Factors Affecting Consumer Awareness and the Purchase of Eco-Friendly Vehicles: Textual Analysis of Korean Market

Abstract

Despite the positive outlook of various organizations on the prevalence of eco-friendly cars, Korea’s electric vehicle market is small, and growth is slow. To identify factors that hinder consumer awareness and the spread of eco-friendly vehicles, news articles and online postings on eco-friendly vehicles from 2006 to 2020 were collected and analyzed using text mining techniques. This study found that Korean consumers thought hybrid vehicles were fuel-efficient and quiet; however, there were concerns about battery life and safety due to poor battery performance and complaints about battery replacement. Nevertheless, consumers thought electric cars were sophisticated, luxurious, youthful, clean, and that technical problems would be resolved in the future. The inconveniences of charging and short-distance driving, the expenses and the lack of various dispute settlement measures have been shown to lower the intention to purchase electric vehicles.