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What Is Affecting the Popularity of New Energy Vehicles? A Systematic Review Based on the Public Perspective

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13471; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813471

by Yahong Jiang¹

, Qunqi Wu²

, Min Li², Yulei Gu³ and Jun Yang^2,*

Reviewer 1:

Valentin Radu

Reviewer 2: Anonymous

Reviewer 3: Anonymous

Reviewer 4:

Subhojit Dawn

Sustainability 2023, 15(18), 13471; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151813471

Submission received: 7 August 2023 / Revised: 1 September 2023 / Accepted: 6 September 2023 / Published: 8 September 2023

(This article belongs to the Section Energy Sustainability)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for the opportunity to read the paper. It is an interesting topic.
This paper focuses on a systematic review and summary of the literature related to the promotion of new energy vehicles.
The authors formulated the following research questions:
Q1: What is the research trend in the literature related to the public’s purchase preference of new energy vehicles?
Q2: What information does this research trend reveal?
Q3: What are the main features of existing research on the topic?
Q4: What will be the future research frontiers in this research area?
Q5: What are the main points of force for the promotion of new energy vehicles?
A research question is a question that a study or research project aims to answer. I recommend that the answers to these questions be better highlighted in the final part of the article.
According to Figure 2. Main methodology's phases in the review, the authors used dedogram, network map, overlay map, density map to interpret the results. The following were designed:
-Network map of co-occurrence of author keywords
-Density map of co-occurrence of author keywords in highly cited literature
-Overlay map of co-occurrence of author keywords
-Density map of highly cited source journals
-Density map of articles publication by country or region
-Overlay map of research institutions
As far as possible, I recommend the following:
-Mapping of articles co-citations
-Mapping of journal co-citations
-Mapping of institutions’ co-citations
-Mapping of countries co-authorships
-Mapping of countries bibliographic coupling
-The bibliography is rich and up to date.

Author Response

(sustainability-2572869)

What is affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles? A systematic review based on the public perspective

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Dear reviewer:

We would like to thank you for the valuable comments on our manuscript entitled "What is affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles? A systematic review based on the public perspective". The comments were productive and helped us improve the quality of the manuscript. Based on your comments, we carefully revised the manuscript. The point-to-point response is as follows:

Point 1: A research question is a question that a study or research project aims to answer. I recommend that the answers to these questions be better highlighted in the final part of the article.

Response 1:

Thank you for reviewing our paper. Considering your professional and insightful suggestions, we complement the differences and advantages of our method relative to other road detection methods in the literature, and strive to make our proposed innovations more clearly.

Through bibliometric analysis, this study draws some interesting conclusions based on combing through the relevant literature. These conclusions provide answers to these questions. In addition, we have added and revised the last section, returned to the proposed research objectives, and revised the discussion section in an attempt to make our conclusions clearer.

Details are shown in the marking section of 6.1. The details are as follows.

“In this paper, we have combed through the relevant literature through literature statistics and knowledge graph visualization, and obtained some interesting conclusions. It also happens to provide a reasonable response to the questions raised. The results of this study are specifically discussed below.

By reviewing the previous results, it can be found that scholars' research on the purchase of new energy vehicles is abundant, and the number of published articles has been growing in recent years, and shows obvious cross-disciplinary characteristics.

In terms of keyword cluster analysis, EVs, Preference, Phev, Nevs, Charging Infrastructure, Energy Management, Charging, Battery, Environmental Concern are the main hot words. Environmental Concern, Emissions, Costs, Policies, Ranges, Subsidies, and Incentives also appear with relatively high frequency. It can be inferred that when the public is shopping for new energy vehicles, they not only focus on the range and charging support facilities, but also on the expenses, policies, incentives, and environmental friendliness of new energy vehicles. In the highly cited literature, there are the most discussions on electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and shopping preferences, which corroborates that the public is increasingly inclined to be green. Notably, in 2019-2020, keywords such as sustainable, perceived risk, and subsidy appear. As we all know, the period is accompanied by COVID-19 and a background of reduced subsidies for new energy vehicles from the Chinese government. It can be seen that scholars' research on this topic is closely linked to current events and hotspots, and the public's shopping behaviour is affected by changes in the external health environment as well as the policy.

