Familiarity Facilitates Adoption: Evidence from Electric Vehicles

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that increasing familiarity with electric vehicles through a public car-sharing program significantly boosts EV adoption, especially among low-to-middle income households, highlighting the importance of non-price interventions.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that non-price interventions like the BlueLA program can effectively increase EV adoption by enhancing familiarity, complementing traditional subsidy approaches.

Findings

BlueLA increased EV adoptions by 33% among targeted households.

Familiarity with EVs acts as a key factor in facilitating adoption.

Public investments in non-price interventions can be justified by their impact on adoption rates.

Abstract

This paper shows that a non-price intervention which increased the prevalence of a new technology facilitated its further adoption. The BlueLA program put Electric Vehicles (EVs) for public use in many heavily trafficked areas, primarily (but not exclusively) aimed at low-to-middle income households. We show, using data on subsidies for these households and a difference-in differences strategy, that BlueLA is associated with a 33\% increase of new EV adoptions, justifying a substantial portion of public investment. While the program provides a substitute to car ownership, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that increasing familiarity with EVs could facilitate adoption.