The adoption and disadoption of electric vehicles by innovators

This paper is concerned with the adoption and disadoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by its innovators. Based on existing literature on product adoption and disadoption by consumers, it considers both general (e.g., relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and observability) and context-specific (environmental, performance/functional, and financial) motives for EV adoption. Furthermore, it also considers post-adoption satisfaction with the aforementioned context-specific constructs. Results suggest that, while environmental factors are the most important drivers of EV adoption for all adopters, they are poor predictors of subsequent disadoption. Rather, attitudes towards performance/functional and financial attributes of EVs at the time of adoption, as well as satisfaction with these constructs post-adoption, do a better job of discriminating between continuers and disadopters. Thus, the main drivers of EV adoption are different from those of EV disadoption. This paper also finds that general and context-specific reasons for EV adoption are effective predictors of subsequent disadoption. Furthermore, it shows that innovators are a diverse group of individuals, some of whom discontinue using the innovation early in its diffusion process. Implications of these results, both academic and practical, are discussed.