In terms of literature co-citation analysis, two articles published by scholars Egbue O (2012) and Rezvani Z (2015) had the highest citation frequency within the subject area during the statistical period. Of these, Egbue O (2012) was published in energy policy as an article with a citation frequency of 279. it provides an in-depth study of the preferences and perceptions of technology enthusiasts, while noting that the biggest concern is range, followed by cost, with sustainability having a much lesser impact. Rezvani Z (2015) published in Transportation Research Part D as a review with a citation frequency of 225. A group of excellent literature, represented by these two articles, lay the foundation for subsequent related research and constructe the knowledge framework of the field.

In terms of co-citation analysis of journals, the mainstream journals with Top 20 co-citations are mainly concentrated in the journals of transportation science and energy. There are relatively few publications in market diffusion and marketing strategy journals. Most of the highly co-cited journals are from the UK, such as Energ Policy, Transport Res D, Transport Res A, J Clean Prod, Applied energy, Transport Res C and so on. Sustainability from Switzerland is also at the top of the list. Combined with the impact factor and H-index of these journals, these top 20 co-cited journals are basically mainstream journals that are well recognized by the academic community. The high-quality research in these journals provides ideas for research in the field, and the journals have outstanding impact.

In terms of research strength, the number of papers on the public's willingness to buy new energy vehicles is top 5 in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada. The Top5 in the number of literature citations are the United States, China, Britain, Italy and Germany. That is to say, the number of publications and their citations have not maintained the same rank, and there is still room for progress in the academic influence from China. Especially Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, whose research results have received widespread attention, show their academic influence. Regarding the literature coupling between countries, countries such as the United States, China, Germany and India have a high degree of coupling, and there is a possibility of homogenization of research results. However, their international academic discourse is still relatively high.

In terms of specific research objects, existing studies cover a wide range of aspects from individual public attributes to product attributes to incentive policies. In particular, the public's purchasing preference and decision of new energy vehicles are increasingly focused on environmental protection. The details can be found in section 5 and will not be repeated here. It can be inferred that in the context of the development of clean energy and low-carbon transportation, scholars and the industry are increasingly aware of the importance of this research area, and countries around the world are paying more attention to the environmental protection of travel. At the same time, scholars are focusing more on sustainable transportation, transportation policy, charging facilities, autonomous driving, and big data. This may become a new hot spot for future research.”

Point 2: As far as possible, I recommend the following:
-Mapping of articles co-citations
-Mapping of journal co-citations
-Mapping of institutions’ co-citations
-Mapping of countries co-authorships
-Mapping of countries bibliographic coupling
-The bibliography is rich and up to date.

Response 2:

Thank you for your professional and insightful suggestion. We seriously consider the reviewer's suggestion and appreciate your useful suggestion. Below we list our responses/changes according to the comments.

Regarding the Mapping.

The main text covers Mapping of articles co-citations、Mapping of journal co-citations, which have been corrected due to the original map titles. Mapping of countries bibliographic coupling has been added to the text. Mapping institutional co-citations, etc., has been put on hold due to software limitations and would be followed by a more comprehensive exploration of other bibliometric methods in further research.

So far, the mappings included in this paper are as follows. Author keywords co-occurrence network, Author keywords co-occurrence density in highly cited literature, Author keywords co-occurrence overlay, References co-citations density, Journal co-citations density, Top country or region of articles publication density, Major research institutions overlay, Countries bibliographic coupling density, Countries bibliographic density coupling overlay, etc.

In addition, in order to make the expression clearer, at the same time with some tables to explain.

Details are shown in the marking section of 1.2 and 2.1. The details are as follows.

“Further analysis of journal co-citations. The study uses Vosviewer to analyze the co-citation of journals in the acquired literature database. Based on the experience of threshold parameters and the number of literature, the threshold is set to 26, and a total of 298 journals are sorted out. The knowledge graph is shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that Energy Policy , Transport Res D, Transport Res A, J Clean Prod, Applied energy are the Top 20 source journals in this field, as shown in Table 5. Combining the impact factor and H-index of the above journals, it can also be said that the above transportation science and energy journals have achieved high-quality scientific results in the research process in this field. In contrast, there are relatively few publications on the market diffusion and marketing strategy.

Figure 8. Journal co-citations density. Source: Author’s elaboration using Vosviewer.

Table 5 Top 20 journal co-citations in the acquired literature database. Source: collected and summarized by the authors.

