“The end is near” is typically not a phrase you’d like to hear within the walls of one of the most chilling pandemics seen within our life time. While the bug remains intact, with no end in sight, we are beginning to see the light at end of one of the worlds most tragically economic depressions. Just about every industry has rebounded from their bottom, including auto sales.
EV sales are still undeniably seen as a small niche market. When compared to overall vehicle sales, even Tesla’s record breaking numbers just don’t make a dent. With such limited present day options, its hard for electric cars to be taken seriously by the masses. When placed side by side with the abundance of gasoline options, it’s hard to convince anyone to make the switch. Yet, even with the hurdles brought by the new technology, EV sales continue to rapidly rise. Even through our global recovery period, EV sales seem to be scaling at a faster rate than others.
Global auto sales are set to make a drastic decline this year with some analysts saying a 22% crash is within reason. Companies like Ford have managed to exceed expectations by a large margin, yet the facts remain the same. Auto sales overall will take a drastic dip this year, some more than others.
In the UK, LeaseFetcher took note of some interesting numbers. In April, new car registrations fell 97.3% year over year to just 4,321. Electric cars however only fell by 9.7% and made up 31.8% of all new car registrations for the month.
Using search term volume we can get a rough estimate of market stabilization. The LeaseFetcher team has created an easy to use database of important EV related keywords to track.
An important finding is that search term demand for both the BMW i3 and Audi e-Tron have returned to their pre-Covid levels. Tesla is a bit controversial with their luxurious Model S and X returning to normal with the more affordable Model 3 still a bit behind.
Obviously search trends are a bit meaningless when compared to actual sales numbers, which we have yet to see, but it implies people are still curious about the new technology, in the midst of panic.
Interest in car dealerships has spiked over the last week as nearly 3 months of lockdown has led to significant pent up demand. Search volume for ‘’car dealers near me” has shown a moderate increase (12%) compared to this week last year and there is an even greater cause for optimism when we look at the increase in searches for “new cars for sale”, which have increased by 228%.
While search volume for ‘electric car’ hasn’t yet returned to its pre-COVID levels, there’s every indication that it will do soon. Specifically, the Tesla Model S and Model X have seen strong recoveries, matching and even exceeding interest this time last year. Audi e-Tron is up by 93% on last week (commencing 18th May), double the figures for the same week last year.
