It can be hard to convince the haters of the virtues of electric cars unless the people are Californians, or those people were already on board with the concept to begin with. But according to a new study, once people make the leap, they tend to stay.
JD Power said it was the first time it did the study, which it calls the Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study, and which I will therefore call the ‘study’. The study asked electric car owners about how satisfied they are with their cars. It is not surprising that owners said that the range was the most important thing for them, along with how good or bad the charging network is, and cost savings over the life of the vehicle versus a petrol car.
More interestingly, it seems that brand loyalty in the EV world is not much of something, at least among people who were not so happy with the EVs they ended up with. Most of those people also says they will buy another EV.
The study found that 95% of EV owners whose total satisfaction with ownership is more than 900 points say they would buy another EV. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of these owners say they will definitely buy back the same brand. However, the likelihood of repurchasing the same brand decreases as satisfaction decreases. Among owners with a satisfaction of between 600 and 750 points, 77% indicate that they will buy a definitive EV, although they will probably only buy 25% to buy back the same brand.
The scores in the paragraph refer to the answers of individuals, not the index score for specific models, but you can probably guess who scored the highest. I invite you to watch the following bar graphs from: the study:
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So the story seems to be that many Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt owners are not necessarily beaten with their Leafs of Bolts, but it also did not destroy electric cars for them. The worst news is probably for Audi and Jaguar, who left directly at Tesla and were both behind. Most Tesla owners, meanwhile, seem to be quite happy with their decision, with one caveat:
While driving pleasure by segment varies considerably (892 for premium BEV and 758 for mass market BEV), it is only in the mass market segment that outweighs quality and reliability. Quality and reliability are the most important factor in the first-class ownership of electric vehicles. It is noteworthy that Tesla owners, while apparently having poor quality, are generally more satisfied, indicating that they are willing to overlook quality issues.
Quality issues has been chasing Tesla for years, and if it has not yet sunk them, it probably never will. And the idea that legacy carmakers can beat Tesla if they simply trying to become more and more dubious.