IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i8p2130-d534002.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demographic, Social, Economic, and Regional Factors Affecting the Diffusion of Hybrid Electric Vehicles in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Ken’ichi Matsumoto

    (Faculty of Economics, Toyo University, Tokyo 112-8606, Japan
    Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama 236-0001, Japan)

  • Yui Nakamine

    (Faculty of Environmental Science, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan)

  • Sunyong Eom

    (Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8568, Japan)

  • Hideki Kato

    (Toyota Transportation Research Institute, Toyota 471-0024, Japan)

Abstract

The transportation sector is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, and the resulting climate change. The diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), is an important solution for these issues. This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting the ownership ratio of HEVs, particularly passenger vehicles, and the regional differences in the purchase of HEVs in Japan. This study performed a fixed-effects regression analysis with panel data for 47 prefectures during the period 2005–2015 to evaluate the factors affecting the HEV ownership ratio and conducted three cluster analyses to investigate the regional differences in diffusion in terms of price categories, body types, and drive systems of HEVs. Some demographic and social factors were found to affect the ownership ratio in Japan, whereas economic factors, including prefecture-level subsidies for purchasing HEVs, were not. Regarding regional differences, prefectures in urban areas with higher income levels tend to purchase more expensive and large-sized HEVs. These results suggest that a strategy to sell the right vehicle to the right person and region is essential for further promoting HEVs in Japan.

