Change towards electric vehicle use in Greater Stockholm

Abstract

This paper studies electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Greater Stockholm in Sweden using the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) and the Protection Motivation Theory as a framework and considers socio-cognitive, behavioural and socio-economic attributes that may influence the process towards electric vehicle use. TTM considers behavioural change as a process consisting of five stages-of-change rather than as an event. Some key findings were made: (1) from the earlier to the later stages-of-change, the attitude towards EVs becomes more positive, the knowledge about EVs increases and the self-efficacy is consistently increasing. (2) The threat appraisal and response efficacy of EVs increase from stage to stage in the stages prior to the actual change but have a lower level for the stages after the change. (3) The explanatory power of regression models modelling both pre-contemplation and all stages-of-change increases significantly when incorporating socio-cognitive variables such as self-efficacy, threat-appraisal, response efficacy and attitudes towards EVs. (4) The modal share of the car is consistently increasing throughout the stages-of-change. The results indicate that policy measures aiming at increasing knowledge and self-efficacy of car drivers related to EV use can stimulate electric vehicle adoption. Also, the relative advantages of EVs for car drivers should get more attention rather than only emphasizing the environmental advantages.