When we asked thousands of electric vehicle (EV) owners in Europe the top reasons why they got their cars, we got similar responses as in previous years. The largest portion of buyers in every country referenced the environmental benefits.
EV owners we surveyed almost equally prefer a sedan/hatchback (car) or SUV/crossover for their next EV. The two options switched spots back and forth depending on the audience.
Additionally, in each of these countries, respondents mostly preferred a vehicle in the D-segment.
The city of Joplin, Missouri has put together a package of incentives it says totals $1 billion to lure Tesla to build its Cybertruck factory there.
The car you see here doesn’t exist, but the universe it seems destined to inhabit is the one from the Mad Max movies — a wild, untamed sort of place that envisioned the extremes of the desperate measures individuals could take to ensure their mobility in the wake of the energy crisis of the 1970s.
Tesla really got us rethinking the whole idea of what a pickup truck is when the company shocked the world at the Cybertruck launch event. It’s a radical shift that’s totally different from the standard pickup truck look and performance expectations that people had been accustomed to. This shock slowly evolved into acceptance, and later absolute admiration. It appears the Cybertruck has since gone on to register over half a million reservations.
Online data suggest the Australian market for the Tesla Cybertruck could be worth up to $!.5 billion, based on current reservation data.
Perhaps the most fascinating new question in this year’s Electric Car Drivers: Demands, Desires & Dreams reports concerned the electric vehicles people considered but didn’t buy. We asked EV owners which other electric vehicle models they thought about buying before deciding on the one they purchased or leased. I was surprised to see how much people actually cross-shopped across classes while considering which electric vehicle to buy.
Traditional automakers should be terrified of Tesla — and they are — but not because of Tesla’s success or how quickly this company has taken over the entire EV market around the world.
Probably the most interesting question we asked in these surveys was one of the simplest: “What do you think your next EV model will be?” It is particularly interesting because it gives us a strong sense of where the market is headed, and combined with answers to some other questions (see the next chapter), it also tells us a bit about which features and specs matter the most to EV buyers.
In 2017, The Economist declared the internal combustion engine “roadkill” on a controversial cover, claiming, “it had a good run. But the end is in sight.” For the conservative publication, this was a bold statement. Fast forward to 2020 and now Britain’s financial pub points to Tesla as the carmaker to look out for as the industry transitions to electric.
