Evaluation of New Energy Vehicle Industry Competitiveness Based on the PSR Model

Under the global energy transition and the "dual carbon" goal, the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry has become a core area for countries to seize strategic heights. Although China's NEV industry has ranked first in scale worldwide, it faces challenges such as regional competitiveness differentiation, structural imbalances in technological innovation, and urban-rural gaps in market promotion. Existing studies often focus on single technical or policy perspectives, lacking a systematic analytical framework. This research constructs an evaluation system with 17 indicators based on the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model and uses the fixed-base range entropy method to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of industrial competitiveness in 30 provinces (regions/municipalities) from 2011 to 2021. It reveals the synergistic mechanism between technological innovation and market response and the causes of regional imbalances. The findings are as follows: First, the average NEV competitiveness increased from 0.212 in 2011 to 4.176 in 2021, with an annual growth rate of 17.8%, but regional differentiation intensified. Second, technological innovation serves as the primary driving force, with a strong positive correlation between it and market response. Provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang achieved sustained competitiveness improvement through a closed loop of "technology R&D-policy subsidies-market promotion." Third, uneven policy resource allocation, infrastructure shortcomings, and differences in technology transfer efficiency are the main causes of regional imbalances. Based on this, corresponding strategies are proposed.