Perceived Environmental Benefits and Electric Vehicle Intentions in Canada: Separate Analyses of Car Owners’ Purchase Likelihood and Non-Car Owners’ Stated Preference

Believing that electric vehicles (EVs) benefit the environment may be associated with EV intentions, but current car owners and non-car owners answer different practical questions. This cross-sectional online survey of 328 adults residing in Canada therefore analyzes the groups separately. The focal item—“The use of EVs will help protect the environment”—is treated as a perceived environmental benefit of EVs rather than as a validated general environmental-concern scale. For 226 car owners with complete focal variables, an ordered logistic model including personal environmental responsibility produced an odds ratio (OR) of 1.82 per one-category increase in perceived environmental benefit (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.51–2.19; p < 0.001). The association remained positive in the available demographic sensitivity model (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.68–2.51). For 72 non-car owners, the parsimonious exploratory model produced an OR of 1.47 (95% CI 1.04–2.08; p = 0.029), but the estimate was attenuated after broader demographic adjustment (OR 1.39, 95% CI 0.96–2.02; p = 0.080). Cluster-robust stacked cumulative-logit diagnostics found no evidence against proportional odds in the primary models. Because owners reported five-category purchase likelihood for a plug-in electric vehicle and non-owners reported seven-category stated EV preference, no formal group comparison was conducted. The findings are associational, based on single items and a non-probability sample, and are consistent only with selected propositions of Value–Belief–Norm theory. Evidence is strongest for a positive owner–context association and suggestive, but less stable, for non-car owners.