Advancing Equity in China’s Vehicle Electrification

Vehicle electrification should not be limited to specific geographical areas like wealthy or privileged regions. Recognizing this, China initiated the “NEVs going to rural areas” (NEVgoRural) initiative, highlighting the need for systematic metrics to quantify equity progress. This study develops a comprehensive analysis framework, including equality degree calculation, prevalence analysis, and correlation analysis, to assess and track China’s vehicle electrification process from 2020 to 2023. The equality degree calculation roughly evaluated the spatial inequality degree across China at the macro level. The results indicated that equality issues exist in China (Gini > 0.4, World Bank warning), and this inequality has been gradually improving year by year. The prevalence analysis, based on an Information Entropy Weighting-based model, identified specific geographical areas lagging behind. Furthermore, a correlation analysis was conducted to explore potential associations underlying this geographical inequity. The results revealed that variables, such as a high-level education ratio, NEV manufacturing company number, etc., were significantly correlated with the inequity situation. Drawing on these insights, this study proposed targeted strategies to enhance electrification equity across regions, such as extending NEV tax exemptions in lagging provinces, implementing rural-specific zero-down-payment and interest-free plans, establishing a robust rural sales and after-sales network, and improving mobile payment skills in rural areas.