Num		Journal			Country	Citations	Impact factor	H index
1	Energy Policy				UK	5202	7.576	234
2	Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment				UK	4131	7.041	113
3	Transportation Research, Part A: Policy and Practice				UK	3550	6.615	142
4	Journal of Cleaner Production				UK	2228	11.072	232
5	Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews				UK	1845	16.799	337
6	Applied Energy				UK	1747	11.446	235
7	Energy Conversion and Management				UK	1348	11.533	210
8	Journal of Power Sources		Netherlands			1125	9.794	320
9	Sustainability		Switzerland			1108	3.889	109
10	Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies				UK	1082	9.022	147
11	Transport Policy				UK	946	6.173	103
12	International Journal of Hydrogen Energy				UK	846	7.139	231
13	Technological Forecasting and Social Change			USA		774	10.884	134
14	Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour				UK	763	4.349	100
15	Transportation Research Part B: Methodological				UK	741	7.632	148
16	Energies		Switzerland			699	3.252	111
17	Transportation Research Record			USA		645	2.019	131
18	IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid			USA		632	10.275	189
19	Energy Economics		Netherlands			535	9.252	168
20	Transportation		Netherlands			491	4.814	98

Analysis of countries bibliographic coupling. Based on the experience of setting the threshold to 5, the obtained countries bibliographic coupling diagram is shown in Figure 11. Among them, the countries or regions such as the United States, China, Germany and the Netherlands have higher coupling of research results. While countries or regions such as Australia, India, UK, Canada and South Korea are also prominent. Combined with Figure 12, around 2018, some countries and regions, mainly the United States, show a leading trend in research in this field. During 2019-2020, some countries and regions, mainly China, are fruitful. Countries and regions such as India, on the other hand, show breakthroughs around 2021. The number of publications by country and region also reflects this feature. In addition, the possible international academic discourse among countries and regions such as the United States, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and so on, also deserves our reflection and attention.

Figure 11 Countries bibliographic coupling density. Source: Author’s elaboration using Vosviewer.

Figure 12 Countries bibliographic coupling overlay. Source: Author’s elaboration using Vosviewer.”

Regarding the bibliography.

We appreciate your useful suggestions. This study cites some of classic references of strong relevance in the field. Considering that your valuable and professional suggestions, we have added new references around the topic to enrich the literature cited in this study.

New supporting literature added are listed below.

Habich-Sobiegalla, S.; Kostka, G.; Anzinger, N. Electric Vehicle Purchase Intentions of Chinese, Russian and Brazilian Citizens: An International Comparative Study. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 205, 188–200
Ling, Z.; Cherry, C.R.; Wen, Y. Determining the Factors That Influence Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Stated Preference Survey Study in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11719
Zhang, X.; Bai, X.; Zhong, H. Electric Vehicle Adoption in License Plate-Controlled Big Cities: Evidence from Beijing. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 202, 191–196
Lashari, Z.A.; Ko, J.; Jang, J. Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicles: Influences of User Attitude and Perception. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6778
Lin, B.; Wu, W. Why People Want to Buy Electric Vehicle: An Empirical Study in First-Tier Cities of China. Energy Policy 2018, 112, 233–241
Tranfield, D.; Denyer, D.; Smart, P. Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. Br. J. Manag. 2003, 14, 207–222
Dutta, B.; Hwang, H.-G. Consumers Purchase Intentions of Green Electric Vehicles: The Influence of Consumers Technological and Environmental Considerations. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12025
Ye, F.; Kang, W.; Li, L.; Wang, Z. Why Do Consumers Choose to Buy Electric Vehicles? A Paired Data Analysis of Purchase Intention Configurations. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2021, 147, 14–27
He, X.; Zhan, W.; Hu, Y. Consumer Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in China: The Roles of Perception and Personality. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 204, 1060–1069
Xu, G.; Wang, S.; Li, J.; Zhao, D. Moving towards Sustainable Purchase Behavior: Examining the Determinants of Consumers’ Intentions to Adopt Electric Vehicles. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2020, 27, 22535–22546
Sovacool, B.K.; Abrahamse, W.; Zhang, L.; Ren, J. Pleasure or Profit? Surveying the Purchasing Intentions of Potential Electric Vehicle Adopters in China. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2019, 124, 69–81
Li, L.; Wang, Z.; Li, Y.; Liao, A. Impacts of Consumer Innovativeness on the Intention to Purchase Sustainable Products. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2021, 27, 774–786
Yang, Y.; Tan, Z. Investigating the Influence of Consumer Behavior and Governmental Policy on the Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 6967
Krishnan, V.V.; Koshy, B.I. Evaluating the Factors Influencing Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in Households Owning Conventional Vehicles. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2021, 9, 1122–1129
Cecere, G.; Corrocher, N.; Guerzoni, M. Price or Performance? A Probabilistic Choice Analysis of the Intention to Buy Electric Vehicles in European Countries. Energy Policy 2018, 118, 19–32
Haustein, S.; Jensen, A.F.; Cherchi, E. Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption in Denmark and Sweden: Recent Changes, Related Factors and Policy Implications. Energy Policy 2021, 149, 112096
Li, L.; Wang, Z.; Wang, Q. Do Policy Mix Characteristics Matter for Electric Vehicle Adoption? A Survey-Based Exploration. Transp. Res. Part D Transp. Environ. 2020, 87, 102488

