Millennial Consumers’ Attitudes and Purchase Intentions Toward Electric Vehicles (EVs): The Role of Greenwashing in Shaping Perceptions

Electric vehicles (EVs) are central to ongoing decarbonisation strategies, yet marketing communications frequently emphasise operational benefits while omitting upstream lifecycle impacts associated with battery production, electricity sourcing, and end-of-life processing. Such selective disclosures, commonly labelled as greenwashing, operate as signals under conditions of information asymmetry and can shape consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. This study is positioned as a conceptual framework supported by preliminary pilot qualitative observation with an aim to synthesise the literature on greenwashing taxonomies, lifecycle assessment (LCA) evidence for EVs, signalling theory, and corrective research to develop an Integrated Signalling–Greenwashing Model (ISGM). The ISGM conceptualises greenwashed marketing as potentially deceptive low-cost signals and corrective LCA materials or documentary excerpts as higher-cost counter-signals. The pilot study provides an extended literature review, theoretical development, a detailed theoretical model with propositions and boundary conditions, and a discussion of implications for theory, policy and managerial practice in policy-active contexts such as the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).