Photo: Volkswagen
Ask Tesla investors about the company's advantages over legacy automakers, and many will say direct sales rule. They claim that people love the experience of buying a vehicle for fixed prices and receiving them at home. The 2022 EVForward Dealer DeepDive survey begs to differ. According to it, 74% of EV buyers prefer to purchase their cars from dealerships instead of automakers.
This survey interviewed 1,289 people in the U.S., of which 88 were already EV owners. The rest of these folks were divided into four other groups: EV intenders (those who want to buy an electric car), EV opens (those who do discard them), and EV resistants (which is self-explanatory).
Automotive News did not disclose how many people composed each of these groups, but we asked Escalent for a study copy to verify that. The media outlet states that 74% of respondents prefer to buy an electric car at dealerships. However, EV resistants would not acquire an EV, and they also participated in the survey. Were they also among those who answered this question? We’ll try to clarify that.
According to Automotive News, EV owners, EV intenders, and younger buyers were more inclined to buy their cars directly from the manufacturer. The survey did not measure if that was the case because Tesla only sells its vehicles that way or if they would still think like that if the company had dealerships. The interesting bit is that a majority of all five groups still preferred to buy their vehicles from dealers.
The EVForward Dealer DeepDive started in 2021 by interviewing 1,003 people. They are part of the EVForward database, developed by Escalent with 20,000 new-vehicle buyers aged 18 to 80. Last year, 57% of the respondents preferred the “traditional approach to car buying,” which we believe refers to dealerships. If that is correct, more people prefer to go to dealers this year than in 2021. Only 20% of the people interviewed would instead purchase a car directly from the EV maker.
Automotive News did not disclose how many people composed each of these groups, but we asked Escalent for a study copy to verify that. The media outlet states that 74% of respondents prefer to buy an electric car at dealerships. However, EV resistants would not acquire an EV, and they also participated in the survey. Were they also among those who answered this question? We’ll try to clarify that.
According to Automotive News, EV owners, EV intenders, and younger buyers were more inclined to buy their cars directly from the manufacturer. The survey did not measure if that was the case because Tesla only sells its vehicles that way or if they would still think like that if the company had dealerships. The interesting bit is that a majority of all five groups still preferred to buy their vehicles from dealers.
The EVForward Dealer DeepDive started in 2021 by interviewing 1,003 people. They are part of the EVForward database, developed by Escalent with 20,000 new-vehicle buyers aged 18 to 80. Last year, 57% of the respondents preferred the “traditional approach to car buying,” which we believe refers to dealerships. If that is correct, more people prefer to go to dealers this year than in 2021. Only 20% of the people interviewed would instead purchase a car directly from the EV maker.
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