  A sustainable solution to negative externalities imposed by road
transportation is replacing internal combustion vehicles with electric vehicles
(EVs), especially plug-in EV (PEV) encompassing plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) and
battery EV (BEV). However, EV market share is still low and is forecast to
remain low and uncertain. This shows a research need for an in-depth
understanding of EV adoption behavior with a focus on one of the main barriers
to the mass EV adoption, which is the limited electric driving range. The
present study extends the existing literature in two directions; First, the
influence of the psychological aspect of driving range, which is referred to as
range anxiety, is explored on EV adoption behavior by presenting a nested logit
(NL) model with a latent construct. Second, the two-level NL model captures
individuals' decision on EV adoption behavior distinguished by vehicle
transaction type and EV type, where the upper level yields the vehicle
transaction type selected from the set of alternatives including
no-transaction, sell, trade, and add. The fuel type of the vehicles decided to
be acquired, either as traded-for or added vehicles, is simultaneously
determined at the lower level from a set including conventional vehicle, hybrid
EV, PHEV, and BEV. The model is empirically estimated using a stated
preferences dataset collected in the State of California. A notable finding is
that anxiety about driving range influences the preference for BEV, especially
as an added than traded-for vehicle, but not the decision on PHEV adoption.
