EV Apps Figure Largely in Buying, Ownership Satisfaction
Survey shows brands and their dealers have opportunity to leverage the value consumers place on the feature.

The percentage of EV owners who use a brand’s mobile app rose two percentage points year-over-year to 90%.
Pexels/Tim Samuel
A survey of electric-vehicle owners points to the value consumers place on automakers’ EV mobile applications and how brands and dealers can do a better job of seizing that opportunity.
It found that just over a third of non-Tesla EV owners said an app had at least a moderate effect on their decision to buy, compared to almost two-thirds of Tesla owners. The disparity was similar when it came to the apps having an outsize effect on shopping decisions.
“This suggests that OEMs must do a better job of communicating the availability and feature content of their smartphone apps to help attract interested EV shoppers,” J.D. Power said in a summary of its findings.
The percentage of EV owners who use a brand’s mobile app rose two percentage points year-over-year to 90%, according to the survey, and 67% use them at least half the time they spend driving.
Brands are doing a good job of providing app features consumers want and use, according to the survey. Those include battery charge level monitoring, and more than 70% of EV owners say they want 20 of the most commonly provided 25 features.
Meanwhile, dealerships are doing a better job of educating buyers about the apps, the survey found. Nearly three-fourths of owners, up two percentage points year-over-year, indicated their dealership helped them with their apps.
App connections problems were flat year-over-year, though reported problems with Tesla’s app rose, which J.D. Power said may indicate greater usage could be straining capacity.
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