Thanks again to the valuable comments made by the review expert. Although we strive to create and try to express our academic achievements, there are still many shortcomings. The suggestions you have given us are very pertinent, which also makes our papers go up the ladder. Thank you very much!

Finally, take this opportunity to wish you good health and work well!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors reviewed the literature about the acceptance of electric vehicles.

Major:
1. Based on the title and abstract, I was expecting to see a table listing all the factors that have been found to affect people's acceptance of electric vehicles - similar to figure 10. The table should include a reference to the papers that investigated the factors.

Minor:
2.    For people not familiar with the web of science database, please state what TS and DT are referring to.
3.    What are documents with inconsistent themes? Do you mean not relevant? How did you determine that? “After removing documents with inconsistent themes”
4.    Figure 2 is a bit pixelated.
5.    Please specify the source of figure 10. I assume that it is your own creation considering all factors mentioned in the literature.

Author Response

(sustainability-2572869)

What is affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles? A systematic review based on the public perspective

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

Dear reviewer:

Point 1: Based on the title and abstract, I was expecting to see a table listing all the factors that have been found to affect people's acceptance of electric vehicles - similar to figure 10. The table should include a reference to the papers that investigated the factors.

Response 1:

Upon reflection, we realized that we could express ourselves more clearly by borrowing a table. Therefore, we have organized the series by category in the form of tables in the category section of the corresponding element.

Details are shown in the section of 5.1 to 5.3. The details are as follows.

“Table 8 provides information from the existing literature on the impact of public characteristics on their purchase intention.

Table 8. The impact of public characteristics. Source: collected and summarized by the authors.

Public individuals	Points	Main conclusions
Personal attributes	Gender	Gender differences in new energy vehicle enthusiasts in different countries [13–15].
	Age	There is no unanimous conclusion, but the main focus is on the middle-aged group [13,16,17].
	Education	Some scholars have argued that income affects the purchase intention [15].
	Family	Married groups are more likely to buy [18].
	Family	Number of family members, number of family members with a driver's license influence purchasing decisions [19].
	Others	Daily travel distance affects the public's willingness to buy [16].
		Public in large cities more likely to buy [17].
		Policies could have greater effects in cities with higher population densities [20].
		The number of vehicles owned may also influence the public's purchasing decisions [21,22].
Public psychology	Attitude	Attitudes have the greatest impact on public shopping behaviour [23].
	Subjective norms	Subjective norms influence the public's willingness to buy [24,25].
	Perceived Behavioral Control	Perceived behavioral control has a less profound effect than attitude [26].
	Group pressure	Influence on the public's willingness to buy [25,27].
	Green Knowledge reserve	Significant influence on the use of new energy vehicles [28].
	Environmental Awareness	Does not determine the public's willingness to buy [29].
	Driving experience	Significantly and positively influencing the public's willingness to buy [30,31].
	Others	Public awareness of innovation influences purchase intention [32].
	Others	There is a gap between the public's environmental concern and perceived environmental benefits and actual environmental behaviour [16].

Table 9 provides information from the existing literature on the impact of product attributes on their purchase intentions.

Table 9. The impact of product attributes. Source: collected and summarized by the authors.

Product attributes	Points	Main conclusions
Economy	Purchase price	Price affects willingness to buy [67,68].
Economy	Cost of use	Cost factors also have an important influence [31,60].
Performance	Range	Positively influencing the public's willingness to buy [69].
	Battery life	Some scholars believe there is an effect [62,63].
	Charge time	Affects public purchase intention [60].
	Brand	Affects public purchase intention [61].
	Quantity	More quantity can alleviate mileage anxiety [12,63]. And density of charging and switching station layout, etc [70].
Charging facilities	Layout	Inadequate charging facilities are a major barrier to the popularization of electric vehicles [71].
Charging facilities	Convenience	Increasing the maximum driving distance, shortening the charging time, and improving the convenience of charging are conducive to stimulating consumers' purchase intention [72].
Others		Marketing and service levels have a positive impact on purchase intention [68].

