Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) represent one technological response to the challenge to reduce road transport CO2emis-sions. However, their contribution will only be realised if there is substantial consumer uptake of the vehicles; and given the
substantial differences between BEVs and conventional vehicles, this cannot necessarily be assumed. Further, if BEVs are
adopted by consumers, the impact on CO2emissions will depend on the patterns of charging behaviour that develop, with
overnight charging being the most favourable case.
There have been a number of survey-based studies seeking to assess consumer attitudes to BEVs compared with other
powertrain types but there are methodological issues with using preference measurements for ‘‘really new’’ product catego-ries that consumers have not yet experienced directly (Hoeffler, 2003). The more ‘‘psychologically distant’’ a product is, the
more it is construed in high-level, abstract terms, rather than low-level, concrete terms (Liberman et al., 2007); and such
abstract construal is unlikely to predict actual future choice behaviour. Although there have been some analyses where par-ticipants were given direct experience of BEVs, it is difficult to generalise from them; e.g. theCarroll and Walsh study (2010)
focused on 2-seater vehicles while those by Garling (2001)andGolob and Gould (1998)involved an earlier generation of
vehicles. The research has also tended to focus on functional attributes of vehicles, such as cost, range and size. Consumers’
motivations for purchasing goods are not, however, just functional, but can also be affective or symbolic. Affective and sym-bolic motives have been shown to be important in general car use (Steg, 2005), and in the early Californian market for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (Heffner et al., 2007).