"Heat-driven": How climate warming accelerates the rise of new energy vehicles? Empirical explorations from China's city level.

New energy vehicles (NEVs) have emerged as an imperative pathway for global transportation energy transition and climate change mitigation. Employing monthly panel data from 281 cities in China during 2016-2022, this study systematically investigates the impact of climate warming on the NEVs industry. The findings demonstrate that climate warming significantly accelerates the application and promotion of NEVs. Besides, mechanism analysis reveals that public environmental concern is the important conduction path for the popularization of NEVs stimulated by climate warming. In addition, official promotion incentives exhibit a positive moderating role in strengthening this relationship. Meanwhile, heterogeneity analysis indicates that climate warming has a more significant promoting effect on the promotion of NEVs in eastern cities, cities with inadequate public transport coverage, cities with high economic development level, and non-resource-based cities. The results provide theoretical basis for global climate governance, as well as policy synergistic paths, technological innovation directions and international cooperation frameworks for promoting the rise of NEVs industry. This study clarifies the mechanisms by which climate warming drives the adoption of NEVs, providing targeted insights for balancing climate governance and transportation decarbonization, and offering actionable solutions for policymakers to formulate regionally differentiated promotion strategies of NEVs.