Shocking: Men Love Sexy Electric Vehicles; If Only There Were More
From Forbes.com: Men love high-performance cars with sexy styling, according to San Diego-based research firm Strategic Vision – not exactly news, but it helps explain why men love Tesla electric vehicles.
It’s also good news for other luxury brands, which are rolling out their own versions of electric vehicles, like the BMW i3, which goes on sale in April 2014.
“Love” is scarcely too strong a word. Strategic Vision was founded around clinical psychologists who study how and why consumers make buying decisions, and the factors that drive owner satisfaction and loyalty. Strategic Vision’s best-known research explores “reasons for purchase” for various brands.
What’s new and different about the recent Strategic Vision research findings is that electric vehicles as a category are more or less synonymous with the Toyota Prius.
With all due respect to Toyota, the Prius is particularly unsexy and utilitarian.
To be fair, it’s relatively affordable with a starting price of $25,010.
In contract, the Tesla Roadster looks like what it is, an expensive, two-seat sports car manufactured for Tesla by British sports car maker Lotus.
Close to 100 percent of other EV or gasoline-electric hybrid owners focus on “fuel economy” as their top priority, Strategic Vision said. That’s true for theChevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf and the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, the firm said.
On the other hand, 90 percent of Tesla owners rate “performance” as their top priority, especially “handling and cornering.”
That suggests there’s a wealthier, more male, more luxury-performance oriented audience for electric vehicles that niche automaker Tesla can’t satisfy by itself.
The Tesla Roadster is still the model most closely associated with the brand. With a sticker price starting at $109,000, the Roadster was Tesla’s only model when the brand was first launched in 2008. The Roadster was phased out in 2012.
Today Tesla offers the four-door Tesla Model S sedan, with a sticker price starting at $71,070 before a $7,500 federal tax credit.
According to Strategic Vision, the Tesla brand has 29 percent fewer female buyers than the luxury-brand average, which is already way below 50 percent female.
Not surprisingly for a car whose main model cost more than $100,000, Tesla owners also have double the average household income of other EV owners, at $293,200 for the Tesla owners.
“The profile of the EV buyer will continue to evolve as manufacturers strive to meet consumer demands and government regulations,” said Alexander Edwards, Strategic Vision president.
