The latest loyalty study from S&P Global Mobility shows that electric vehicles face a new problem: purchase loyalty. There is one brand that not only accounts for the majority of sales, it also has more than 70% of purchase intentions.
In October, sales of electric cars grew by 89.6%, reaching 6,177 registered units. However, even if these are good results, they are still far from representing a high percentage within the sales mix, since it only gathers one 5.21% annual market share.
There are many reasons that justify why Electric car sales are not higher in Spain: the purchase price, recharge times, autonomy, availability of the public network of fast chargers…
To this we must add the results of a study executed by S&P Global Mobility which adds a new problem for the electric car: buy loyalty. Specifically, how many electric car buyers are willing to buy if it’s not a Tesla?
The study that reveals the new problem of the electric car
As revealed in this report, 3 out of 4 luxury electric vehicle households choose electric vehicles as their next purchase. However, when Tesla is removed from the equation, the percentage of electric car owners who will repeat ownership drops alarmingly.
Except for Tesla, the loyalty rate by fuel type for households with conventional brand electric vehicles is 52.1%according to the honesty analysis of S&P Global Mobility.
This means that more than half of the users who bought an electric car remain loyal to this type of car, even if they moved to a Tesla. However, the percentage of consumers interested in buying an electric car has has fallen almost 30% since 2021, when it topped 81%.
Among the conventional brands that sell electric cars, Nissan is the one that achieves the greatest loyalty among its customers, with 63.2%.
Interestingly, among households with a Nissan Leaf, the next most popular purchase is the Tesla Model Y, at 14.3%, followed by another Leaf at 12.4%. Leaf buyers who do not opt for an electric car opt for internal combustion models from the Japanese company.
On the other hand, only 37.3% of households that bought a Ford Mustang Mach-E bought another electric car again, compared to 45.8% that chose a car with a thermal engine.
Moving to the premium side, we see that the study of S&P Global Mobility confirm the stop interest in electric vehicles, which stands at over 70% since the fourth quarter of 2022. This high interest, however, is mainly driven by Tesla, which is the only brand above 70-75% of purchase intentionality.
Its opposite is located below the purchase intention. For example, Audi and Jaguar reach 50% while Mercedes and BMW about 45% y Porsche under 40%.
Therefore, the study shows that traditional manufacturers have a loyalty problem on the part of electric car buyers, who continue to prefer Tesla products regardless of whether it is the generalist or premium segment.
