Has Consumer Acceptance of Electric Vehicles Been Increasing? Evidence from Microdata on Every New Vehicle Sale in the United States
Kenneth Gillingham, Arthur van Benthem, Stephanie Weber, Mohamed Ali Saafi, Xin He
Abstract
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have been rapidly growing around the world, spurred by technology advances and policy actions. This study leverages rich data on all individual new light-duty vehicles sold in the United States from 2014 to 2020. We examine how EV attributes, prices, and sales have evolved, exploring substantial heterogeneity across geography, vehicle class, price range, and demographics. We use a matching analysis to compare EVs to similar conventional vehicles to find that EVs have been surprisingly competitive in very recent years. This suggests that constrained supply is an important determinant of the low overall EV market share.
Topics & Concepts
Microdata (statistics)DemographicsElectric vehicleMatching (statistics)BusinessMarketingAdvertisingEconomicsCensusMathematicsDemographyPopulationPower (physics)PhysicsStatisticsSociologyQuantum mechanicsEnergy, Environment, and Transportation PoliciesElectric Vehicles and InfrastructureInnovation Diffusion and Forecasting