Published on January 9th, 2024 | by Sounder Rajen

EV Owners Reportedly Less Satisfied Than ICE Vehicle Buyers, Why Is This?

Could the underlying problem be that an EV is just not sustainable or practical as ICE?

Apparently, buyers of electric vehicles (EVs) are more frequently disappointed by dealers than traditional customers, and it only gets worse for direct to consumer retailers as they leave far more 1 star (out of 5) and negative reviews than buyers of internal combustion engine (ICE) and traditional dealer cars.

This data was concluded according to a new study, and removing them from the equation only increases the ratio of negative reviews. One example is Widewail, which makes customer review and reputation management products, looking at more than 800,000 Google reviews of both dealerships and retail locations.

Moreover, it found that EV buyers have a lot more to complain about than their ICE counterparts. Across the entire industry, seven percent of reviews left for dealerships had a one-star rating. EV buyers and owners left twice as many (14 percent) one-star reviews.

To make matters worse, those dealing with a direct to consumer retailer, such as Tesla or Rivian, left a one-star review in 25 percent of cases. “Given Tesla’s strong brand, high virality, and top marks from trusted consumer media, it was surprising to see that their Google reviews revealed such a high percentage of unsatisfied customers.” said Matt Murray, CEO of Widewail.

While it’s clear that a higher proportion of EV buyers are frustrated by the people selling to them, it is also true that EV drivers leave fewer reviews in general. For example, Tesla’s retail and service centers average just 2.6 reviews per month, as compared to the industry average of 9.6 per month. That tends to lower average review rates, as it highlights customers who have had bad experiences.

On top of that, EVs also require less minor care (there are no oil changes, for example), but still require expensive repairs, meaning that customers are more likely to have had an expensive (and therefore frustrating) experience. I did say Toyota was right and EVs are not the future, guess it just took some time to be proven right.

What’s more, the digital-first experience of these locations may also be leading to lower ratings overall. Widewail found that more than half of all positive reviews mentioned a specific staff member, and good interactions with humans are predictive of good experiences.

Conversely, most negative reviews mentioned poor communication with the service department. They also mentioned unsatisfactory repairs, expensive or surprising prices, and long wait times. That means that retailers should focus more on a traditional human approach rather than a digital one.