Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Monica Das

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of electric vehicle consumer awareness on the subsequent purchasing patterns of consumers across the globe, in conjunction with other macroeconomic variables. For this study EVs have been defined as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) or plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Data for this study comes from 33 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceanus over the period from 2011 to 2016. Within the field of research surrounding EV adoption, almost all work has been done at the microeconomic level, this study uses a hybrid macroeconomic approach to bridge the gap in previous literature. In order to gauge consumer awareness at the national level this study utilizes Google Trends data, which tracks the search terms at the country level. The main findings of this study include a significant positive relationship between consumer awareness and purchasing patterns. Consistent with previous literature this study found a significant relationship with household income and EV sales using two different metrics, and found that at the regional level greater policy collaboration creates a more conducive environment for EV adoption.

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