Influential Factors on Willingness to Pay for a Battery Electric Vehicle in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are expected to be the future of the automotive industry. Since they offer benefits in terms of energy consumption, maintenance costs, and pollution emission, EVs have been promoted as an alternative choice to create a sustainable way of using vehicles and energy. An electric vehicle is defined as a vehicle that fully uses electricity as the power source. Thailand is at the beginning phase of EVs since only a few brands have introduced fully electric vehicles in Thailand. An assessment of the willingness to pay for this type of vehicle has not been conducted in Thailand yet. The objective of this research is to identify the influential factors that affect the willingness to pay for an electric vehicle. A questionnaire survey was developed and distributed randomly to 400 people in Bangkok and the metropolitan area. Multiple regression is employed to identify the variables affecting the amount of money people are willing to pay for an electric vehicle. Significant factors are average family income, number of cars in the family, age, etc. The findings indicate that on average people are willing to pay about 910,000 Baht for an EV car. Recommendations for policymakers and auto manufacturers are also discussed.