First-Time EV Buyers and Pro-Environmental Attitudes: Evidence of an Attitude Gap in the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project in California

This paper investigates whether first-time battery electric vehicle (BEV) buyers differ systematically from repeat EV owners in their pro-environmental attitudes within California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP). Building on behavioral environmental economics and the moral licensing literature, this paper examines whether a salient pro-environmental action, purchasing a BEV, may be associated with weaker stated concern for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions among new adopters. Across multiple specifications, first-time BEV buyers are significantly less likely than repeat owners to rate reducing GHG emissions as “extremely important” (p < 0.01), a robust attitudinal gap that persists after adjusting for demographics, household characteristics, income, and survey year. Alternative explanations, such as the technology adoption lifecycle dynamics or income-based financial motivations, receive little empirical support, suggesting that motivational heterogeneity or a mechanism consistent with moral licensing better accounts for the observed differences. Evidence for behavioral rebound is limited and fragile. First-time adopters exhibit at most weak, specification-sensitive tendencies toward longer single trips, and show no differences in annual driving. Overall, the results indicate that incentive projects successfully expand EV adoption but also attract consumers with more diverse and often weaker environmental commitments. These findings underscore the importance of integrating behavioral insights into environmental policy design, particularly when high-salience green actions may interact with attitudes and downstream behaviors in complex ways.