It’s clear that electric vehicles are picking up steam in term of overall sales, particularly in emerging European markets such as Germany. But as most brands know – while getting customers is one thing, keeping them is a different story. Are EV drivers shifting back to traditional vehicles after their first try? Or are they hooked for life?
New research from the team at Dataforce has been looking to not only discover whether customers are loyal to their brands, but also if they are loyal to their fuel types.
In 2019 Germany is currently the number 1 European country regarding sales of plug-in battery vehicles – effectively 20% of the total European numbers. Meanwhile, Norway has been the biggest European market for battery-powered vehicles.
Within that market far more then 53 thousand full EV’s have been registered, as well as over 25,000 plug-in vehicles. The taxation benefits offered for fleet drivers have certainly helped with this.
So should we expect all the green pioneers to stick with their choices or will they rush back to diesel alternative after the first experience? Somewhat pleasingly the bulk of users that invested in EVs have again invested, according to data from the Dataforce Private Loyalty tool.
Of all returning EV-drivers, an impressive 72% opted again for an electrical vehicle. In comparison: only 45% of the Diesel drivers opted again for Diesel.
The research found new drivers came from different fuel types – 44% drove a petrol car before, 41% a diesel and 7% a hybrid before their move to EVs. With this change, a rise in sales for the Tesla 3 and the Renault Zoe has seen plunges for the VW Golf and BMW 3 series in terms of trade-ins.
Though with BMW i3 buyers largely coming being previous BMW drivers, it does prove that brand loyalty is not entirely dead after all!
Dataforce is the leading provider of fleet market data and automotive intelligence solutions in Europe. In addition, the company also provides detailed information on sales opportunities for the automotive industry, together with a wide portfolio of information based on primary market research and consulting services. The company is based in Frankfurt, Germany.
