During the Salon period, Polestar and Globescan carried out a survey of 1,000 Belgians on the process of buying their new car. This reveals that 52% of respondents (and 59% of women in this sample) find it stressful, particularly because of negotiations with the seller. “Customers are afraid of not getting the maximum discount”, explains Lies Eeckman, Managing Director of Polestar Belgium. “ This is why we are campaigning for an open and inclusive purchasing process in complete transparency. Thus, our experts, who can be met in the Spaces or with whom it is possible to chat, are not commissioned.The sale is only made online“. Present on the Belgian market for approximately 2 years, the Polestar brand, owned by the Chinese group Geely and Volvo, intends to revolutionize the car sales process by offering an online concept assisted by 4 “Spaces” (urban showrooms ) and a pop-up whose sole purpose is to inform the prospect.
As part of this survey, mystery shoppers also visited the showrooms of other brands to act as potential buyers. According to Polestar, 33 of the 40 car dealerships visited did not spontaneously recommend an electric vehicle, and 24 of them did not support choosing an EV. Some would even have given counter-arguments to discourage the purchase of an electric vehicle. According to the young brand, this attitude is explained by the fact that the sellers have stocks to sell and that they have more commissions on these cars to “liquidate”.
Other factors
If this explanation relates to a fact which has always existed in motor vehicle distribution, it should however, to qualify somewhat. For Lies Eeckman, “Electric cars have sufficient autonomy in relation to the distance traveled daily by the average motorist. In terms of charging them, there are more and more fast charging stations such as those of the Ionity network, for example, and it is easy to install a wallbox at home. Apart from going on vacation, which poses a problem, there is no reason to hesitate. Driving a zero-emission vehicle is above all a state spirit that we have when we want to change things. It is then necessary to adopt new behaviors: our customers are pioneers open to technology within the framework of an improvement of society”. But Polestar does not seem to take into account the fact that the electric car does not necessarily adapt to certain uses and users today: to tow a trailer or a caravan, or for large families in particular.
Note: This article has been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here