IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cdl/itsdav/qt9zt4g01t.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Symbolism in California’s Early Market for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Heffner, Reid R.
  • Kurani, Kenneth S
  • Turrentine, Tom

Abstract

This study explores the symbolic meanings being created, appropriated, and communicated by the owners of hybrid electric vehicles. As symbolic meanings are shown to be important to hybrid electric vehicle purchase and use, understanding the meanings, as well as their construction and communication, is essential for policy makers and others hoping to promote these new types of vehicles. Hybrid electric vehicles embody combinations of meanings that were previously unavailable from automobiles. Market observers who fail to recognize this struggle to explain why some people buy hybrid electric vehicles. They may characterize buyers as naı ¨ve about calculating payback on fuel economy, or dismiss owners as image-seeking environmentalists. This research belies such simplistic explanations. Through the telling and analysis of buyers’ own stories, this study takes a robust approach to understanding the creation and spread of new symbolic meanings in the automotive market. Data were collected in ethnographic interviews with hybrid electric vehicle owners in the California, and analyzed using methods based on semiotic theory. In particular, the study explores how widely recognized social meanings (denotations) are connected to more personal meanings (connotations) and the effect that both types of meanings have on vehicle purchase and use.

Suggested Citation

  • Heffner, Reid R. & Kurani, Kenneth S & Turrentine, Tom, 2008. "Symbolism in California’s Early Market for Hybrid Electric Vehicles," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9zt4g01t, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt9zt4g01t
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9zt4g01t.pdf;origin=repeccitec
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heffner, Reid R. & Turrentine, Tom & Kurani, Kenneth S, 2006. "A Primer on Automobile Semiotics," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt3577d04p, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    2. Bunch, David S. & Bradley, Mark & Golob, Thomas F. & Kitamura, Ryuichi & Occhiuzzo, Gareth P., 1993. "Demand for clean-fuel vehicles in California: A discrete-choice stated preference pilot project," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 237-253, May.
    3. Turrentine, Tom & Kurani, Kenneth S, 2007. "Car buyers and fuel economy?," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt56x845v4, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    4. Heffner, Reid R. & Turrentine, Tom & Kurani, Ken, 2006. "A Primer on Automobile Semiotics," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt3sk436j6, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    5. Calfee, John E., 1985. "Estimating the demand for electric automobiles using fully disaggregated probabilistic choice analysis," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 287-301, August.
    6. Turrentine, Thomas S. & Kurani, Kenneth S., 2007. "Car buyers and fuel economy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1213-1223, February.
    7. Sirgy, M. Joseph, 1985. "Using self-congruity and ideal congruity to predict purchase motivation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 195-206, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Christopher, 2011. "California’s Energy Future: Transportation Energy Use in California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8j69x46d, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    2. Wolf, Angelika & Seebauer, Sebastian, 2014. "Technology adoption of electric bicycles: A survey among early adopters," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 196-211.
    3. Yang, Christopher & Ogden, Joan M & Hwang, Roland & Sperling, Daniel, 2011. "California’s Energy Future: Transportation Energy Use in California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt70j8b21c, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    4. Ozaki, Ritsuko & Sevastyanova, Katerina, 2011. "Going hybrid: An analysis of consumer purchase motivations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2217-2227, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heffner, Reid R., 2007. "Semiotics and Advanced Vehicles: What Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) Mean and Why it Matters to Consumers," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9mw1t4w3, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    2. Sexton, Steven E. & Sexton, Alison L., 2014. "Conspicuous conservation: The Prius halo and willingness to pay for environmental bona fides," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 303-317.
    3. Schuitema, Geertje & Anable, Jillian & Skippon, Stephen & Kinnear, Neale, 2013. "The role of instrumental, hedonic and symbolic attributes in the intention to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 39-49.
    4. Heffner, Reid & Kurani, Kenneth S. & Turrentine, Thomas S., 2007. "Symbolism In Early Markets For Hybrid Electric Vehicles," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt0v04n3rg, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    5. Seiho Kim & Jaesik Lee & Chulung Lee, 2017. "Does Driving Range of Electric Vehicles Influence Electric Vehicle Adoption?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Hardman, Scott & Chandan, Amrit & Tal, Gil & Turrentine, Tom, 2017. "The effectiveness of financial purchase incentives for battery electric vehicles – A review of the evidence," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1100-1111.
    7. Axsen, Jonn, 2010. "Interpersonal Influence within Car Buyers’ Social Networks: Observing Consumer Assessment of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and the Spread of Pro-Societal Values," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8p32d18k, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    8. Ozaki, Ritsuko & Sevastyanova, Katerina, 2011. "Going hybrid: An analysis of consumer purchase motivations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2217-2227, May.
    9. Kurani, Kenneth S & Axsen, Jonn & Caperello, Nicolette & Davies, Jamie & Stillwater, Tai, 2009. "Learning from Consumers: Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) Demonstration and Consumer Education, Outreach, and Market Research Program," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt9361r9h7, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    10. Daina, Nicolò & Sivakumar, Aruna & Polak, John W., 2017. "Modelling electric vehicles use: a survey on the methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 447-460.
    11. Hardman, Scott & Shiu, Eric & Steinberger-Wilckens, Robert & Turrentine, Thomas, 2017. "Barriers to the adoption of fuel cell vehicles: A qualitative investigation into early adopters attitudes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 166-182.
    12. Axsen, Jonn & Burke, Andy & Kurani, Kenneth S, 2010. "Are Batteries Ready for Plug-in Hybrid Buyers?," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt7vh184rw, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    13. Costanza Nosi & Tommaso Pucci & Cecilia Silvestri & Barbara Aquilani, 2017. "Does Value Co-Creation Really Matter? An Investigation of Italian Millennials Intention to Buy Electric Cars," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-21, November.
    14. Cartenì, Armando & Cascetta, Ennio & de Luca, Stefano, 2016. "A random utility model for park & carsharing services and the pure preference for electric vehicles," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 49-59.
    15. Heffner, Reid R. & Kurani, Kenneth S & Turrentine, Tom, 2007. "Symbolism and the Adoption of Fuel-Cell Vehicles," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5934t20f, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    16. Krupa, Joseph S. & Rizzo, Donna M. & Eppstein, Margaret J. & Brad Lanute, D. & Gaalema, Diann E. & Lakkaraju, Kiran & Warrender, Christina E., 2014. "Analysis of a consumer survey on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 14-31.
    17. Collantes, Gustavo, 2010. "Do green tech policies need to pass the consumer test?: The case of ethanol fuel," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1235-1244, November.
    18. Axsen, Jonn & Kurani, Kenneth S. & Burke, Andrew, 2010. "Are batteries ready for plug-in hybrid buyers?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 173-182, May.
    19. Williams, Brett D, 2010. "Commercializing Light-Duty Plug-In/Plug-Out Hydrogen-Fuel-Cell Vehicles: "Mobile Electricity" Technologies, Early California Household Markets, and Innovation Management," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt15f9495j, University of California Transportation Center.
    20. Richard G. Newell & Juha Siikamäki, 2014. "Nudging Energy Efficiency Behavior: The Role of Information Labels," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 555-598.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    UCD-ITS-RP-08-15; Engineering;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt9zt4g01t. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lisa Schiff (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/itucdus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.