Wealth and Electric Vehicle Adoption:  Examining Effects of Gross Domestic Product Per Capita as an Indicator of Wealth on Electric Vehicle Registration Rates

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/pr76f4897

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of GDP per capita as an indicator of wealth on Electric Vehicle (EV) registration rates. Following Baptiste et al.’s 2017 paper examining the relationship between GDP and EV adoption rates in Europe, my paper expands on that by focusing on the GDP per capita of the counties within the state of California from 2015-2020. I utilized panel data consisting of unemployment rates, educational attainment, electricity prices, urban vs rural, as well as time and county specific fixed effects in my multilinear regressions. My findings indicate that GDP per capita as an indicator of wealth had a negative and statistically insignificant effect on EV (Electric Vehicle) registration rates. However, by including urbanization as a control, my results show that GDP per capita as an indicator of wealth had a negative and significant effect on EV registration in urban counties only. Furthermore, my analysis suggests that urbanization plays an imperative role in determining how GDP per capita and other county specific differences affect EV registration rates.

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