Factors Influencing Consumers’ Intentions Towards the Adoption of Environmentally Friendly Cars

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the factors that influence millennials’ intentions to adopt plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in Gauteng, South Africa. This study was based on the theory of consumption values (TCV), using structured questionnaires and convenience sampling. Data was collected from 504 respondents in Gau-teng, South Africa. A multiple regression analysis was performed to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings revea-led a significant relationship between social, emotional and conditional values and millennials’ behavioural intentions to adopt PHEVs and demonstrated a non-significant relationship between functional and epistemic values and beha-vioural intentions. Online data collection was used owing to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which limited the researcher’s abilities to explain items in the questionnaire. Also, the study focused only on millennials residing in Gauteng, which does not accurately represent the behavioural intentions of the entire country. Nevertheless, this study offers useful information to environmentally friendly car manufacturers, car dealerships and the government, for developing strategies aimed at encouraging the adoption of PHEVs among South African millennial consumers.