Table 10 provides information from the existing literature on the impact of incentives on purchase intentions.”

Table 10. The impact of incentives. Source: collected and summarized by the authors.

Incentive policies	Main conclusions
Subsidized	Government Support Policies Positively Influence Purchase Intention [37,86].
	Government subsidies can stimulate the public's willingness to purchase new energy vehicles to a certain extent [87].
	Purchase tax reduction policies can stimulate the public's purchase intention [88].
Non-subsidized	Neither direct monetary subsidy policies nor adequate charging infrastructures can guarantee the mass penetration of electric vehicles [89].
Others	Policy Effectiveness Affects Public Awareness of New Energy Vehicles [90].
Others	Population density, education level, number of charging piles, proportion of renewable energy generation, and oil price have important effects on expanding consumer demand [91].

Note: The references in Table 8-10 are in the References section of the paper.

Point 2: For people not familiar with the web of science database, please state what TS and DT are referring to.

Response 2:

Thank you for your professional and insightful suggestion. We seriously consider the reviewer's suggestion and feel very good. Below we list our responses/changes according to the comments which you come with technical concerns.

We refined the explanatory notes for TS, DT and LA.

Details are shown in the marking section of 3.1. The details are as follows.

“In particular, TS is the topic of studies, which comprises of Title, Abstract, Keywords, and Keywords Plus. DT is the document type. LA is the language of the document.”

Point 3: What are documents with inconsistent themes? Do you mean not relevant? How did you determine that? “After removing documents with inconsistent themes”

Response 3:

Thanks for your professional comment. Below we list our responses/changes according to the comments.

Refined by specifying keyword, document type, language and time above, 3,492 articles was initially obtained. While reading the documents one by one, further eliminate the documents irrelevant to the research topic to improve the theme fit of the search results. Finally, 1498 effective documents were obtained.

Point 4: Figure 2 is a bit pixelated.

Response 4:

Thanks for your professional comment. Below we list our responses/changes according to the comments.

Figure 2 shows the pixel compression in the LaTeX exported PDF, which we have replaced.

Details are shown in the marking section of 3.2. The details are as follows.

“Figure 2. Main methodology's phases in the review. Source: Author’s elaboration”

Point 5: Please specify the source of figure 10. I assume that it is your own creation considering all factors mentioned in the literature.

Response 5:

Thanks for your professional comment. Figure 10 is compiled by the authors from the relevant literature and is categorized in sections 5.1-5.3. Regarding the provenance of Figure 10, we have provided a note to the text. Besides, other figures have also been annotated.

Details are shown in the marking section of 5. Examples are as follows.

“Figure 13. The main influencing factors of new energy vehicle promotion. Source: Author’s elaboration based on the existing literature.”

Thank you again for your insightful suggestions. We have revised, organized and written the relevant content according to your suggestion, and checked and addressed the whole paper carefully. Your suggestions are fully considered in the revised version.

Finally, take this opportunity to wish you good health and work well!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

In this manuscript the authors presented a study related to the factors affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles in the form of a systematic review based on the public perspective. The authors provided a comprehensive foundation on this topic by summarizing huge amounts of information from previous published articles. However, the authors focused mostly on collecting and summarizing the literature. The authors must identify the gaps in existing studies for potential future research and direction. Therefore, the authors must go back to the proposed research objectives [Q1: What is the research trend in the literature related to the public’s purchase preference of new energy vehicles? Q2: What information does this research trend reveal? Q3: What are the main features of existing research on the topic? Q4: What will be the future research frontiers in this research area? Q5: What are the main points of force for the promotion of new energy vehicles?] by authors and to answer those questions clearly and deeply one by one in the future research and direction section.

Moreover, the references formatting is wrong and doesn’t meet this journal standard. Please revise it all.

Minor editing of English language required

Author Response

(sustainability-2572869)

What is affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles? A systematic review based on the public perspective

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

Dear reviewer:

Point 1: The authors must go back to the proposed research objectives [Q1: What is the research trend in the literature related to the public’s purchase preference of new energy vehicles? Q2: What information does this research trend reveal? Q3: What are the main features of existing research on the topic? Q4: What will be the future research frontiers in this research area? Q5: What are the main points of force for the promotion of new energy vehicles?] by authors and to answer those questions clearly and deeply one by one in the future research and direction section.

