As sales climb, overall customer satisfaction in China's NEV industry slips, according to JD Power.

Zeekr, Deepal, and Nio (NYSE: NIO) are the new energy vehicle (NEV) brands that offer the best customer experience in China, despite the overall experience offered by the industry has declined as sales have increased.

The overall China New Energy Vehicle Customer Experience Value Index (NEV-CXVI) score for 2023 is 770, down 26 points from 796 in 2022, according to a study released today by US market researcher JD Power.

The decline in overall industry satisfaction reflects the fact that as NEV sales climb and the user base continues to expand, automakers' operation of the user experience needs to be further improved, JD Power said.

Geely Holding Group's premium EV subsidiary Zeekr was the highest-ranking local brand with 792 points, while Changan Automobile's NEV brand Deepal ranked second with 791 points and Nio third with 789 points.

All three companies scored well above the average score of 768 for local Chinese brands.

Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) ranked fourth with 785 points, while Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) was fifth with 784 points.

Among international brands, Mercedes-Benz ranked first with a score of 794 and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) ranked second with a score of 788, both above the average score of 779.

BMW, with a score of 778, and FAW-Volkswagen, with 777, ranked third and fourth, respectively, below the average score of international brands.

Several brands including Porsche, Volvo, Cadillac, Audi and Lexus were not included due to the small sample size, JD Power noted.

This is the second year that JD Power has released the NEV-CXVI, which measures the full journey experience of NEV owners with ownership periods of 2-12 months, covering buying, using and servicing the vehicle, JD Power said.

Chinese brands scored 768 on the customer experience index, down 27 points from 795 in 2022, while international brands scored 779, down 23 points from 802 in 2022.

In the future, how to maintain a high standard of experience in sales, delivery, car use and after-sales will be a new challenge shared by both Chinese and international brands, JD Power said.

The study found that brands with higher customer experience scores are more likely to be recommended by users.

Brands with NEV-CXVI scores greater than 775 had an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 35, while brands with NEV-CXVI scores of 759 or less had an average NPS of 19, according to JD Power.

Brands using the direct model had a customer experience score of 787, significantly higher than the dealer model's score of 771 and the hybrid model's score of 761, according to the study.

Car owners with a purchase price of RMB 200,000 ($27,510) to RMB 300,000 are more willing to share and recommend, and the percentage of car owners who are willing to share their evaluation of products and services with others is 34.5 percent, according to the study.

This percentage is significantly higher than the 30.2 percent of car owners with a purchase price of RMB 100,000-200,000 and the 30.6 percent of car owners with a purchase price of RMB 300,000 or more.

($1 = RMB 7.2708)

Nio produces over 300 ES6s per day, with some workshops running double shifts, report says