Use of the Topsis Method in Consumers’ Luxury Electric Vehicle Purchasing Decisions

Research background: The increasing variety of electric vehicles affects users’ electric vehicle purchasing pReferences. Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the importance levels of the factors that affect consumer decisions in purchasing electric vehicles whose prices are above a certain lower limit and to rank the vehicles with the highest score. Research methodology: TOPSIS Method, one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods, was used in the study. In the study, six different selection criteria were determined: Range (km), Charging time (min), Price (euro), Acceleration (0–100 km/h acceleration), Torque (Nm), and Power (hp). These data were obtained from the information shared by the brands on their websites, using secondary data sources. User selection was achieved by determining a lower level in the price criterion in brand and model elimination. In the implementation of the study, vehicles with a lower price limit of over 5 million lira were taken into consideration. Four different brands that meet these criteria and are currently on sale in the Türkiye market have been identified. The models evaluated among these brands are the Mercedes EQS, Porsche Taycan, BMW iX, BMW i7, and Audi E-Tron. Results: In the selection made using the TOPSIS Method, the Mercedes EQS is in the first place in the automobile ranking, BMW iX is in the second place, BMW i7 is in the third place, Audi E-Tron is in the fourth place and Porsche Taycan is in the last place. Novelty: The difference of this study from other studies is that luxury electric vehicles are included in the sample for the first time. In addition, charging times, torque and acceleration values have only been included in studies recently. Because in previous studies, criteria such as price, range and power were studied with different models and different classes of vehicles.