What drives electric vehicles in an emerging market?

Purpose The study aims to investigate the consumers' adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) using socio-cognitive perceptions and socio-demographic moderators in an emerging sustainable mobility market. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model is analyzed via path analysis using online survey data collected from Indian respondents. Findings The findings substantiate to a greater extent the linkage of social-cognitive perceptions-attitude-intention with the moderation of socio-demographic variables and mediation of attitude towards BEV. Research limitations/implications The study advocates several interesting theoretical and policy implications offering guidance to academics, policymakers and corporate professionals to encourage the adoption of BEVs in the milieu of the budding transportation industry. Originality/value The study is built upon a social-psychological linkage framework of ‘perceptions-attitude-intention’. Previous studies have overlooked the impact of social-psychological attributes and the socio-demographic moderators in envisaging the adoption of BEV, which largely remained understudied in the Indian backdrop.