Prediction Model of Market Acceptance of Electric Vehicles Based on Small World Network

Abstract:

On the basis of the complex social network theory and consumer decisionmaking theory, a forecasting model of electric vehicle (EV) market acceptance was developed based on the small world network， and the adoption and diffusion process of EVs in social network was simulated through Netlogo software. The simulation results indicate that the EV market acceptance are decided by both the individual preferences and the social network utility and the local network utility show greater influence than the global network utility. Furthermore, selecting the opinion leaders as the initial adopters, increasing the proportion of initial adopters and reducing the purchase threshold of consumers can help to promote the adoption of EVs.

Key words:electric vehicle; social network; consumers’ decisionmaking; market acceptance