Response 1:

Details are shown in the marking section of 6.1, The details are as follows.

Point 2: Moreover, the references formatting is wrong and doesn’t meet this journal standard. Please revise it all.

Response 2:

New citations added are listed below.

Habich-Sobiegalla, S.; Kostka, G.; Anzinger, N. Electric Vehicle Purchase Intentions of Chinese, Russian and Brazilian Citizens: An International Comparative Study. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 205, 188–200
Ling, Z.; Cherry, C.R.; Wen, Y. Determining the Factors That Influence Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Stated Preference Survey Study in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11719
Zhang, X.; Bai, X.; Zhong, H. Electric Vehicle Adoption in License Plate-Controlled Big Cities: Evidence from Beijing. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 202, 191–196
Lashari, Z.A.; Ko, J.; Jang, J. Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicles: Influences of User Attitude and Perception. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6778
Lin, B.; Wu, W. Why People Want to Buy Electric Vehicle: An Empirical Study in First-Tier Cities of China. Energy Policy 2018, 112, 233–241
Tranfield, D.; Denyer, D.; Smart, P. Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. Br. J. Manag. 2003, 14, 207–222
Dutta, B.; Hwang, H.-G. Consumers Purchase Intentions of Green Electric Vehicles: The Influence of Consumers Technological and Environmental Considerations. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12025
Ye, F.; Kang, W.; Li, L.; Wang, Z. Why Do Consumers Choose to Buy Electric Vehicles? A Paired Data Analysis of Purchase Intention Configurations. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2021, 147, 14–27
He, X.; Zhan, W.; Hu, Y. Consumer Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in China: The Roles of Perception and Personality. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 204, 1060–1069
Xu, G.; Wang, S.; Li, J.; Zhao, D. Moving towards Sustainable Purchase Behavior: Examining the Determinants of Consumers’ Intentions to Adopt Electric Vehicles. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2020, 27, 22535–22546
Sovacool, B.K.; Abrahamse, W.; Zhang, L.; Ren, J. Pleasure or Profit? Surveying the Purchasing Intentions of Potential Electric Vehicle Adopters in China. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2019, 124, 69–81
Li, L.; Wang, Z.; Li, Y.; Liao, A. Impacts of Consumer Innovativeness on the Intention to Purchase Sustainable Products. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2021, 27, 774–786
Yang, Y.; Tan, Z. Investigating the Influence of Consumer Behavior and Governmental Policy on the Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 6967
Krishnan, V.V.; Koshy, B.I. Evaluating the Factors Influencing Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in Households Owning Conventional Vehicles. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2021, 9, 1122–1129
Cecere, G.; Corrocher, N.; Guerzoni, M. Price or Performance? A Probabilistic Choice Analysis of the Intention to Buy Electric Vehicles in European Countries. Energy Policy 2018, 118, 19–32
Haustein, S.; Jensen, A.F.; Cherchi, E. Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption in Denmark and Sweden: Recent Changes, Related Factors and Policy Implications. Energy Policy 2021, 149, 112096
Li, L.; Wang, Z.; Wang, Q. Do Policy Mix Characteristics Matter for Electric Vehicle Adoption? A Survey-Based Exploration. Transp. Res. Part D Transp. Environ. 2020, 87, 102488

Point 3: Comments on the Quality of English Language：Minor editing of English language required.

Response 3:

Thank you very much for your professional comments , which are very helpful for us to improve the manuscript, and our language should be improved. After carefully check, we found many grammar and sentence errors, and have modified the manuscript accordingly. Furthermore, we have invited several English teachers help correct grammar and sentences, and we hope the revised paper will be more clear and accurate on expressions.

Finally, take this opportunity to wish you good health and work well!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 4 Report

This paper presents the status and possible scenarios for new electric vehicles. The paper contributes to energy utilization. Minor revisions are needed. The authors need to address the following concerns before the paper gets published:

1. The concept of the paper is good and in line with the present social requirement. However, the English of the manuscript needs to be improved before resubmission.

2. The highlights of the paper need to be described clearly in the introduction section.

3. The literature part needs to be elaborate by including more recent literature.

4. Please add the EV scenarios from a global perspective.

5. Is there any financial benefit in the new electric vehicle? Specify with graphs.

6. Please unify the format of Fig. and Figure.

7. Conclusion part needs to be modified by showing social benefits.

English of the manuscript needs to be improved before resubmission.

