It’s not a great time to be an EV consumer, as the retail experience leaves a lot to be desired. According to a new study, buyers in the market for an EV are leaving a lot of one-star reviews at dealerships. However, removing them from the equation only increases the ratio of negative reviews.
Widewail, which makes customer review and reputation management products, looked at more than 800,000 Google reviews of both dealerships and retail locations, and found that EV buyers have a lot more to complain about than their internal combustion counterparts.
Across the entire industry, seven percent of reviews left for dealerships had a one-star rating. EV buyers and owners left twice as many (14 percent) one-star reviews. Meanwhile, those dealing with a direct to consumer retailer, such as Tesla or Rivian, left a one-star review in 25 percent of cases.
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“Given Tesla’s strong brand, high virality, and top marks from trusted consumer media, it was surprising to see that their Google reviews revealed such a high percentage of unsatisfied customers,” said Matt Murray, CEO of Widewail. “More surprising was that even EV buyers from traditional dealerships left substantially more negative reviews.”
While it’s clear that a higher proportion of EV buyers are being frustrated by the people who sell them, there are some mitigating factors for Tesla, Rivian, and their ilk. For starters, EV drivers leave fewer reviews.
For example, Tesla’s retail and service centers average just 2.6 reviews per month, as compared to the industry average of 9.6 per month. That tends to lower average review rates, as it highlights customers who have had bad experiences. EVs also require less minor care (there are no oil changes, for example), but still require expensive repairs, meaning that customers are likelier to have had an expensive (and therefore frustrating) experience.
The digital-first experience of these locations may also be leading to lower ratings overall. Widewail found that more than half of all positive reviews mentioned a specific staff member, and good interactions with humans are predictive of good experiences.
Conversely, most negative reviews mentioned poor communication with the service department. They also mentioned unsatisfactory repairs, expensive or surprising prices, and long wait times. That means that there’s still a lot of room for improvement in the EV retail experience.
