Factor attracting customer to purchase Electric Vehicle cars: Gasoline price fluctuation.

Abstract

The recent Covid-19 pandemic and increase in gasoline prices negatively affected the global market for all types of cars. However, the electric vehicle (EV) car market has still demonstrated a significant growth rate, with the global electric car sales share rising to almost 70% in 2020 and similar numbers in 2021. The large markets include China, the EU, India, Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The global trends in the car industry are present in Thailand. In 2020, the government adopted a national roadmap aiming to transform the country into the EV hub of ASEAN within five years via state measures to boost demand and create a full-fledged EV ecosystem. The study's research objectives are to understand the factors that influence EV owners to adopting the EV cars. Theoretically, there are many factors that directly and indirectly influence brand preference, including price fuel fluctuation, environmental concern, social influence, and cost effectiveness. Such analysis would benefit various stakeholders of the EV market, including the, EV cars company and charging equipment manufacturers, government officials, and EV car owners. Consequently, the research was conducted on the main factors that have a significant role in consumers’ adopting EV cars and to determine the significant attitudinal differences within the group of consumers in Thailand. The relationship hypothesis between factors and intention to buy was tested in this study, including price fuel fluctuation, environmental concern, social influence, and cost effectiveness. As a result of research phases and discussion, the research team determined several ideas that led to defining the actionable recommendations for improving the purchasing influence of EV owners from several factors.