An Integrated Policy-Behavioral Model for Enhancing EV Adoption Intention: The Roles of Infrastructure Readiness, Government Promotion, and Occupational Heterogeneity

This study formulates and tests a policy-behavioral framework to elucidate the intention to adopt electric vehicles (EVs) by incorporating charging infrastructure, governmental promotional efforts, innovativeness, and perceived behavioral control. It also investigates if these correlations vary among occupational groupings. A quantitative explanatory methodology was utilized, employing secondary survey data from 169 prospective electric vehicle customers in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. The proposed model was examined utilising Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4, encompassing measurement and structural model assessment, mediation analysis, measurement invariance testing (MICOM), and permutation-based multi-group analysis (MGA). The findings indicate that charging infrastructure substantially enhances perceived behavioral control, which completely mediates its influence on the propensity to acquire electric vehicles. Government promotional effort and innovation significantly enhance adoption intention. Furthermore, disparities in occupational responses were observed, with entrepreneurs and employees responding differently to perceived behavioral control and government promotional effort. These findings enhance research on electric vehicle adoption by identifying charging infrastructure as an indirect catalyst for adoption via perceived behavioral control, broadening the notion of government promotional effort beyond mere financial incentives, and emphasising occupational diversity in behavioral responses. The research provides actionable information for formulating more focused electric vehicle regulations in developing economies.