Impacts of technological progress factors on electric vehicle demands --Panel data studies across 10 countries

Abstract

Despite the low crude oil price that has been declining, the market for new energy vehicles has grown steadily. Based on panel data of NEV sales in 10 countries from 2012 to 2018, this article explores the impact of technological progress on NEVs demand and makes empirical research on the impact of battery technology, electric motor technology and electronic control technology on the NEVs market demand. The study also includes other factors such as percentage of renewable energies in electricity generation, number of charging stations, population density, gasoline price, GDP per capital and urbanization in a multiple linear regression model. The results show that the improvement of the technological level has significantly increased the demand for new energy vehicles. For every 1% increase in the number of new energy vehicle patents applied, the country's new energy vehicle sales will increase by 1.873%. Besides, The increase of control patents has the most obvious effect on increasing the sales of new energy vehicles. Based on the results, time lag and Heterogeneity problem are discussed.