Influencing factors of private purchasing intentions of new energy vehicles in China

The new energy vehicles (NEVs) have gradually become the trend of the world automobile industry due to its energy-saving and environment-friendly features. The developed countries have increased the investment in R&D and the promotion of NEVs, and the sales of NEVs have already accounted for a considerable market share. In China, however, the market share of NEVs is still small; and the marketing promotion of NEVs is facing various difficulties. Then, a question arises naturally: What are the most important influencing factors for Chinese consumers to decide whether to buy a NEV or not? In order to answer this question, we conduct an empirical research on the basis of a large sample survey influencing factors. The results show that the five factors, namely, intrinsic essence of the products, government policy stimulation, cost, reference group, and symbolic factor of the products could notably affect the private purchase of NEVs, among which, intrinsic essence of the products and cost are the most important, while the effect of government policy stimulation is moderate and the other two factors have low impact on the purchase of NEVs. We have also analyzed the reasons and raised corresponding policy suggestions and proposals from the perspectives of both government and enterprises. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.