It can be hard to convince those who hate the virtues of electric cars, unless those people are Californians or those people were already on board with the concept from the beginning. But according to a new study, once people make the leap, they tend to stay.
JD Power said it was the first time he did this study, which he calls the Electric Vehicle Experience Property Study (EVX) and which I will therefore refer to as the “study”. The study asked owners of electric cars various questions about how satisfied they are with their electric vehicles. Not surprisingly, the owners said that autonomy is the most important thing for them, along with how good or bad the charging network is and the cost savings over the life of the vehicle compared to a petrol car.
More interestingly, brand loyalty doesn’t seem to be too much in the EV world, at least among people who weren’t as happy with the EVs they came up with. Most of these people also they say they’ll buy another EV.
The study finds that 95% of electric vehicle owners whose overall property satisfaction exceeds 900 points say they will purchase another electric vehicle. Almost two-thirds (64%) of these owners say they “definitely want” to buy back the same brand. However, the likelihood of repurchasing the same brand decreases as satisfaction decreases. Among owners whose satisfaction is between 600 and 750 points, 77% indicate that they will “definitely buy” another EV – although their probability of repurchasing the same brand is only 25%.
The point scores in that paragraph refer to individuals’ responses, not the index score for specific models, but you can probably guess who got the highest score overall. I invite you to review the following bar charts from The study:
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The story seems to be, then, that a lot of Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt owners are not necessarily affected by their Leafs or Screws, but this did not permanently destroy their electric cars. The worst news is probably for Audi and Jaguar, who went straight to Tesla and both finished behind. Meanwhile, most Tesla owners seem perfectly pleased with their decision, with one caveat:
While driving pleasure varies significantly by segment (892 for BEV premium and 758 for BEV in the mass market), driving in the mass market segment alone exceeds quality and reliability. Quality and reliability are the most important factor in the experience of premium ownership of electric vehicles. It is noteworthy that, although Tesla is considered to be of poor quality, Tesla owners are generally more satisfied, indicating their desire to overlook quality issues.
Quality issues they persevered Tesla for years, and if this hasn’t sunk them at this point, it probably never will. And the idea that old carmakers can beat Tesla if they do simply try becomes more and more dubious.