Unravelling the Intellectual Structure and Thematic Evolution of Electric Vehicle Marketing Research: A SPAR-4-SLR-based Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric investigation of electric vehicle (EV) marketing research to identify emerging trends, intellectual networks, knowledge structures and thematic groups. The study follows the SPAR-4-SLR model and analyses 396 peer-reviewed journal articles retrieved from the Scopus database covering the period 2000-2026. Bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence, co-citation and co-authorship analyses were conducted using R Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to examine the development of EV marketing research, identify significant contributors and map its thematic evolution. The findings reveal a substantial growth in EV marketing research, particularly after 2018, reflecting increasing scholarly interest in the field. The three leading publication outlets are the Journal of Cleaner Production, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice and Technological Forecasting and Social Change while China, India and the United States emerge as the leading contributing countries. Science mapping indicates that consumer behaviour, purchase intention, sustainability, technology adoption and green marketing constitute the major research themes. More recent research has increasingly focused on innovation, digital marketing, and sustainable mobility, indicating an evolving research landscape in EV marketing. The study provides a comprehensive bibliometric mapping of EV marketing research with certain suggestions on how the research should be conducted in future.