Zheng Chuan, Sun Danling, Khamarudin Munirah, Ahmad Azanin, Wei Han, Xu Jie
Luzhou Vocational and Technical College, Luzhou, Sichuan, China.
School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia.
PLoS One. 2025 Jul 24;20(7):e0329224. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329224. eCollection 2025.
Despite burgeoning global sustainability efforts, the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in China faces persistent hurdles, highlighting a critical need to unravel the intricate psychological and brand-related factors that drive consumer purchase decisions. This pioneering study addresses this gap by innovatively integrating customer-based brand equity (CBBE) with the robust theory of planned behavior (TPB), offering a comprehensive framework to predict EV adoption. Drawing on responses from 379 potential EV consumers across six major cities in China, this research employs Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via SmartPLS 4.0. A two-stage analytical strategy is adopted-validating the measurement model, followed by a rigorous assessment of structural paths including direct, mediating, and moderating relationships among key constructs. Results reveal that all four CBBE components-brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty-significantly influence attitude, confirming their critical role in shaping consumer perceptions. The findings demonstrate that attitude, perceived behavioral control, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty significantly influence purchase intention, while subjective norms and brand awareness show no direct effect. Mediation analysis confirms that attitude partially mediates the effects of brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty on purchase intention, but not brand awareness. Furthermore, perceived price negatively moderates the relationship between attitude and purchase intention. This research offers groundbreaking insights into brand equity and consumer psychology's role in accelerating EV adoption. This model provides unprecedented theoretical contributions by linking CBBE and TPB for sustainable consumption. For practitioners, it delivers actionable, evidence-based strategies enabling automakers and policymakers to significantly boost EV market penetration, forging a more sustainable future. This work is a powerful roadmap for unlocking the EV market's full potential in China and globally.
尽管全球在可持续发展方面做出了蓬勃努力，但电动汽车（EV）在中国的广泛采用仍面临持续障碍，这凸显了迫切需要剖析驱动消费者购买决策的复杂心理和品牌相关因素。这项开创性研究通过创新性地将基于顾客的品牌资产（CBBE）与强大的计划行为理论（TPB）相结合，填补了这一空白，提供了一个预测电动汽车采用情况的综合框架。本研究借鉴了中国六个主要城市379名潜在电动汽车消费者的回复，通过SmartPLS 4.0采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（PLS-SEM）。采用了两阶段分析策略——先验证测量模型，然后对关键构念之间的直接、中介和调节关系等结构路径进行严格评估。结果显示，CBBE的所有四个组成部分——品牌知名度、品牌联想、感知质量和品牌忠诚度——均对态度有显著影响，证实了它们在塑造消费者认知方面的关键作用。研究结果表明，态度、感知行为控制、品牌联想、感知质量和品牌忠诚度对购买意愿有显著影响，而主观规范和品牌知名度没有直接影响。中介分析证实，态度部分中介了品牌联想、感知质量和品牌忠诚度对购买意愿的影响，但不是品牌知名度的影响。此外，感知价格对态度和购买意愿之间的关系具有负向调节作用。这项研究为品牌资产以及消费者心理在加速电动汽车采用中的作用提供了开创性见解。该模型通过将CBBE和TPB联系起来促进可持续消费，提供了前所未有的理论贡献。对于从业者而言，它提供了可操作的、基于证据的策略，使汽车制造商和政策制定者能够显著提高电动汽车的市场渗透率，打造更可持续的未来。这项工作是释放中国乃至全球电动汽车市场全部潜力的有力路线图。
