It’s the Social Interaction That Matters: Exploring Residents’ Motivation to Invest in the Community-Shared Charging Post Co-Construction Project

Countries worldwide are increasingly focused on addressing the imbalance between the supply and demand for EV charging infrastructure, with the community-shared charging post (CSCP) co-construction project emerging as a promising solution. The broad participation and investment support of the residents are the keys to the success of the CSCP co-construction project. This study, grounded in the theory of planned behavior (TPB) from social psychology, incorporated factors such as community identity, perceived green value, economic benefit, uncivil behaviors, and perceived risk to construct a structural model explaining community residents’ intention to invest in the CSCP co-construction project. This research confirmed that (1) 85.73% of respondents expressed strong recognition of the CSCP co-construction project, with a mean recognition score of 5.56 out of a possible 7; (2) an individual’s social-related perceptions, including the subjective norms and community identity are the strongest determinant of the intention to invest in the CSCP co-construction project; (3) the willingness to invest in CSCP co-construction project differs significantly between the EV group and the non-EV group. Economic benefit was significant only for the non-EV group, while uncivil behaviors were significant only for the EV group. These results provide valuable guidelines for governments and corporations that are promoting or pursuing sharing community for the residents.