The Definition and Perception of Electric Vehicles in the Market

TapTechNews June 13 - The acronyms BEV, PHEV, HEV, NEV and FCEV all represent certain types of electric vehicles, but only BEV stands for pure electric vehicles. The other models all have some auxiliary power such as a gasoline engine and so on.

In addition, automakers like to attach labels such as 'hybrid' and 'electrified' to their non-pure electric vehicles, blurring the true definition of electric vehicles. A latest survey shows that this marketing strategy does work, and many consumers misidentify these'slightly electric' cars as pure electric vehicles.

A survey from NewAutomotive covering drivers' views on the electric vehicle transition in six countries around the world (the US, the UK, France, Japan, India and Indonesia) shows that the vast majority of respondents (more than 70%) understand 'electrified vehicles' as '100% battery-powered electric vehicles'.

The survey also reveals that many automakers only report the significantly increased total sales of 'electric vehicles' in their sales reports, while relegating the actual sales of pure electric vehicles to a footnote. This 'numbers game' also works. For example, in the US, respondents overestimated the pure electric vehicle sales of almost all automakers, and only the sales estimates of Renault (not sold in the US) and Mercedes are below the actual level.

It is noted that this survey also shows that consumers in the target market prefer to choose car brands that support electric vehicle policies and hope that manufacturers can actively promote the electric vehicle transition. In the UK (58%), France (51%), India (86%) and Indonesia (83%), the majority of drivers hope that their supported car brands can introduce policies to increase electric vehicle sales and phase out fuel vehicles gradually. In contrast, in the US this proportion is only 47%, and even 23% of US respondents hope that their car brand opposes such policies.

It is worth noting that Toyota, which procrastinates the pure electrification strategy and only sells one pure electric vehicle in the US, and its electric vehicle sales target of around 30% by 2030 is not favored by electric vehicle enthusiasts. However, the survey shows that drivers in all surveyed countries think Toyota should set a higher electric vehicle sales target. On average, US drivers think Toyota should reach a 38% pure electric vehicle sales ratio by 2030, while Japanese drivers think it should be 52%.