Does environmental awareness fuel the electric vehicle market? A Twitter keyword analysis

Zero emission battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have the ability to reduce CO2 emissions and hence mitigate climate change. Consequently, understanding the macroeconomic drivers of sales has been of increasing interest in the past years. One factor that has frequently been investigated in relation to an individual's electric vehicle purchase intentions is his or her level of environmental awareness (EA). Previous research analysing this question on a macroeconomic level is, however, very limited. Applying a novel method in this field in form of a Twitter keyword analysis, this study aims to analyse the effect of EA on the electric vehicle market in 27 member states of the European Union (EU) as well as two European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states. The results of the investigation show that EA does not significantly influence the electric vehicle market in the investigated time period, and instead indicate why other factors might currently play a more significant role. We contribute to the existing literature by introducing a new measurement method of EA to this research field and by contributing to the understanding of the impact of EA on electric vehicle registrations.