Familiarity Facilitates Adoption: Evidence from Electric Vehicles

Abstract: This paper shows that a non-price intervention which increased the prevalence of a new technology facilitated its further adoption. The BlueLA program put Electric Vehicles (EVs) for public use in many heavily trafficked areas, primarily (but not exclusively) aimed at low-to-middle income households. We show, using data on subsidies for these households and a difference-in differences strategy, that BlueLA is associated with a 33\% increase of new EV adoptions, justifying a substantial portion of public investment. While the program provides a substitute to car ownership, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that increasing familiarity with EVs could facilitate adoption.