| Summary, etc |
This paper examines how residents of Tuguegarao City perceive and accept Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS), addressing the lack of localized research on EV infrastructure in provincial Philippine cities. The study is of great importance because the national expansion of the EVCS remains concentrated in metropolitan areas while smaller cities like Tuguegarao face limited access, awareness gaps, and perceived barriers that may hinder the adoption of EVs and involved planning matters. The research fills this gap by analyzing public awareness, perceived barriers, government support, social influence, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and public acceptance within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).The quantitative descriptive-correlational design allowed the study to gather data from 400 residents using validated survey questionnaires with a Likert scale, while descriptive statistics, t-tests, Welch's ANOVA, and Pearson correlation were used to assess relationships between the study variables.
The results indicated that the respondents generally demonstrated positive perceptions towards EVCS, whereby the highest ratings were achieved for the perceived usefulness, namely in terms of sustainability and benefits to the community. Awareness, however, remained moderate, indicating limited exposure to formal information campaigns. As with demographic characteristics especially age, education, occupation, gender, and EV ownership significantly influenced several external factors, most notably perceived barriers. Correlation analyses confirmed the TAM pathway: external factors significantly affected perceived ease of use, perceived ease of use strongly predicted perceived usefulness, and perceived usefulness significantly influenced public acceptance of EVCS. |