An in-house survey of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle owners (PHEV) by Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand (MMNZ) has revealed that only three in 10 customers would have made the same purchase decision without the Clean Car Discount rebate.
MMNZ says the Clean Car Discount rebate is a key selling feature of its PHEV models. It also says that after owning a PHEV for more than six months, its customers are still strong advocates for the product.
The customer survey was sent to 1982 people and 648 (37%) responded. It was sent to owners of the new-generation Outlander PHEV, the older Outlander PHEV, and the Eclipse Cross PHEV.
Of the 648 respondents, 56% were Outlander PHEV owners and 44% were Eclipse Cross PEHV owners.
The survey found that 87% of the 648 respondents had not previously owned an EV, PHEV, or Hybrid vehicle previously.
It also found that 83% of the respondents were charging three or more times a week, 95% of them were doing it at home, and 79% were doing that overnight. Only 6% were using a third-party wall-mounted charger.
Only 36% of respondents had reviewed their power supplier following the purchase of their PHEV and only 17% had solar panels installed at their residential property.
MMNZ says that as expected its PHEV customers are either positive or apathetic towards the supplied charging cable, but if purchased separately 94% of respondents would expect to play less than $500 for one.
Most interestingly 85% of the respondents in the survey say they were infrequent users of public charging stations. And while infrequent users of fast-charging at public stations, 53% of the respondents said the fast-charging option on their vehicle was still an important feature to them.
“The data collected confirms a number of suspicions we had about PHEV owners, but also provides insights to some things we didn’t know – including how new some owners are to EV/PHEV technology,” Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand says.
“Our PHEVs are attracting average Kiwi families, not just the EV enthusiasts we saw when we first launched the technology,” it says.