Author Response

(sustainability-2572869)

What is affecting the popularity of new energy vehicles? A systematic review based on the public perspective

Response to Reviewer 4 Comments

Dear reviewer:

Point 1: The concept of the paper is good and in line with the present social requirement. However, the English of the manuscript needs to be improved before resubmission.

Response 1:

Thank you so much for reviewing our paper and thank you for your recognition of our research. We greatly appreciate all your constructive suggestions and comments which are very helpful for us to improve the manuscript, and our language should be improved. After carefully check, we found many grammar and sentence errors, and have modified the manuscript accordingly. Furthermore, we have invited several English teachers help correct grammar and sentences, and we hope the revised paper would be clearer and precise in its presentation. We have revised the whole paper and now resubmit it for your consideration.

Point 2: The highlights of the paper need to be described clearly in the introduction section.

Response 2:

Thank you for your professional and insightful comments. Considering your suggestions, we have refined the introduction section accordingly.

Details are shown in the marking section of the introduction section. The details are as follows.

“By exploring these questions, this study contributes both practically and academically. In terms of theory, Against the backdrop of existing academic research and fragmented knowledge, the main current findings are explored in a multi-angle and systematic way. On the one hand, it supports previous theoretical statements and, on the other hand, it enriches existing research perspectives. With the help of bibliometric tools, individual public attributes, product attributes, and incentives are placed in an integrated scenario to explore possible interactions and to explore key challenges for future research. This provides future researchers with a systematic overview of the relevance of the topic and directions for further research. In Practice, by combing the existing relevant mainstream literature, this study identifies the main factors that influence the public's behaviour in purchasing new energy vehicles. It helps to further understand the interactions between purchase intention and behaviour. Moreover, this would help the government, enterprises and others to formulate more scientific promotion policies and marketing strategies for the promotion of new energy vehicles, etc. It can also provide guidance to engineers' decision in incorporating consumer preference into EV engineering design.”

Point 3: The literature part needs to be elaborate by including more recent literature.

Response 3:

New supporting literature added are listed below.

Habich-Sobiegalla, S.; Kostka, G.; Anzinger, N. Electric Vehicle Purchase Intentions of Chinese, Russian and Brazilian Citizens:An International Comparative Study. J. Clean. Prod. 2018, 205, 188–200
Ling, Z.; Cherry, C.R.; Wen, Y. Determining the Factors That Influence Electric Vehicle Adoption: A Stated Preference Survey Study in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11719
Zhang, X.; Bai, X.; Zhong, H. Electric Vehicle Adoption in License Plate-Controlled Big Cities: Evidence from Beijing. J. Clean.Prod. 2018, 202, 191–196
Lashari, Z.A.; Ko, J.; Jang, J. Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicles: Influences of User Attitude and Perception. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6778
Lin, B.; Wu, W. Why People Want to Buy Electric Vehicle: An Empirical Study in First-Tier Cities of China. Energy Policy 2018, 112, 233–241
Tranfield, D.; Denyer, D.; Smart, P. Towards a Methodology for Developing Evidence-Informed Management Knowledge by Means of Systematic Review. Br. J. Manag. 2003, 14, 207–222
Dutta, B.; Hwang, H.-G. Consumers Purchase Intentions of Green Electric Vehicles: The Influence of Consumers Technological and Environmental Considerations. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12025
Ye, F.; Kang, W.; Li, L.; Wang, Z. Why Do Consumers Choose to Buy Electric Vehicles? A Paired Data Analysis of Purchase Intention Configurations. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2021, 147, 14–27
He, X.; Zhan,W.; Hu, Y. Consumer Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in China: The Roles of Perception and Personality. J.Clean. Prod. 2018, 204, 1060–1069
Xu, G.;Wang, S.; Li, J.; Zhao, D. Moving towards Sustainable Purchase Behavior: Examining the Determinants of Consumers’ Intentions to Adopt Electric Vehicles. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2020, 27, 22535–22546
Sovacool, B.K.; Abrahamse, ; Zhang, L.; Ren, J. Pleasure or Profit? Surveying the Purchasing Intentions of Potential Electric Vehicle Adopters in China. Transp. Res. Part A Policy Pract. 2019, 124, 69–81
Li, L.;Wang, Z.; Li, Y.; Liao, A. Impacts of Consumer Innovativeness on the Intention to Purchase Sustainable Products. Sustain. Consum. 2021, 27, 774–786
Yang, Y.; Tan, Z. Investigating the Influence of Consumer Behavior and Governmental Policy on the Diffusion of Electric Vehicles in Beijing, China. Sustainability 2019, 11, 6967
Krishnan, V.V.; Koshy, B.I. Evaluating the Factors Influencing Purchase Intention of Electric Vehicles in Households Owning Conventional Vehicles. Case Stud. Transp. Policy 2021, 9, 1122–1129
Cecere, G.; Corrocher, N.; Guerzoni, M. Price or Performance? A Probabilistic Choice Analysis of the Intention to Buy Electric Vehicles in European Countries. Energy Policy 2018, 118, 19–32
Haustein, S.; Jensen, A.F.; Cherchi, E. Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption in Denmark and Sweden: Recent Changes, Related Factors and Policy Implications. Energy Policy 2021, 149, 112096
Li, L.; Wang, Z.; Wang, Q. Do Policy Mix Characteristics Matter for Electric Vehicle Adoption? A Survey-Based Exploration. Res. Part D Transp. Environ. 2020, 87, 102488

