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A global poll of new car buyers has assessed their perception of car makers’ ability to survive the shift to electrified powertrains.
The top car manufacturer overall was perceived to be Tesla, followed by the Chinese brands of NIO and BYD. Specifically for EV Leadership, the top brand was Tesla, followed by the Chinese brands of BYD and Lucid Motors.
The poll, conducted by behaviour experts SKIM Group, looked at how car buyers viewed a car manufacturer in four areas: Success (how successful a brand is perceived to be by 2030), Innovation, Sustainability and EV Leadership, with an overall combined Perception score.
Although Tesla tops the list overall, BYD and NIO were joint first in the Success Score league table, ahead of XPeng in third place – all three are Chinese brands.
Chinese brands were also perceived well in the area of sustainability, with the top four in this category being XPeng, NIO, Tesla and BYD.
EV-only brands perform strongly, particularly those from China or with Chinese-backing, thanks to their ability to offer competitive pricing and leading technology.
However, legacy OEMs from Europe are judged to be struggling the most. The bottom three brands overall that were perceived to be struggling to keep up with the pace of the Electric Vehicle revolution in the eyes of car buyers were Cadillac, Peugeot and Renault.
North American car makers are assessed as being split between the new Californian brands doing extremely well, like Rivian and Tesla, whilst historic Detroit names like Cadillac, Chevrolet and Ford perform poorly. One in five new car buyers surveyed thought that Cadillac may no longer exist by 2030.
The SKIM PERCEPTION SCORE league tables are detailed below. This research was conducted by SKIM in 2022 through an online survey with a sample of 2,373 respondents.
This score reflects a combined ranking of:
• Success Score: perceived as doing well or extremely well by 2030
• Innovation Score: perceived as innovators in the industry
• Sustainability Score: perceived as having strong sustainability credentials
• Leader Score: Perceived as being a leader in Electric Vehicles
1 Tesla 70%
2 NIO 62%
3 BYD 62%
4 X-Peng 59%
5 Rivian 55%
6 Lucid Motors 53%
7 Polestar 51%
8 Audi 46%
9 Toyota 45%
10 Faraday 45%
11 BMW 45%
12 Mercedes 43%
13 Fisker 42%
14 Volkswagen 38%
15 Volvo 37%
16 Byton 37%
17 Hyundai 36%
18 Ford 35%
19 Porsche 34%
20 KIA 33%
21 DS Automobiles 26%
22 Chevrolet 25%
23 Mini 23%
24 Cadillac 22%
25 Peugeot 22%
26 Renault 22%
Perceived as ‘doing well’ or ‘extremely well’ by 2030
1 BYD 69%
2 NIO 69%
3 XPeng 62%
4 Tesla 60%
5 Rivian 58%
6 Lucid Motors 55%
7 Polestar 52%
8 Faraday 49%
9 Fisker 47%
10 Toyota 44%
11 Byton 41%
12 Audi 40%
13 Hyundai 40%
14 Volkswagen 40%
15 Mercedes 38%
16 KIA 35%
17 BMW 35%
18 Ford 35%
19 Volvo 34%
20 DS Automobiles 27%
21 Porsche 26%
22 Chevrolet 26%
23 Peugeot 24%
24 Mini 24%
25 Renault 23%
26 Cadillac 23%
Perceived as being innovative
1 Tesla 79%
2 BYD 68%
3 NIO 66%
4 Mercedes 65%
5 Audi 65%
6 BMW 64%
7 Polestar 64%
8 Rivian 62%
9 Lucid Motors 58%
10 Toyota 58%
11 X-Peng 58%
12 Porsche 53%
13 Volvo 51%
14 Ford 48%
15 Hyundai 48%
16 Volkswagen 48%
17 Faraday 48%
18 Fisker 47%
19 KIA 46%
20 DS Automobiles 37%
21 Mini 37%
22 Byton 36%
23 Chevrolet 34%
24 Cadillac 31%
25 Renault 31%
26 Peugeot 31%
Perceived as having strong sustainability credentials
1 XPeng 65%
2 NIO 60%
3 Tesla 56%
4 BYD 54%
5 Rivian 49%
6 Lucid Motors 45%
7 Polestar 42%
8 Toyota 40%
9 Byton 38%
10 BMW 35%
11 Faraday 35%
12 Fisker 34%
13 Audi 34%
14 Volvo 32%
15 Hyundai 31%
16 KIA 29%
17 Volkswagen 29%
18 Mercedes 26%
19 Ford 26%
20 DS Automobiles 24%
21 Chevrolet 22%
22 Porsche 20%
23 Mini 18%
24 Peugeot 18%
25 Cadillac 17%
26 Renault 15%
Brands perceived as being a leader in Electric Vehicles
1 Tesla 86%
2 BYD 56%
3 Lucid Motors 55%
4 NIO 53%
5 X-Peng 51%
6 Rivian 51%
7 Faraday 49%
8 Polestar 48%
9 Audi 45%
10 BMW 44%
11 Mercedes 43%
12 Toyota 40%
13 Fisker 38%
14 Volkswagen 36%
15 Porsche 34%
16 Ford 32%
17 Volvo 32%
18 Byton 31%
19 Hyundai 27%
20 KIA 22%
21 Cadillac 18%
22 Chevrolet 18%
23 DS Automobiles 17%
24 Renault 17%
25 Peugeot 16%
26 Mini 15%
