Linear Regression Analysis and Feature Contribution-Based Ensemble Learning in Electric Car Price Prediction

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the performance of linear regression and ensemble learning methods in predicting electric vehicle prices based on technical specifications, as well as to examine the contribution of key features to the prediction results. The main challenge in electric vehicle price prediction lies in the high price variability driven by nonlinear relationships among technical attributes, which are difficult to capture using simple linear models. Linear regression was employed as a baseline model, while Random Forest and Gradient Boosting were used as ensemble learning approaches. The dataset was obtained from Kaggle and processed through data cleaning, categorical encoding, normalization, and an 80:20 train–test split. Model performance was evaluated using mean squared error (MSE) and the coefficient of determination (R²). The results indicate that the Gradient Boosting model achieved the best performance, with an MSE of 8.63 and an R² of 0.891, outperforming both Random Forest and linear regression models. Feature contribution analysis reveals that vehicle acceleration time is the most influential factor in determining electric vehicle prices. These findings demonstrate that ensemble learning not only improves predictive accuracy but also provides analytical insights into the key technical factors shaping electric vehicle pricing.