Choosing Environmentally Friendly Transportation in the Post-Covid-19 Era: The Role of Personal Moral Norms

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant changes concerning mobility issues. Since public transport is extremely susceptible to the spreading of infectious diseases, people may avoid using it and opt for their own cars, with negative consequences on the environment. However, the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic about the advantages of living in a cleaner world, and the resulting environmental awareness of consumers, may affect consumers’ choice, leading them to prefer environmentally friendly transportation means. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether and how, in the post-COVID-19 era, customers develop the intention to buy electric cars, rather than heat engine ones. Structural equation modeling analysis of data collected from 206 respondents reveals that the environmental awareness due to the COVID-19 pandemic leads individuals to develop personal moral norms concerning the ethical superiority of choosing environmentally friendly transportation solutions, which in turn has a positive effect on consumers’ intention to buy electric cars. We advise car companies and policy makers to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic experience to further enhance the environmental awareness of consumers. This will reinforce consumers’ tendency to frame car purchase as a moral issue, and hence to develop a favorable inclination toward buying electric cars.