eMSP Loyalty Benchmarking Study 2023

Segmentation criteria:

• Vehicle (make, first registration, private vs. company car, employer contribution to charging costs)
• Vehicle technology (AC/DC charging power, range)
• Driving habits (mileage per year and per weekday, frequency of long-distance trips)
• Charging behavior (charging locations, charging frequencies, charging preferences)
• Demographics (age, gender, income)

Use of charging services:

• Actively used (eMSP) charging services
• Preferred charging services (derived from this: Market shares of the most important providers or provider groups national energy suppliers, municipal utilities, CPOs, roaming providers, OEMs, communities, retailers, employers).
• History: Development of market shares of provider groups since 2020
• Criteria for preferred use
• Criteria for the use of non-preferred providers, i.e. reasons for using others than the preferred eMSP
• Churn during the last 12 months, reasons for churn

CPO relevance:

• General preference of CPOs
• Attractiveness of the most important CPOs
• Criteria for deciding which CPO to chose if possible

Feature use of charging apps:

• Most important functions in a charging app
• Interest in seeing the CPO of a charge point in a charging app or vehicle sat nav system

Payment and payment / authorisation methods:

• Currently used vs. desired payment methods
• Preferences for ad hoc payment options (Girocard/CC + PIN, Girocard/CC contactless, smartphone “wallet,” QR code, via cell phone bill)
• Differences between AC and DC charging
• Satisfaction with payment (authorization and payment with P&C, RFID/card, charging app, ad-hoc, prices, price transparency, billing).
• Comparative evaluation of the 5 main payment methods (Plug&Charge, RFID/card, charging app, Girocard/CC, smartphone wallet):
  • Advantages + most important advantage per payment method
  • Disadvantages + most important disadvantage per payment method

Public charging tariffs:

• “Switching personality” (constantly / occasionally / never check or compare rates).
• Tariff model used (with/without basic fee, flat rate…)
• Variable tariffs: general interest (for deep dive see UScale Smart Charging Study)
• Parking / blocking fees: general opinion

Tariff model charging at home:

• Billing type
• Use of own car tariff, reasons for non-use
• Change of provider or tariff in the context of e-car acquisition

Media used:

• Used sources of information on charging tariff offers
• Used print car media
• Used online car media
• eMobility forums used
• Communities: use of the &Charge bonus program
• General attitude towards the community idea and feedback

Only owners and drivers of fully battery-electric e-cars were surveyed for the study. The average holding period of the respondents was 2 years. All respondents regularly charge in public spaces.

The study is mainly aimed at business developers, product managers and marketing experts at charge point operators (CPOs), providers of eMSP services and car manufacturers or importers with their own eMSP offering.

The study shows eMSP provider groups and large individual providers how their market share has developed. For each provider group, the study shows the most important reasons for use and when or why customers switch to another provider. This provides product managers with a qualified basis for developing or revising their own offers and tariff structures.

Many exciting findings only become apparent when the results are evaluated separately according to important customer groups. This allows providers to target their offers to different user segments in a differentiated way. Thanks to the high sample size, subscribers to the study can split the results in the interactive dashboard as they wish and analyse them in detail.

Since 2018, UScale has been systematically surveying e-car drivers about their expectations and experiences at all touchpoints of the e-mobile customer journey. An overview with all UScale focus studies can be found HERE.

If you have any questions, please contact us at contact@uscale.digital.