Understanding discontinuance among California’s electric vehicle owners

For the market share of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) to continue to increase and reach 100% of the market, adopters of the technology, who initially buy PEVs, will need to continue choosing them in subsequent purchases. While much research has focused on the reasons for and barriers to initial PEV adoption, less has been devoted to the reasons for discontinuance—abandoning a new technology after first adopting it. Based on results from five questionnaire surveys, we find that PEV discontinuance in California occurs at a rate of 21% for plug-in hybrid vehicle adopters and 17% for battery electric vehicle adopters. We show that discontinuance is related to dissatisfaction with the convenience of charging, having preferences for vehicles with lower energy efficiencies, being a later adopter, not having level 2 (220-volt) charging from home, and not being male.