The Connecticut Dealer Incentive for Electric-Vehicle Sales: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation

The Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Purchase Rebate program provides the consumer a rebate of up to $5,000 for the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle (EV) and the dealer an incentive of $300 for each rebated vehicle. The dealer incentive is unique among statewide programs. This inquiry used a mixed-methods approach to understand how the dealer incentive is used and to explore its effectiveness. Survey respondents held a variety of positions at participating dealerships, with 74% involved in sales. Dealerships use their incentives in a variety of ways. Sharing incentives with salespeople was uncommon. More typically, the incentive was viewed as dealership compensation for program participation, e.g., the time required to submit rebate applications. Nevertheless, respondents rated the incentive moderately-to-very motivating to engage in a variety of behaviors that might spur EV sales, e.g., spending time with a customer to teach them about EV ownership and use. Respondents provided estimates of the minimum incentive level required to motivate salespeople and dealerships to sell EVs, an average of $233 and $565 respectively. Further, respondents that have owned an EV not only had more positive perceptions of EVs, they rated the dealer incentive more motivating. Rated perceptions of the program were positive. Strong majorities of respondents indicated that the program made employees more open to EVs as a real alternative. Recommendations for EV incentive programs include: increasing dealer outreach, studying nonparticipating dealerships, using a split incentive design to motivate both salespeople and dealerships, and promoting ownership-like EV experiences for salespeople.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC80 Standing Committee on Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies.
• Authors:
  • Williams, Brett
  • Johnson, Clair
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobile dealers; Electric vehicles; Motivation; Sales
• Uncontrolled Terms: Incentives in industry
• Geographic Terms: Connecticut
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Finance; Highways; Policy; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01659675
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-00579
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 9 2018 10:33AM