Suggested Citation

  • Ken’ichi Matsumoto & Yui Nakamine & Sunyong Eom & Hideki Kato, 2021. "Demographic, Social, Economic, and Regional Factors Affecting the Diffusion of Hybrid Electric Vehicles in Japan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:8:p:2130-:d:534002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/8/2130/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/8/2130/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wei Wei & Ming Cao & Qianling Jiang & Sheng-Jung Ou & Hong Zou, 2020. "What Influences Chinese Consumers’ Adoption of Battery Electric Vehicles? A Preliminary Study Based on Factor Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Shiraki, Hiroto & Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Shigetomi, Yosuke & Ehara, Tomoki & Ochi, Yuki & Ogawa, Yuki, 2020. "Factors affecting CO2 emissions from private automobiles in Japan: The impact of vehicle occupancy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    3. Gallagher, Kelly Sims & Muehlegger, Erich, 2011. "Giving green to get green? Incentives and consumer adoption of hybrid vehicle technology," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Kwon, Yeongmin & Son, Sanghoon & Jang, Kitae, 2018. "Evaluation of incentive policies for electric vehicles: An experimental study on Jeju Island," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 404-412.
    5. Kester, Johannes & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Noel, Lance & Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo, 2020. "Rethinking the spatiality of Nordic electric vehicles and their popularity in urban environments: Moving beyond the city?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Higgins, Christopher D. & Mohamed, Moataz & Ferguson, Mark R., 2017. "Size matters: How vehicle body type affects consumer preferences for electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 182-201.
    7. Idiano D’Adamo & Paolo Rosa, 2019. "A Structured Literature Review on Obsolete Electric Vehicles Management Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Jia Yao & Siqin Xiong & Xiaoming Ma, 2020. "Comparative Analysis of National Policies for Electric Vehicle Uptake Using Econometric Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Higueras-Castillo, Elena & Kalinic, Zoran & Marinkovic, Veljko & Liébana-Cabanillas, Francisco J., 2020. "A mixed analysis of perceptions of electric and hybrid vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    10. Mohamed, Moataz & Higgins, Christopher D. & Ferguson, Mark & Réquia, Weeberb J., 2018. "The influence of vehicle body type in shaping behavioural intention to acquire electric vehicles: A multi-group structural equation approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 54-72.
    11. Helveston, John Paul & Liu, Yimin & Feit, Elea McDonnell & Fuchs, Erica & Klampfl, Erica & Michalek, Jeremy J., 2015. "Will subsidies drive electric vehicle adoption? Measuring consumer preferences in the U.S. and China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 96-112.
    12. Sierzchula, William & Bakker, Sjoerd & Maat, Kees & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "The influence of financial incentives and other socio-economic factors on electric vehicle adoption," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 183-194.
    13. Morton, Craig & Anable, Jillian & Yeboah, Godwin & Cottrill, Caitlin, 2018. "The spatial pattern of demand in the early market for electric vehicles: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 119-130.
    14. Abotalebi, Elnaz & Scott, Darren M. & Ferguson, Mark R., 2019. "Why is electric vehicle uptake low in Atlantic Canada? A comparison to leading adoption provinces," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 289-298.
    15. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Sherilyn Wee, 2017. "Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93, January.
    16. Diamond, David, 2009. "The impact of government incentives for hybrid-electric vehicles: Evidence from US states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 972-983, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pier Giuseppe Anselma, 2022. "Dynamic Programming Based Rapid Energy Management of Hybrid Electric Vehicles with Constraints on Smooth Driving, Battery State-of-Charge and Battery State-of-Health," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-25, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chenlei Xue & Huaguo Zhou & Qunqi Wu & Xueying Wu & Xingbo Xu, 2021. "Impact of Incentive Policies and Other Socio-Economic Factors on Electric Vehicle Market Share: A Panel Data Analysis from the 20 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Ye Yang & Zhongfu Tan, 2019. "Investigating the Influence of Consumer Behavior and Governmental Policy on the Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Liu, Xiaoling & Sun, Xiaohua & Zheng, Hui & Huang, Dongdong, 2021. "Do policy incentives drive electric vehicle adoption? Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 49-62.
    4. Chandra, Minal, 2022. "Investigating the impact of policies, socio-demography and national commitments on electric-vehicle demand: Cross-country study," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Sun, Xiaohua & Liu, Xiaoling & Wang, Yun & Yuan, Fang, 2019. "The effects of public subsidies on emerging industry: An agent-based model of the electric vehicle industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 281-295.
    6. Elena Higueras-Castillo & Sebastian Molinillo & J. Andres Coca-Stefaniak & Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas, 2020. "Potential Early Adopters of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in Spain—Towards a Customer Profile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Azarafshar, Roshanak & Vermeulen, Wessel N., 2020. "Electric vehicle incentive policies in Canadian provinces," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Soares, N. & Martins, A.G. & Carvalho, A.L. & Caldeira, C. & Du, C. & Castanheira, É. & Rodrigues, E. & Oliveira, G. & Pereira, G.I. & Bastos, J. & Ferreira, J.P. & Ribeiro, L.A. & Figueiredo, N.C. & , 2018. "The challenging paradigm of interrelated energy systems towards a more sustainable future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 171-193.
    9. Wee, Sherilyn & Coffman, Makena & La Croix, Sumner, 2018. "Do electric vehicle incentives matter? Evidence from the 50 U.S. states," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(9), pages 1601-1610.
    10. Mandys, F., 2021. "Electric vehicles and consumer choices," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Meilinda Fitriani Nur Maghfiroh & Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo & Hiroshi Onoda, 2021. "Current Readiness Status of Electric Vehicles in Indonesia: Multistakeholder Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, November.
    12. Eunsung Kim & Eunnyeong Heo, 2019. "Key Drivers behind the Adoption of Electric Vehicle in Korea: An Analysis of the Revealed Preferences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Austmann, Leonhard M., 2021. "Drivers of the electric vehicle market: A systematic literature review of empirical studies," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    14. Hardman, Scott & Chandan, Amrit & Tal, Gil & Turrentine, Tom, 2017. "The effectiveness of financial purchase incentives for battery electric vehicles – A review of the evidence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1100-1111.
    15. Jia, Wenjian & Jiang, Zhiqiu & Wang, Qian & Xu, Bin & Xiao, Mei, 2023. "Preferences for zero-emission vehicle attributes: Comparing early adopters with mainstream consumers in California," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 21-32.
    16. Qiu, Y.Q. & Tsan Sheng Ng, Adam & Zhou, P., 2022. "Optimizing urban electric vehicle incentive policy mixes in China: Perspective of residential preference heterogeneity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    17. Ko, Sungmin & Shin, Jungwoo, 2023. "Projection of fuel cell electric vehicle demand reflecting the feedback effects between market conditions and market share affected by spatial factors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    18. Makena Coffman & Paul Bernstein & Sherilyn Wee, 2017. "Electric vehicles revisited: a review of factors that affect adoption," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93, January.
    19. Wee, Sherilyn & Coffman, Makena & Allen, Scott, 2020. "EV driver characteristics: Evidence from Hawaii," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 33-40.
    20. Cecere, Grazia & Corrocher, Nicoletta & Guerzoni, Marco, 2018. "Price or performance? A probabilistic choice analysis of the intention to buy electric vehicles in European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 19-32.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:8:p:2130-:d:534002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.