Electric vehicles disrupt the pecking order of the automotive industry


For these long-established automakers, new electric vehicles are attracting customers who do not currently own their brands, according to data from automotive website Edmunds.com. This means that electric vehicles are attracting the ever-sought-after “top sellers”. These are sales that not only generate income but can, automakers hope, create new customers in the long run.

If all goes well, it is.

Nearly 70% of buyers of the new Ford Mustang Mach-E were not already Ford customers, according to Edmunds.com. For most Ford models, only 42% are traded in a non-Ford vehicle. For General Motors’ Chevrolet brand, the trend is similar. Of the buyers of Chevrolet Bolt models, 60% were new to the Chevrolet brand. For most Chevrolet models, just under half were not existing Chevrolet customers.

At Volkswagen, which sells far fewer vehicles in the United States than Chevrolet or Ford, the difference was smaller but still noticeable. Of those who buy the ID.4 electric SUV, 72% were not current VW customers, compared to 60% of all VW buyers, according to Edmunds.com.

Things appear to be similar for the new F-150 Lightning pickup, Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an interview with CNN Business last August. Of those who made deposits on the new truck, Farley said, 70 to 80 percent were new to Ford, and similar percentages had never owned a pickup before.

So far, the sales figures are not huge by the standards of major car brands. Tesla still far surpasses all electric vehicles from these automakers. In the first nine months of 2021, GM sold approximately 25,000 Bolt EVs and EUVs. (Due to a battery recall, GM hasn’t offered the Bolt for sale since late August.) Ford has sold around 18,000 Mach-E’s and VW has sold 12,000 ID.4s.

The competing brands that people market run the gamut of other mainstream brands like Toyota, especially for the Mach-E, luxury brands like BMW and Audi. Toyota was the most commonly traded brand although it still only accounts for around 10% at most.

Gaining new customers is good for any car manufacturer. But the ultimate goal is to keep those customers when they’re ready to move on to their next vehicle. For customers who have purchased an electric vehicle, that will likely mean another electric vehicle, said Tyson Jominy, vice president of data analytics at JD Power.

“They’re still pretty loyal to electric vehicles in general,” he said of owners of vehicles like the Chevrolet Bolt.

However, the “conquest sales” benefits of having brand new SUVs won’t last forever, JD Power’s Jominy said. Ultimately, new electric cars will just be new cars, and customers will adopt familiar shopping habits after, once again, choosing their favorite brands.

And just as an automaker reaps the benefits of customers who trade in their old EVs for new ones, it will mean a lower percentage of new customers. The Nissan Leaf is a perfect example, according to Edmunds.cpm. In 2012, 80% of Leaf buyers were new to Nissan, according to Edmunds.com. At that time, the Leaf was almost the only electric vehicle most Americans could buy, with Tesla just starting production of the Model S. Today the Leaf has a lot more competition, and only 50% of its buyers are new to the brand, according to Edmunds.com. This is largely because many Leaf customers are now trading in their old Leafs for new ones, said Ivan Drury, industry analyst at Edmunds.com. (Nissan has disputed the Edmunds.com figures, claiming that 50-60% of Leaf buyers have consistently come from outside the brand since the model launched.)

The first challenge, then, is that automakers need to have other EVs available for customers who are willing to upgrade to, say, something bigger or more luxurious. Car buyers, whether or not looking at EVs, tend to be fixated on the kind of thing they want and an automaker that doesn’t will be ignored, industry analyst Michelle Krebs said. at Autotrader.

“SUV buyers are going to buy SUVs, so is there another EV SUV coming to the end of their lease? ” she said.

GM has more electric models coming up, but in the near term doesn’t have any electric vehicles to sell at the moment. Bolts EV and EUV have been temporarily withdrawn from the market as GM works to replace batteries in Bolts already on the road following a previous battery fire recall.

“GM is committed to introducing over 30 new electric vehicles through 2025, leveraging our Ultium platform, so we hope Bolt customers will stay with us as we work on the repair process for the. recall and will also continue to find electric vehicles that meet their needs in the future, “GM spokesman Kelly Cusinato said in an email.

However, the first and most important task is to make sure that the customer is happy with the electric vehicle they have just purchased. Fortunately for GM, Chevrolet Bolt owners polled by CNN Business have consistently said they were happy with the vehicle itself, despite the sometimes overwhelming inconvenience of the recall.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E has also received rave reviews and looks likely to create happy customers, Drury said.

“You don’t buy a Ford GT [supercar], but you’re buying something that they’ve put a lot of money into to be successful, ”he said.

Beyond that, customers should have a positive experience at the dealership, he said, especially those who might have traded in a luxury car. They would have become accustomed to a level of service not often found at mainstream branded auto dealers.

“It can be shocking to an extent,” he said. “The hope is that the vehicle can make up for all the disappointments.”

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