People talk a big game about saving the planet when they're buying an EV, but once they’re actually behind the wheel, they don't care as much.
March 27, 2026
Original Paper
Strategic vs. Tactical Continuum in Stated Preference Experiments: Jointly Modelling Electric Vehicle (EV) Purchase and Charging Location Preferences
SSRN · 6346639
The Takeaway
The study shows that 'willingness to pay' is not a stable trait. People are highly sensitive to green values and time-efficiency during 'strategic' purchase moments, but their behavior becomes far more random and price-sensitive during 'tactical' daily charging decisions, complicating how we model the green transition.
From the abstract
This study examines whether consumers evaluate the same attributes consistently across strategic (longterm) and tactical (short-term) decision contexts. While strategic choices, such as major purchase decisions, and tactical choices, such as everyday operational decisions, are often modelled independently, little empirical work has tested whether preferences remain stable across these layers. Using the case of electric vehicles (EVs), we design two stated preference experiments with 1,243 respon