Public willingness to support the policy of banning gasoline vehicles sales and its internal mechanism.

Implementation of the banning gasoline vehicles sales policy (BGVSP) will help China achieve its dual carbon goal, but it will harm consumers' rights of choice. Thus, we used grounded theory, a questionnaire survey, and structural equation modeling to build a theoretical motivation model of the public willingness to support (PWTS). Based on 1371 questionnaires, we verified the core influencing factors and mechanisms of the PWTS. The main results are as follows. (1) Because of their different motives, the PWTS can result from three reasons, i.e., decision-making, interpersonal, and civic, in which the proportion of civic awareness is higher. (2) Among individual factors, an environmentally oriented lifestyle and preference for environmental protection have a higher positive effect on the improvement of support intention, but for interpersonal support intention, the effect of economic preference is more significant. (3) The mediating role and effect of psychological factors among the individual factors are quite different. The indirect effect of values and public awareness is higher. (4) The product factors related to new energy vehicles are external moderator variables that affect the PWTS, which play negative effects in the role of preference factors. Hence, from a micro perspective, this study has improved the research scope around the BGVSP, and also contributed feasible recommendations to promote the implementation of the ban. • A motivation model of the PWTS for the BGVSP was constructed based on grounded theory. • 1371 primary data on the PWTS were collected. • The PWTS were classified into three categories because of the differences in intentions. • Fresh ideas are provided to promote the withdrawal of global ICEVs from the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]