JD Power: 2024 China New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value Research

The study uses the Customer Experience Value Index (CXVI) to measure the full journey experience of new energy vehicle owners with a car ownership period of 2-12 months, covering five major journeys (online, in-store, transaction, car use, and service) in the three major links of buying a car, using a car, and servicing, thereby leading the industry to continuously meet the experience needs of new energy users with higher frequency and more scenarios. The study also released the New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value Index (1,000 points), and the score is based on the evaluation of various measurement indicators of the three experience stages of car buying, using a car, and servicing by different customer groups.

The study shows that in 2024, the overall score of China's new energy vehicle customer experience value is 772 points, up 2 points from 2023. In the consumer's full journey experience, the car purchase stage (773 points) and the service stage (785 points) increased by 9 points and 16 points respectively, and the experience score of the car use stage was 770 points, which was 5 points lower than the previous year, mainly due to the decline in satisfaction with "car consultation" and "energy replenishment service". From the perspective of brand camps, the consumer experience value score of independent new power brands is 783 points, and the score of traditional independent brands is 767 points, both of which have improved by 3 points from the previous year. Independent new brands (767 points) and international brands (776 points) have declined to varying degrees, down 10 points and 3 points respectively.

Xie Juan, general manager of JD Power China Digital Retail Consulting Division, said: "The key nodes of new energy services have changed significantly from those of traditional gasoline vehicles. Manufacturers need to pay attention to and do more service details, especially in terms of humanized and personalized services. While fully providing emotional value, they also need to focus on service efficiency, reduce unnecessary service investment, and make more wise choices."

Other findings from the study include:

• Communication before entering the store is crucial to satisfaction, and brands need to actively intervene: Compared with consumers who have interacted with brands or store staff before entering the store, consumers who have not interacted with the brand or store staff took an average of 3.6 days longer from online confirmation of the intended model to offline store entry. Effective interaction can significantly shorten consumers' store entry cycle. In terms of the object of consumer interaction, customers who have interacted with brand personnel have the highest satisfaction score of 800 points, while customers who have interacted with car purchase store staff have a satisfaction score of 781 points, and customers who have not interacted with anyone have a satisfaction score of 746 points, indicating that consumers prefer to interact with brand personnel.
• The experience of charging service has declined: In 2024, the overall satisfaction with charging service is 777 points, down 9 points from 2023. Among all kinds of charging methods, slow charging of the brand (777 points) and third-party public charging (753 points) are the two charging methods with the lowest satisfaction. The problem rate of brand public charging piles increased from 31.6% in 2023 to 44.6%. The most obvious increase in the problem rate is "too few charging piles in the charging station", "poor supporting facilities around the charging place" and "the actual situation is inconsistent with the online inquiry". It is worth noting that the problem rate of consumers using brand APP or car computer to find charging piles has also increased, and the complaints are concentrated on "inaccurate charging pile availability status", "incomplete charging pile resources" and "inaccurate charging pile location".
• Consumers are more picky, and after-sales service faces new challenges: New energy consumers pay attention to the thoroughness of the solution to maintenance problems. When maintenance problems are not solved in one go, satisfaction drops by 74 points. As for the cleanliness of the vehicle after the service, even if it is almost as clean as when it enters the store, consumer satisfaction is only 756 points. Only when the vehicle is cleaner than before entering the store, consumer satisfaction rises significantly to 803 points. In addition, during the after-sales service process, providing additional services, helpful suggestions and detailed explanations of the causes of the fault problems can impress consumers more.
• APP is particularly important in digital experience: the frequency of new energy consumers using APP in both the car purchase and service stages has increased. The proportion of consumers who use brand APP to make appointments for maintenance appointments has increased from 11.1% last year to 16.1%. At the same time, the more active the APP is, the higher the value contributed by consumers. The daily active users of APP spend 212 yuan more per person on after-sales than non-daily active users, and the overall acceptance rate of additional after-sales service items has increased by 20.2%. At different stages of car purchase, when consumers download the APP when they have the intention to buy the brand, their car purchase satisfaction is as high as 797 points, which is much higher than the customer satisfaction of downloading when they go to the store to experience the car, when paying a large deposit, on the day of delivery and after picking up the car. At the same time, the earlier the APP is downloaded, the higher the transaction share, the higher the APP activity rate, the higher the product recommendation and after-sales value, so brands need to guide consumers to download the APP as early as possible.

2024 China New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value Ranking

NIO won the championship in customer experience value of new energy vehicles in the Chinese brand segment with a score of 798. Ideal (791) and Xpeng (788) ranked second and third respectively.

Mercedes-Benz won the championship in customer experience value of new energy vehicles in the international brand market segment with a score of 789. Tesla (787) ranked second.

In the JD Power 2024 China New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value ResearchSM (NEV-CXVI), the experience nodes in the car purchase stage include: information collection (17%), store experience (16%), product explanation and experience (14%), user follow-up (19%), car purchase plan negotiation (16%), and car delivery process (17%); the experience nodes in the car use stage include: car consultation (33%), car owner rights (34%), and energy replenishment service (32%); the experience nodes in the service stage include: service initiation (29%), service process (37%), and service quality (34%). (*Note: The weights are presented in rounded form, and the actual calculation is based on decimal places)

The 2024 China New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value StudySM (NEV-CXVI) is based on real feedback from 8,733 new energy vehicle owners who purchased their vehicles between April 2023 and April 2024. The study covers 53 brands, and data collection was conducted in 81 major Chinese cities between April and June 2024.