A study on evaluation and influencing factors of carbon emission performance in China's new energy vehicle enterprises

Vehicle industry has made great contribution to human progress. However, in the process of vehicle operation, a large number of carbon compounds are emitted, which brings serious environmental problems. As one of the important means of vehicle carbon emission governance, the development of new energy vehicles (NEVs) has attracted much attention. The behavior and performance of NEV enterprises are highly concerned. Using Chinese 23 NEV vehicle enterprises' data from 2011 to 2018, this paper evaluates the carbon emission performance with the super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SE-SBM) model based on undesirable output and then constructs STIRPAT model to analyze the influencing factors of carbon emission performance. The results indicate that, firstly, the carbon emission performance of China's NEV enterprises is increasing year by year. Secondly, the carbon emission performance of different NEV enterprise is distinct in the same year, and the carbon emission performance of the same NEV enterprise is distinct in different year. Thirdly, technological innovation, government support, and free cash flow have significant positive impact on the carbon emission performance of NEV enterprises, while debt constraint, energy intensity, and enterprise size have a significant negative impact on the carbon emission performance of NEV enterprises.