Factors Influencing Consumers' Electric Vehicle Purchase Intention in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

Promoting the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in emerging economies plays an important role in decarbonizing the transport sector, but the mechanisms through which policy factors, infrastructure conditions, product attributes, and psychosocial factors shape consumer attitudes and purchase intentions in the early stage of the market are still not fully understood. This study develops an extended model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), in which attitude and subjective norm act as mediators linking groups of antecedent variables (policy support and infrastructure, vehicle performance, economic cost and service quality, environmental awareness and personal innovativeness, and social influence) to purchase intention toward EVs, using Vietnam as an illustrative emerging market context. Data were collected through an online survey of 718 Vietnamese consumers and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that both attitude and subjective norm have positive effects on purchase intention, with attitude being the stronger predictor. Policy support, vehicle performance, environmental awareness, and personal innovativeness strengthen positive attitudes, whereas economic cost and infrastructure constraints weaken attitude; service quality has no significant effect, while social influence reinforces subjective norms. These findings extend TPB to the early-stage EV market in emerging economies and provide policy and managerial implications for designing incentives, infrastructure investment, and more effective marketing strategies to promote sustainable transport.