Consumer Perception of Battery-as-a-Service ( BaaS): Implications for Electric Vehicle Adoption

Sammanfattning

Background: Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) is an emerging service model in the electric vehicle (EV) sector that separates battery ownership from vehicle ownership. While BaaS offers benefits such as flexibility and lower upfront costs and simplified maintenance, it also introduces concerns around trust in service providers, perceived risks, and consumer comfort with new technologies. Purpose: This study aims to understand what makes people more or less willing to adopt the BaaS model, focusing on the roles of trust in service providers, perceived risk, and how useful or easy to use, the service seems to consumers. Method: The study follows a quantitative approach using survey responses from 154 participants in Sweden. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data and test the proposed hypotheses. Findings: Perceived usefulness was the most influential driver of adoption intention followed by a weaker but significant effect from trust. Perceived risk and ease of use were not significant, and trust did not moderate the impact of risk. The results highlight that functional value appears to outweigh relational or risk-based concerns in early-stage BaaS adoption.