Electric, plug-in hybrid, hybrid, or conventional? Polish consumers’ preferences for electric vehicles

Poland aims at stimulating the market to reach a target of 50,000 plug-in and battery electric vehicles by 2020. However, as in other Eastern European countries, the market penetration stays very low. In Poland, there were only 475 battery electric vehicles and 514 plug-in electric vehicles registered in 2017. To identify effective support measures, this paper examines the preferences of Polish consumers for three types of electric vehicles: battery, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles. We use a discrete choice experiment to estimate the willingness to pay of a representative sample of consumers intending to buy a car in Poland. We find that electric vehicles are significantly less preferred than conventional cars, even under a public programme that would enable slow-mode charging in places where respondents usually park. We quantify the marginal willingness to pay for increasing the driving range, reductions in charging time, the availability of fast-mode charging stations, and the provision of policy incentives. The novelty of the paper lies in presenting a scenario with the slow-mode and availability of several levels of fast-mode charging stations and examination of the extent to which the heterogeneity of consumer preferences is driven by place of residence (urban, suburban, rural), intention to buy a new versus a used car, and the annual mileage. This is also the first discrete choice experiment on electric vehicles conducted in Eastern Europe. To stimulate the electric vehicle market, we recommend a pricing policy that affects the operating costs and other incentives along with an effective up-front price incentive scheme.