Study On The Influence Factors Of The Purchase Intention Of The Small-electric Vehicles

Under the dual pressures of oil energy shortages and environmental pollution,many developed countries chose electric vehicles as an important developmentdirection of the automotive industry. China also listed electric vehicles as one of theseven strategic emerging industries of the "12th Five-Year-Plan" period. With thesupports of the "863" special research plans on the electric vehicles, some of the keytechnologies of electric vehicles and product development have made great progressin China. In recent years, many scholars studied on how to develop electric vehicles,in particular, reached a basic consensus to developing the small-electric vehicleswhose technologies are basically mature. Besides, the government also introducedsome relevant support policies, but the current domestic market conditions forsmall-electric vehicles are not ideal, and consumers’ willingness to buy these carsremains low. Hence, in order to find the reasons for impeding the market development,this paper deeply investigated and analyzed the factors that influence purchaseintention from the consumers’ perspective, which includes charging convenience,safety and reliability of the vehicles, repair services, purchase and usage costs, etc.In details, this paper built some relevant models and designed the questionnaireaccording to the theories of consumers’ purchase intention and the characteristics ofthe small-electric vehicles. Through the interviews and questionnaire to those who arefamiliar with the electric vehicles and could afford them, the first-hand data ofconsumers’ intention were collected, and then an SPSS17.0statistics softwarequantitative analysis was conducted as following: firstly, the current situation of theconsumers’ purchase intention were obtained through a descriptive statistics analysis,then six major factors which effect the consumers’ purchase intention on thesmall-electric vehicles were extracted with the methodology of element study, finally,through a multiple linear regression analysis, with the purchase intention as thedependent variable and the six influencing factors as independent variables, thefactors impacts on the purchase intention were explored. To make the analysis resultsmore targeted, further regression analysis was conducted under the differentconditions of charging equipment ownership. Finally, according to the researchanalysis, related countermeasures were given, including improving using conditionsof the small-electric vehicles, as well as the product quality, and reducing the users’costs, etc. The research findings can provide a reference for policy makers on small-electricvehicles’ development, and also help the auto companies to develop new markets ofthese products.