Exploring dynamic attitudes to hydrogen energy vehicles: Evidence from China’s media

Hydrogen energy vehicles (HEVs) are crucial for reducing transportation emissions. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study is the first to examine attitudes toward HEVs using large-scale data from mainstream and social media. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling and SnowNLP sentiment analysis were employed to dynamically measure attitudes toward HEVs in Chinese media. The results indicate that, from 2019 to 2024: (1) social media discussions focused on performance, safety, patents, China–Japan hydrogen technology, costs, and safety, whereas mainstream media emphasized subsidies, corporate transformation, technological advancements, industry collaboration, consumer markets, and intelligent vehicles; (2) as attention to HEVs increased, negative real-time comments declined from 70.5 % to 53 %; (3) discussions on social media generally recognized the technological and environmental benefits, market potential, and performance of HEVs, while expressing concerns about safety, costs, incentives, and infrastructure. This study provides valuable insights into attitudes toward HEVs, supporting their development and promotion.