by Christian Riepe, SVP of Insights and Analytics
For years the State of California has led the way on emissions standards and driving demand for electrification and electric vehicles. Utilities, CCAs, and other energy companies have been developing programs, products, charging networks, and all sorts of other services to support the State in meeting its environmental goals. The US Senate recently approved a measure that would revoke the waiver for California to set its own standards and could spell the end for the types of programs energy companies have been putting in place.
At ReconMR, we have spent years supporting energy companies to research the best ways to design these programs, exploring the key motivations and barriers to EV adoption, tracking interest in EVs, and segmenting residential and commercial customers based on their behaviors and attitudes toward EVs.
For the utilities, CCAs, and other energy companies out there providing programs/services and considering ways to support the EV goal, continuing to conduct market research is a great way to address the uncertainty that may be surrounding these efforts. Here are some ways market research could help:
- Forecast the impact of the change on demand for EVs
- There are several ways to set this up, but a survey with a tradeoff exercise to isolate the impact of the “EV mandate” would give decision-makers a good estimate of how demand for EVs could change over the next few years
- Explore other motivation and barriers to consideration
- Focus groups with customers considering an EV can be used to explore motivations and barriers, as well as impact of incentive programs and what they would do if they knew they could buy a new ICE vehicle instead
- Optimize program design around key drivers
- Test out various program features and identify the key drivers for EV consideration. Can develop programs based on updated key drivers if buyers know they can also consider an ICE vehicle
- Update customer segments
- When there’s a potentially major change like this, it’s a good time to reevaluate the customer segmentation. If major motivations have changed, then companies need to look at how they are segmenting their customer base and update their marketing strategies for those new segments
For more information on ways to utilize market research to update or revise your approach to EV-related programs, contact ReconMR at info@reconmr.com
US Senate blocks California’s electric car mandate in historic vote
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