Electric Cars’ Benefit to Manufacturers Is More Than Just Sales

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In case you are wondering why many automakers are rushing to roll out electric vehicles despite overall weak sales for models already introduced or on the road, this can have something related to it: In line with this story by Jerry Hirsch within the New york Times, EVs behave as halo cars for a certain set of tech-savvy consumers, and the draw of the EV that can bring those curious shoppers in to the dealerships is translating into sales for other models.

“Shoppers are available in to check out the electric vehicles,” Hirsch writes, “but then drive off with something more important if they find they can not afford the premium for your new technology.”

Not only that, though the interest rates are also helping automakers for example Nissan, making the Leaf EV, and Chevrolet, which produces the Volt, pull customers from competing manufacturers. Reported by Hirsch:

the Volt is a lot more likely to attract the attention of a shopper who previously didn’t consider Chevrolet. About 78% of Volt buyers — based on data from the first half of this year — didn’t own a Chevrolet at the time of the purchase, said Barbara Keys, a [R.L. Polk & Co.] consultant.

That’s almost twice the speed where other Chevy models lure buyers of other brands, plus the same is true for Nissan. In accordance with Polk data, about 90 percent of Leaf buyers are a new comer to Nissan, which translates to a conquest rate of 52 percent — far beyond the common for Nissan vehicles.

Hardest hit through the respective conquest rates? Toyota, which originally began today’s interest on alternative-powertrain vehicles featuring a Prius hybrid model. In line with Nissan, 18 percent of Leaf buyers trade in a Prius over the purchasing process, and 38 percent trade inside of a Prius or some other Toyota vehicle. General motors says, too, how the Prius is definitely the vehicle quite often traded in throughout the purchase of a Volt, making up 7 percent of all sales.

This great article also shows that the Volt, despite modest sales, helps Chevrolet boost consumer desire for California, traditionally amongst its worst sales markets. California sales be the reason for 37 percent of all Volt purchases, while Nissan sells a stunning 60 percent of its Leaf vehicles inside Golden State. (It ought to be noted that these particular figures certainly reflect that California was among the first list of states to take delivery of both Volt as well as the Leaf in their respective rollouts.)