eReadiness 2021

The eReadiness 2021 Survey Report is the result of a study that provides up-to-date perspectives on the short-term development of the e-mobility business in 6 European markets: France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. It also focusses on customer needs and, based on its findings, provides OEM’s with recommended actions. Here, we have listed some of the main findings from the report.

Published

August 2021

Industry

Electric Vehicles

Topic

Competition

Author

Strategy&

The EV market (BEV + PHEV) in the abovementioned countries will reach 23% of total new car sales by 2024, with BEV’s accounting for most of those. In 2024, fleet (B2B) will remain the most attractive segment, with a projected share of approximately 55% of the total EV-market.

This means that, overall, EV interest is high, with 55% of surveyed consumers and 100% of fleet managers declaring an intention to buy an EV in the next 2 years.

EV demographics

The consumer demographic of EV owners is largely made up of high income, middle-aged men who live in cities. EV prospects, on the other hand, have an income that is 40% lower than that of EV owners. The 3 personas with the highest intention of buying an EV are Dreamers, Luxurious and Tech enthusiasts. They will represent 50% of the demand in the next couple of years.

Large companies within the fleet segment account for the highest EV penetration. Concurrently, mid-sized companies in the fleet sector register the highest EV growth rate.

Buying behaviour

While only 9% of EV sales take place online, 59% of consumers would buy their next vehicle on the web, citing convenience and price transparency as their main reasons for this.

60% of consumers bought EV and charging solutions in a bundle. At 70%, this percentage is a little higher for fleet, with up to 30% purchasing additional EV related services and/or products in the same period.

Supply: EV dealerships

EV dealers perceive B2B as the most attractive market when it comes to size and growth potential, with the focus lying on large corporates instead of small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to dealers, the share of EV’s will reach 20% in the next 2 years. The growth of urban population is the main reason for this, coinciding with a decreasing interest from rural areas.

When it comes to dealerships, they admit to having only a partial understanding of the key factors that drive consumers. They do acknowledge that driving experience and incentives are overrated.

The dealership is still the main B2C channel. 65% of them do admit they desire more training support from OEM’s. Like last year, they also question the impact of EV’s on their margins, specifically regarding aftersales.

While the market for used EV’s is still very much upcoming, it is an attention area of key interest for OEM’s when it comes to value proposition, stock rotation and financial impact.

The way forward

In order to keep up with the e-mobility race and to tap the full potential of the short-term EV market demand, OEM’s should define tailor-made selling propositions that can be articulated in five key actions of improvement:

Extended value proposition – Cater to the increasing demand of EV-related products and services, like energy contracts, charging solutions, smart home solutions, etc.
Omnichannel journey – Define a customer journey that complements traditional, physical sales with a seamless online customer experience.
Customer experience – Design and deploy an EV specific sales process to make the customer experience more compelling.
Customer support – Put more focus on customer support in the aftersales phase.
Pre-owned EV business – Invest in a used business proposition with dedicated CPO and upskilling programs.

Get ‘free of charge’ access to more than 300 valuable EV Market Insights via evmarketsreports.com, the world’s largest e-Mobility Reports and Outlooks database. Enjoy reading!