to estimate the impact of positive anticipated emotion (PAE), negative anticipated emotion (NAE), and moral norms together with TPB elements on EVs purchase intention. In order to explore the heterogeneity effect of the above factors on EVs purchase intention among consumers of different income groups, we divided the total sample into high-income subsample and low-income subsample according to the household monthly disposable income. We concluded as follows: for the total sample, PAE has the greatest impact on EVs purchase intention, followed by attitude, NAE, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). In particular, the purchase intention of high-income consumers mainly depends on NAE, while the purchase intention of low-income consumers mainly depends on PAE. Additionally, PBC has more significant impact on EVs purchase intention of high-income group. Finally, targeted policy implications are proposed to promote EVs purchase.

Keywords: Different income level; Electric vehicles purchase intention; Extended theory of planned behavior; Negative anticipated emotion; Positive anticipated emotion.