Assessment of the effects of China's new energy vehicle industry policies: from the perspective of moderating effect of consumer characteristics

The new energy vehicle (NEV) industry plays a pivotal role in nurturing and fortifying China's green economy, emerging as driving force for advancing the high-quality development of economy. Drawing upon panel data spanning from 2010 to 2017 across 20 provinces in China, this study employs a multiple regression model to meticulously assess the influence of three distinct industry policies—namely, purchase subsidies, public procurement, and traffic and purchase restriction policies—on private NEV adoption. Moreover, this study sheds light on the underpinning rationales for regional disparities in the effects of these industry policies, encompassing consumers' economic, social, and distributional attributes. The research find that all three industry policies exert a positive impact on driving private NEV adoption. These policy-induced effects are markedly influenced by regional discrepancies in consumers' economic and social profiles. Notably, income levels exhibit a negative moderation effect on the impact of purchase subsidy policy, whereas education levels and population density yield positive moderating influences on the effects of public procurement and restriction policies, respectively. These discoveries not only unveil the affirmative influence of industry policies in propelling private NEV adoption but also furnish strategic insights for orchestrating the evolution of the NEV sector toward a sustainable, market-driven paradigm. By adjusting and optimizing industrial policies, and developing differentiated policies, including the gradual phasing out of subsidies, augmented government and public institution acquisitions, and the augmentation of priority road access policies according to the differences in consumer characteristics, this study positions policymakers with laser-focused strategies that underpin the sustained progression and transformation of the NEV domain.