What Factors Drive the Adoption of Electric Vehicles: Environmental Concerns or Pragmatism? An Empirical Analysis of User Preferences, Experience, and Environmental Awareness

This study examines the determinants of electric vehicles adoption focusing on environmental awareness, user preferences, and user experience. Specifically, it investigates whether EV ownership reflects environmental concerns or pragmatic factors such as economic and technological advantages. The analysis is based on survey data obtained from 209 EV users in Türkiye. An Environmental Awareness Index consisting of eleven Likert-scale statements was constructed, and its reliability and validity were verified using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and factor analysis, demonstrating a unidimensional structure. The empirical strategy relies on a combination of descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and multivariate OLS regression models. Robustness analyses were performed using ordered logit and z-standardized OLS estimations. The findings indicate that EV users generally possess a relatively high level of environmental awareness. Descriptive results suggest that economic considerations constitute the most frequently reported motivation for EV adoption, whereas the multivariate analyses provide only limited evidence regarding the independent role of adoption motives in explaining environmental awareness. Econometric results reveal that the frequency of access to environmental information and driving experience are positively correlated with environmental awareness, while household vehicle ownership has a negative effect. These relationships are statistically significant in the baseline models but weaken in the full-specification models, indicating model specification sensitivity. Robustness checks provide partial support for the directional stability of the main associations, although statistical significance varies across alternative specifications. Overall, EV ownership does not necessarily reflect a strong environmentally conscious identity. Instead, adoption is shaped by a combination of cost advantages, technological appeal, and environmental sensitivity. The study highlights the importance of exposure to environmental information on awareness and offers policy implications for both increasing EV adoption and broader environmental awareness.