Research on the Influence Mechanism of Consumers’ Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles Based on Perceived Endorsement: A Case Study of Chinese Electric Vehicle Start-Ups

During the last decade, a number of electric vehicle start-ups have emerged in China. Although there have been quite a lot of studies on consumers’ purchase decision of electric vehicles, it is not common in the case of electric vehicle start-ups. This paper puts forward the concept of perceived endorsement and discusses the relationship among perceived benefit, perceived risk, range anxiety, attitude and consumers’ purchase intention and establishes a theoretical model of consumers’ purchase intention towards electric vehicles from start-ups. A structural equation model was used to test the research model and the hypotheses of the model. The results indicate that perceived endorsement has a significant positive influence on perceived benefit and attitude, which then affects consumers’ purchase intention, but range anxiety and perceived risk have no impact on purchase intention.