Governments develop mixes of policy instruments to drive electric vehicle adoption by combining direct and indirect financial incentives and informational and convenience policies. In this paper, we analyse the impact of instrument mixes on electric vehicle adoption by firms because their early adopter role can stimulate mass adoption. We contribute to the literature by offering quantitative analyses on the impact of instrument mix attributes – consistency and comprehensiveness – on firms’ electric vehicle purchases, where prior studies focus on qualitative analyses, adoption intentions, and adoption by households. We built an original dataset of new registrations of electric commercial vehicles and electric light commercial vehicles from 2001 to 2019 in the United Kingdom. We use Poisson fixed effects models for our panel data of 760 observations. Our results show that direct and indirect financial incentives and informational and convenience policies positively impact adoption with direct financial incentives having the largest impact. Consistent and comprehensive mixes also positively influence the adoption of both vehicle types. Our results imply that upfront cost reductions are most important for firms and that financial incentives should be combined with policies that overcome knowledge and operational barriers. © 2025 The Authors

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