State of the Nation - Industry Report - 2021

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Exploring the electric dream

Introduction

JudgeService are customer satisfaction experts who have dedicated the last 10 years to helping primarily the automotive industry in delivering the best quality of customer service possible.

Not only do we provide retailers with verified reviews, testimonials, and star ratings, but we also provide granular quantitative insight.

We send out thousands of surveys to car-buyers every single day, each survey is expertly created and rigorously tested by our in-house team.

Our clients use this data from the surveys to effectively improve their customer satisfaction scores and increase their speed of stock turn.

Executive Summary

Across the customer responses from our client base, we can see a clear trend towards the intention to choose an electric vehicle in the future.

12% of respondents expect their next vehicle to be electric, up from 8% last year. However, the majority of motorists still expect their next car to be petrol, with automatics becoming increasingly popular.

Electric intentions are hugely affected by people’s ability to have access to appropriate infrastructure and charge their cars at home.

The move to hybrid is up from 16% in 2020 to 20% now. Together hybrid and electric account for 32% of future purchases, an increase from 24%. This is almost entirely at the expense of the intention to buy diesel.

In 2020, due to the pandemic, we saw a significant decline in the frequency of car usage. As we would expect, this has now returned to a more normal figure.

Despite an expected “black hole” in vehicle servicing, the data highlights a robust future where people are looking to service their vehicles sooner rather than later.

For the first time we have explored emotional attitudes towards driving and the association of feeling successful – both are linked more closely than you might think.

When exploring the future of the combustion engine and the nation’s electric dreams, key take outs from our report show that the near future is still tainted with the worry of the coronavirus.

However, the more distant future looks bright with the prospect of a steady shift towards battery powered electric vehicles, people’s reluctance to return to using public transport and a renewed desire for long-distance travel.

After low sales in 2020 we expect to see a continuation of the buoyant used car market and, semiconductors permitting, a return to normal new car volumes in the second half of the year.

An area for future investigation is the potential of the hydrogen-fueled vehicles, yet to hit the headlines in the UK but increasingly invested in across Japan and South Korea.

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