Staying on convention or leapfrogging to eco-innovation?: Identifying early adopters of hydrogen-powered vehicles

•This study identifies potential innovators and early adopters of FCEV.•K-means clustering method and multinomial logit model are used for the analysis.•This study identifies a group of consumers(6.2%) willing to leapfrog to FCEV.•This study provides policy implications to accelerate the diffusion of FCEVs. Hydrogen-powered vehicles or fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) are recognized as one of the leading innovations within sustainable technologies. However, to the best of our knowledge, only few studies have been conducted regarding the consumer's perspective of the product. This study focuses on analyzing the consumer's criteria and level behind their behavior regarding these vehicles to identify consumer segments that can be potential innovators and early adopters of FCEV. The K-means clustering method was employed to identify different consumer segments based on their chosen criteria. Next, consumer characteristics and their preferences were analyzed using a multinomial logit model to derive important marketing and policy implications. The result of the analysis indicates that 44.9% of the consumers consider FCEV as a potential alternative. These consumers consist of “Innovative luxury consumer group (6.2%),” “Advanced eco-friendly consumer group (12.6%),” and “Economy-oriented eco-friendly consumer group (26.1%).” Among the three groups, the “innovative and luxurious consumer group,” who considered all traditional gasoline and diesel vehicles with FCEV, had the highest potential to leapfrog to FCEV. These findings can accelerate the diffusion of FCEVs if marketing strategies and policy plans are formulated according to suitable consumer segments.