Consumers Will Switch Brands for EVs

In order to get an electric vehicle that they want, buyers are switching brands, an Edmunds study found.

The online car-shopping resource surveyed shoppers, 85% of whom said they’re willing to buy an EV from a maker whose models they don’t or haven’t owned before.

The sentiment seemed to be reflected in Edmunds' first-quarter sales data, which show 63% of EV purchases that involved trade-ins were of different brands than the trade-ins’ brands.

Edmunds said that percentage is falling as legacy automakers scale EV production but that a significantly higher percentage of EV shoppers are willing to switch brands than across the industry as a whole. In the first quarter, 51% of all vehicle transactions with trade-ins involved those of the same brand as the new purchase.

"Traditionally, automakers count on consumer loyalty to carry their sales rates, but consumer interest in EVs combined with the limited number of options in the market is spurring shoppers to consider taking the wheel of brands they've never driven,” said Edmunds Executive Director of Insights Jessica Caldwell.

"EVs are throwing a monkey wrench into the loyalty patterns that automakers have grown accustomed to, and it will be fascinating to watch if the growing number of EV models from mainstream brands will shift consumers back fully toward their loyalty tendencies or if brand allegiances are a thing of the past.”

Edmunds’ survey also found that EV sales keep increasing despite their higher prices. Their May market share was about 7%, up from 5% a year earlier, despite their average transaction price of $65,381, well above the overall new-vehicle ATP of $47,892.

It pointed out that some brands aren’t capitalizing on consumers’ trust in them when it comes to EVs, just two of the five brands consumers trust the most to make quality EVs also among the top EV sellers: Tesla and Chevrolet—the rest of the trusted brands are BMW, Toyota and Audi.

LEARN MORE: JD Power Survey Finds Modest Growth in EV Interest