Restricting factors for promoting electric vehicles: Evidence from China

Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely recognized as low-carbon transportation that adopts green and clean technology with contributing to mitigating global climate change. However, it appears that the practice in using EVs has not gained widespread popularity despite the promotion of various incentives with the presence of various restricting factors and challenges. In conducting this study in the context of China, we hypothesize that restricting factors have varying impacts on promoting EVs in China, where the adoption of EVs is of great potential. This paper identifies these restricting factors by applying AHP-FCE integrated approach, and these factors are classified into five dimensions, namely, technical, infrastructural, economic, governance and social. The results indicate that the top five restricting factors are security issues, limited driving range, long charging time, improper distribution of charging stations and lack of sharing between charging piles respectively. Our research contributes to a better understanding of EV restricting factors and their significance, which offers the assistance in the formulation of policies and decisions in order to promote effectively EVs in China.