PRIMARY ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC TRACTOR MARKET IN INDIA
The most promising and enthralling technology of age is the Electric Vehicle (EV) technology. It has been neutralizing the growing menace of carbon emission and reducing the dependence on fossil fuel and excessive energy consumption. The EV technology has been making a mark commercially in passenger segment since the year 2000 and with the impressive feat achieved in the category the technology has marched towards the heavy motor electric vehicles (HMV) the non-transport goods carriage and agriculture automobiles.
India being largely an agriculture supported economy, the advent of electric vehicle technology in the LMV sector particularly in the tractor market necessitates appreciating and investigating the aspects that guides the consumer’s in this case the farmers willingness to adopt the EVs . The foremost aim of this research is to investigate the effects of price, government subsidies, emissions, fuel efficacy, performance and maintenance on consumer’s intention to adopt EVs. The research is empirically conducted using structured questionnaire, the survey data was collected from 400 respondents from farmlands in north Indian regions to assess market acceptance for an electric farm tractor and to discover the extent of influence exerted by various variables on buying decisions. The deductions from the study indicates that perceived superior fuel efficiency in electric vehicle is positively and significantly related to attitude and intention to adopt EV and negatively and significantly related to vehicular emission and its subsequent impact on environment. Whereas, government financial subsidies and perceived low maintenance is positively and significantly related to adoption intentions of EVs. However, the results also indicate that the lack of information and knowledge about post purchase maintenance outlay has a negative impact on intention to adopt EVs. According to the findings of the Probit regression analysis, age has a negative and significant impact on consumers intention to acquire an electric tractor. Based on the results, policy implications for increasing the adoption of EVs and suggestions for future research are discussed
Electric tractor adoption, diffusion of tractor; alternate fuels; hybrid electric tractor, adoption intention, financial incentive