What are intentions to buy electric vehicles for Thai people?

Abstract

Due to the present emerging eco-friendly trend together with a highly fluctuated gasoline price in previous decades, the electric vehicles are now becoming realistic concepts and practically used in many countries. By studying 102 Bangkok dwellers who have experiences in or currently consider to purchase a car, the research will explore the intention to buy the electric cars in Thai market and the factors influencing those intentions. An online questionnaire was distributed randomly to the author’s peers and co-workers. After computing Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression (Stepwise), it appeared that the main factors influencing the intention to buy are the environmental impact, security, price, and indirect benefits. Even though the ranking of its sensitivity is not complied with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, all of these factors were also existed in the results of the previous researches in European countries (Thiel et al, 2012)(Lieven et al, 2010), United States (Hidrue et al, 2011), and Malaysia (Razak et al, 2014). Moreover, the respondents are likely to purchase an EV if it is available in Thailand (probability is 4.81 out of 6). It is safe to assume that the market has interests in the product. However, they hesitate to acquire them immediately after considering the readiness of supporting facilities.