Development in Electric Vehicle Intention and Adoption: Integrating the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Religiosity

Environmental sustainability has become an urgent problem that cannot be avoided and ignored. The transportation sector is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Many suggest electric vehicles (EVs) as a mechanism for reducing environmental degradation since EVs release less greenhouse gas as compared to combustion cars. However, the sales of EVs in Malaysia are still low compared to the achievements recorded by the neighboring countries. Despite being the earliest to promote electric vehicles, in the first quarter of 2023, Malaysia has only represented 2.4% of the EV market in Southeast Asia. It seems that the success rate in promoting environmental conservation through the adoption of EVs is still minimal. For this reason, the existing study seeks to explore factors related to EV behavioral intention and adoption by using the extended UTAUT (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, perceived value/cost, hedonic motive, and habit). The proposed study believes that environmental protection and sustainability must be related to individuals’ values and principles which could have been shaped based on religiosity. Therefore, in addition to the extended UTAUT that views EV intention and adoption from the technical and personal perspective, this study proposes religiosity as a predecessor in determining EV intention and adoption. The use of extended UTAUT and religiosity in the model will clarify the extent to which the influence of technical factors, personal factors and religiosity is determining the intention and adoption of EVs.