E.VIAN
Discovering new opportunities to stimulate customers’ affinity for EVs in the European market.
Client
Project Period
2022
Deliverables
Design Thinking Workshop
Idea list
Consulting Report
Objectives.
The project aimed to identify and commercialize unique sales point of EV from the perspective of European customers in order to successfully enter the European EV market and secure a stable competitive advantage.
Approaches.
In order to find the differentiating clues of next EV, we conducted a variety of ethnography-based research targeting ICE and EV users in three European countries (Germany, France, and the Netherlands) to holistically observe car-related contexts for customer insights and applied the HCIA(Human-Centered Innovation Approach) to define the direction of EV differentiated value proposition from the customer perspective. With the customer insights and latent needs, we gathered customers in the target countries and conducted a creative workshop to make seed ideas.
Findings.
“When Europeans think of electricity, they think of the benefits of electronics beyond the power source, and when it comes to purchasing electric vehicles, they are not just looking for a change in powertrain, but also for the
additional benefits (convenience, versatility) that electricity-powered electronics have been providing.”
The EV purchase process of European customers by life stage shows that while all generations are generally aware of and interested in EVs, the actual purchase decision seems to be primarily driven by
purchasing power and the magnitude of psychological switching costs, and requires clear targeting of each generation's EV conversion barrier characteristics
with solutions.
Europeans' perceptions of EVs vary depending on their experience of owning and using an EV: current combustion engine drivers
express anxiety about switching to EVs (price, lack of average range), while EV drivers are satisfied with the benefits they have discovered since switching (quietness, updates, total cost of ownership, etc.)
(lack of charging infrastructure is less of a concern than previously feared)
European internal combustion engine users have vague fears about switching to EVs that stem from a lack of tangible information (e.g., high purchase cost, relatively short range, difficulty in operation, etc.
European customers use the interior space of the car as a space for convenient movement (Driving), a communal space for intimacy with passengers (Social), and a private space for connecting with the outside world and conducting personal tasks (Private), and they expect
the use of the space to be optimized according to the purpose. (There is a need for variable use of the space.)
