The knowledge of who your current and prospective EV drivers are will be a strategic piece of insight for dealers.
One business mantra you’ve most likely heard before is this: Know your customer. Most businesses think they “know” their customers…but do they really? For instance, how well do you know the average electric-car buyer?
There is rarely just a single customer archetype for a given business, and auto dealerships by nature are well known for having many different customer profiles and approaches.
Automakers have been catering to different customer needs and wants for many years, in part by developing different vehicle segments (sedans, minivans, hatchbacks, SUVs, pick-ups, CUVs, and so on). These vehicles typically shared one thing in common: an internal combustion engine.
In recent years this uniformity of powertrain has started to fade as electric vehicles have become available in a growing number of segments. To make the most of their sales and marketing resources, dealerships must now customize their messaging based not only on vehicle segment, but also on fuel type.
There is rarely just a single customer archetype for a given business, and auto dealerships by nature are well known for having many different customer profiles and approaches.
With sales of EVs rising every year, I thought it would be useful for readers to learn more about who today’s EV drivers are — via a unique view into the ChargeHub database — and who tomorrow’s EV buyers may well be.
ChargeHub app users are almost exclusively electric-car and plug-in hybrid drivers. Without any further ado, here’s what our data says about them:
As seen in the chart below, ChargeHub’s data shows that 79 per cent of users in the last 12 months were men.
Figure 1: Gender distribution, last 12 months
While this is far from an even distribution, two years ago the imbalance was far greater. (data below) In just 24 months the number of female users has grown by five percentage points — meaning a 30 per cent growth in women EV drivers.
Figure 2: Gender distribution, two years ago.
For now, men remain the predominant target group for dealerships trying to reach prospective EV buyers. However, if the trend continues, women will make up a growing share of EV drivers in the years to come. Gender is just one attribute, with age being another one.
In the last 12 months, the most common age group of Canadian users was the 35 to 44-year old segment — representing 29 per cent of users. The full breakdown can be seen below:
More insight can be gained by looking at the evolution of this graph over time. Below is the distribution by age from two years ago.
It’s interesting to see that the 45 to 54 age group was the dominant group two years ago, while today, the 35 to 44 age group is the dominant one.
If you look at the age groups in pairs — with the 25 to 44 making up the younger generation and the 45 to 64 the older generation — both the younger and the older generation shared the same percentage of users back then (45 per cent).
This younger generation (25-44 range) is a rapidly growing share of users. It was smaller than the 45 to 64 range three years ago; it was equal two years ago. Now, it has clearly surpassed the older group. In fact, 18 per cent more users are now in the 25 to 44 range than in the 45 to 64 range.
So, what is the data saying?
A few years ago, the archetype of the EV driving demographic in Canada was a man in the 45 to 54 age range. However, we’re now seeing new EV drivers who are primarily in the 35 to 44 range, and the younger 25 to 34 range making up a growing share of new EV drivers. At the current rate, the youngest group could soon overtake the middle-aged group among new EV drivers in Canada.
Hence, if trying to reach today’s EV drivers, targeting men 35 and above will likely provide the most reach. However, if you want to target new and future EV buyers, dealerships would be well advised to target a younger audience.
Tailoring your message to your target audience is key to efficient sales and marketing outreach. Knowing who current and prospective EV drivers are will become a strategic piece of insight for dealerships, as electric cars in a growing number of segments take a rising share of vehicle sales in Canada in the years to come.
