Chinese market research firm Landroads released a study on NEV brands in China through the second half of 2024, covering 67 vehicle brands and surveying over 7,800 new energy vehicle owners.

Landroad’s 6th study revealed Net Promoter Scores (NPS), which are a key indicator of customer satisfaction and loyalty towards a given brand.

NPS is calculated by asking current vehicle owners how likely they are to recommend a brand to a friend or family member that is considering the purchase of an NEV on a scale of 0 to 10.

Respondents are categorized into three groups: Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6). The NPS is then calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

For example, if 90% of respondents are Promoters and 15% are Detractors, the NPS would be 75.

Landroads’ study results are revealing: Huawei’s AITO brand in partnership with SERES ranked 1st with a score of 82.0.

Their outstanding score is possibly related with the excellent product experience of the AITO M7 and M9, strong sales performance, positive reputation, and high brand recognition.

NIO followed closely with an NPS of 80.1, while Tesla ranked third with an NPS of 76.3.

Both brands have consistently maintained high NPS scores across the six studies, implying brand maturity.

Source: Yiche user (小墨说车的)

Li Auto's NPS rebounded to 76.3, ranking 3rd overall, after a significant drop to 37.4 earlier this year due to pricing issues that negatively impacted the willingness of existing customers to recommend the brand.

The significant rebound in Li Auto's NPS can be attributed to several factors: stable pricing in the second half of the year, leading sales performance, becoming the first new energy vehicle company in China to reach one million cumulative deliveries, and regular OTA updates that include a breakthrough in ADAS with “Parking-to-Parking” capability.

Xiaomi's NPS was 75.5, placing it fifth, down from 81.7 in the previous study but still ranks 5th among 67 brands.

In the previous study, Landroads suggest that Xiaomi SU7's NPS was exceptionally high due to the "new car effect," where early adopters showed widespread satisfaction and support. The current decline is considered normal.

Xiaomi's strong NPS is driven by positive product experience, sales performance, and after-sales service.

BYD’s NPS remained stable in the 60-70 range, which is still above industry average but is not particularly high.

Source: ZEEKR

One of the most significant NPS deterioration was ZEEKR’s, dropping off from 60.0 to 27.2 this period.

Landroads believe that the decline is mainly due to improper PR handling during product update iterations leading to backlash from customers.

After initially denying the possibility of imminent upgrades, ZEEKR surprised existing owners and recent buyers with sizeable "increase in configuration and price reduction" type of update on the ZEEKR 001 and 007.

That left many car owners feeling betrayed, and the incident quickly escalated on social medias, exacerbating the anger of many car owners through the second half of 2024.