3.15 Survey: nearly 40% consumers dissatisfied with their EVs

According to a questionnaire survey on satisfaction of electric cars, more than half consumers were satisfied with their EVs and are willing to buy an EV model with a price range between RMB 100,000 and RMB 300,000, indicating that measures to shape consumers' habit seemed to pay off. However, nearly 40% consumers were very dissatisfied with their EVs, meaning that EV products still need to be improved.

According to the statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), sales of NEVs reached 777,000 units in China during 2017, soaring 53.3% on an annual basis. In addition, pure electric vehicles enjoyed the most robust YoY sales growth of 82.1% to 468,000 units in 2017. The statistics shows that an increasing number of consumers prefer to buy EVs and more of them become users rather than EV-watchers.

The results of survey shows that 44.29% of the respondents have been EV-owner for over 1 year, 28.73% for two months to one year and 26.98 for less than two months. 53.46% of them showed their satisfaction in general. 8.73% of them responded that they are very satisfied with their EVs, while 37.82% of them were very dissatisfied with their EVs. The dissatisfaction mainly results from short range and vehicle instability.

As to the question on whether the EVs have meet their performance indexes advocated by their producers. 53.8% of consumers chose "basically meet", 6.46% chose "totally meet", while nearly 40% thought their EVs failed to meet the advocated performance indexes.

As to the question on how much the consumers would like to pay for an EV model, 48.93% consumers prefer to buy an EV model priced between RMB 100,000 and RMB 300,000. 45.48% consumers would like to buy EV models with price lower than RMB 100,000. Only 5.58% consumers are willing to spend more than RMB 300,000 to buy an EV model. These results indicate that more consumers prefer to buy mid-end EV products than those who prefer to buy entry-level EV model.

As to the question on whether the range has become shorter as the time goes by, 7.67% consumers chose "no decrease" while 38.67% consumers believed the decreasing is severe. 31.19% consumers thought that the decreasing is acceptable and 22.46% consumers stated that the range decreases in winter when the temperature is low and there is no decreasing in summer.

In addition, the stability of EV's electric drive system remains to be improved. 21.92% consumers complained that the electric drive system, including battery, electric motor, electronic control and air conditioner, always break down. 50.44% consumers said the breakdown only happened occasionally.