Characterizing Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Consumers Most Influenced by California’s Electric Vehicle Rebate

Abstract

California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) provides cash rebates to make plug-in and fuel-cell electric vehicle purchases and leases more financially attractive. Self-reported evidence provided by CVRP participants provides a unique opportunity to examine the influence of the incentive from the consumer perspective. With evidence from a voluntary survey offered to all individual CVRP participants, this inquiry used logistic regression to examine the relationship between consumer factors and the influence of CVRP on consumers’ acquisition decisions. In other words, would they have purchased their vehicle without the rebate? This initial analysis examined a set of consumers who adopted plug-in hybrid electric vehicles between fall 2012 and spring 2015 ( n = 7,345). Factors considered for inclusion encompassed transaction, household, and demographic characteristics, motivations for adopting plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and measures of experience with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Findings indicated, as expected, that several characteristics and experiences are associated with a greater likelihood that a consumer would consider the rebate essential. These characteristics and experiences include having lower household income, being younger, adopting less-expensive vehicles, being more motivated to adopt a PEV by a desire to save money, being less motivated to adopt a PEV by a desire to reduce environmental impact, and reporting a lower initial interest level in adopting a PEV. Less straightforward, but informative, results included a positive association between rebate influence and identification with a nonwhite ethnicity or as male. Additionally, the lack of significance of some predictors was unexpected; in particular, no housing characteristics were associated with the influence of the rebate.