Point 4: Please add the EV scenarios from a global perspective

Response 4:

This study mainly adopts bibliometric methods to sort out the relevant literature in this field and grasp the hotspots and trends of existing research. In order to obtain more core factors related to the public's willingness to purchase, provide solution ideas for realizing the transition to new energy vehicles, and strive to promote the green and sustainable development of energy. In addition, this study combs through the studies of mainstream research findings in international academia, and also takes into account incentive initiatives with Chinese characteristics. Considering the ideological consistency and inheritance of the research results of domestic and foreign scholars under this topic, no distinction is made from the country perspective.

Comparative analysis of different countries and regions based on country-specific perspectives is believed to be a valuable and important research direction for the future.

Point 5: Is there any financial benefit in the new electric vehicle? Specify with graphs

Response 5:

It is well known that the dependence of traditional fuel vehicles on petroleum energy has exacerbated the energy crisis, while the harmful gas emissions produced by traditional fuel vehicles in the course of their use have exacerbated environmental pollution and climate warming.

Many countries around the world have taken the promotion of new energy vehicles as an important initiative to alleviate energy consumption and environmental pollution in the transportation sector.

However, there is still a gap between the promotion of new energy vehicles and the public's willingness to purchase them.

Based on this, this paper extracts 1498 papers related to public purchase intention and the popularization of new energy vehicles in the past two decades based on the Web of science core database.

This paper adopts a systematic literature review framework to clarify the research trajectory and research hotspots from the literature combing, aiming to reveal the interactive relationship between the popularization of new energy vehicles and the public's purchase intention.

In addition, this paper further refines and summarizes the existing major studies, with a view to providing solution ideas for realizing the transformation of new energy vehicles and striving to promote the green and sustainable development of energy.

That is to say, the research in this paper focuses on the consumer behavior perspective and the performance of new energy vehicles in terms of energy saving and emission reduction.

Point 6: Please unify the format of Fig. and Figure

Response 6:

Thank you for reviewing our paper. We have checked the whole paper carefully and tried our best to update the relevant statements.

For example:

Figure 8 Journal co-citations density. Source: Author’s elaboration using Vosviewer.

Point 7: Conclusion part needs to be modified by showing social benefits

Response 7:

Thank you for your professional and insightful suggestion. We seriously consider the reviewer's suggestion and feel very good. We have modified the relevant parts of the text.

Details are shown in the marking section of 6.2. The details are as follows.

“New energy vehicles are an important driving force for energy conservation and emission reduction, and the market effect of promotion is diversified. It can effectively reduce the exhaust emissions of traditional vehicles, promote the transition to clean energy, promote the formation of energy saving and emission reduction, green travel atmosphere, and play a positive role in improving air pollution. At present, although the government, enterprises continue to accelerate technological innovation, improve vehicle performance and supporting, improve the policy stimulus, the public willingness to buy a car, but the public enthusiasm to buy a car is still limited. Promote the popularization of new energy vehicles, a long way to go.”

Thanks again for your professional and valuable comments, are very helpful to us. We have revised, organized and written the relevant content according to your suggestion, and strive to make our research more prominent, the subject more vivid, and the purpose clearer. Although we strive to create and try to express our academic achievements, there are still many shortcomings. The suggestions you have given us are very pertinent, which also makes our papers go up the ladder.

Great thanks! Finally, take this opportunity to wish you good health and work well!

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors addressed all of my comments. Therefore, I recommend the manuscript for the publication.

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What Is Affecting the Popularity of New Energy Vehicles? A Systematic Review Based on the Public Perspective

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