Driving Toward Sustainability: Understanding Consumer Attitudes and Preferences in the Electromobility Era

Paper's objective(s) and research backgroundElectric cars continue to actively enter our daily life, and become an independent, autonomously developing direction.In recent years, the importance of moving from a linear economy to a circular economy in every area and sector of the economy has been discussed more than ever before.This includes discussions on a net zero energy system as the basis for a fully decarbonised electricity sector.The increase in demand for electricity and the push for net zero emissions are leading to focus on the use of electric vehicles to meet the EU's sustainability targets.The article aims to find out the attitude of consumers towards electro mobility and their preferences and segment them. Data/MethodsThe main aim is to create homogeneous clusters of consumers preferences based on the obtained data from the questionnaire with the sample of 305 consumers.After calculation Cronbach's alpha and performing Shapiro-Wilk test of normality, segmenting big datasets was made using k-means clustering, followed by an Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) using the XLSTAT software. Results/Conclusions/Value addedA gradual shift of the main interest from automakers to electric vehicles is seen, while simultaneously there are other questions connected to electric vehicles which need to be addressed and analysed as consumer preferences.The results showed that some consumers have insufficient information about electric cars.The constant debate on the subject has also influenced public opinion.Segmentation of consumers was done and clusters of consumer's preferences were described according their gender, age, status, education and field of work and other factors of preferences asked in the questionnaire.This can suit as a guide on the three groups of consumers on what information should be provided to them and discussed more, so consumers could be more and more confident to choose electro mobility.