Does digital banking facility promote electric vehicle sales? Empirical evidence from a set of global economies

Passenger and freight vehicles generate approximately one quarter of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigating this enormous burden on the transport sector necessitates transition from fossil fuel automobiles to ecological friendly vehicles. Against this backdrop, this study underscores the importance of digital banking payment systems in promoting Electric Vehicles (EVs) sales, alongside several other underexplored factors. The study employs data from 31 countries spanning from 2010 to 2023, and use a set of panel data models to examine possible relationships. The findings from empirical analysis reveal that digital banking payment systems positively influences the EVs sales across majority of the estimates except some heterogeneity observed through the application of Residualized quantile regression. Moreover, educational attainment and renewable energy penetration are positively associated with EV sales, whereas energy intensity tends to reduce EV sales across the sampled countries. However, the results are not fully consistent across the different econometric models employed. The study’s findings endorse for taking proactive measures by the fiscal authorities to innovate digital banking products, as it can facilitate sustainable transportation systems and helps in achieving net-zero emission targets across sampled nations.