Abstract:

of Chinese cities, namely Beijing, Wuhan, and Shijiazhuang, which were defined as the upper, middle, and lower classes of cities, respectively. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 2017 in the three study areas separately, targeting actual EV adopters. In total, 1119 samples were collected. Discrete choice models were developed to relate the decisions and attitudes of EV adopters to their sociodemographic characteristics and the class of a city in which they were from. The results suggested that the class of a city was a statistically significant factor in several of the decisions and attitudes, including the reason for choosing EVs, actual payment made for EVs owned, preferences towards EVs, and demand for public charging infrastructure. Specifically, the early adopters from the city's lower class tended to pay less for EVs. Also, they tended to agree that EVs were generally better than Conventional Vehicles (CVs), given that their purchase costs were the same. As a result, over 80% of them would still purchase an EV, given that no financial incentives were provided.