Early adoption of battery electric vehicles and owners' motivation

The transport sector is one of the largest contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions, therefore the governments of EU member states have introduced a variety of measures to encourage people to transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs), with incentives being the most common. Over the 2020-2022 period, individual incentives in Croatia for the purchase of new BEV were the second highest in Europe, but a decrease in the amount of incentives is expected, as it has already happened in Slovenia. This study contains results and analysis of surveys conducted among 278 BEV owners in Croatia and Slovenia. This is particularly significant because research focuses on two Southeast European countries that are adopting BEVs at different rates from the rest of Europe (mostly in the early adopter stage). The research showed that the early adoption of BEV is associated with higher education level and income of BEV owners, ownership of a house or garage, and is motivated mainly by lower maintenance costs, as well as long-term savings (in Croatia) and environmental aspects (in Slovenia). For the majority of BEV owners, the incentives for BEVs are the necessary precondition for making the decision to purchase a BEV, however, the minimal amount of incentives varies. The biggest disadvantages of BEVs in Croatia are uncertainty about availability of charging stations and in second place higher purchase prices compared to internal combustion engines vehicles, which is on the first place for Slovenia. The higher price could be offset by funding schemes or commercial bank loans. Since regular accessibility to charging stations is an important prerequisite for the decision to purchase a BEV, measures for increasing and improving charging stations accessibility are proposed. Besides, policy implications are given, with a proposal for improvement of incentives procedures, and recommendations for future research.