By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla emerged as the big winner at the S&P Global Mobility's 27th annual Automotive Loyalty Awards, securing seven awards. The electric car maker's most significant win was in the 'Overall Loyalty to Make' category, dethroning Ford for the first time in 12 years.
Customer retention is crucial for automakers since retaining customers is more cost-efficient than attracting new ones, and stealing customers from other automakers is viewed as a significant win. Tesla's recognition is a testament to its commitment to delivering exceptional products and experiences that keep customers returning year after year. It looks like Tesla's unique marketing plan is working.
Tesla Adds to the Trophy Case
The awards analyzed 11.7 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. during 2022 and recognized Tesla for exceptional performance in various categories. For example, Tesla won:
- Overall Loyalty to Make
- Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make
- Most Improved Make Loyalty
- Highest Conquest Percentage
- Alternative Powertrain Loyalty to Make
Additionally, the electric car maker won two-segment model loyalty awards, with the Model Y winning the Luxury Small Utility award and the Model 3 taking home the Luxury Small Car award.
What the Wins Mean to Tesla
Tesla's win in the 'Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make' category was notable, with the brand's resonance with ethnic consumers being a key driver in its recognition of loyalty improvement and diversity retention. Ethnic consumers represented 40% of all personal vehicle registrations for 2022, and Tesla won the 'Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make' award as 52% of its loyal volume came from ethnic consumers.
S&P Global Mobility determines loyalty when a household that owns a new vehicle then acquires another vehicle of the same make, model, or manufacturer. Tesla's repeat wins in the 'Highest Conquest Percentage' and 'Alternative Powertrain Loyalty to Make' categories were attributed by S&P Global Mobility to "an active return-to-market consumer base and a majority share of BEV sales," contributing to Tesla's loyalty performance this year.
Legacy Auto Losing the Fight
Ford often boasts of its customer loyalty, but it was not enough to beat Tesla's make loyalty rate of 67.2% for 2022. However, Ford did hold on to the light-duty pickup segment. Meanwhile, General Motors retained its "Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer" title for the eighth consecutive year and 19th win in the last 27 years. S&P Global Mobility credits GM's substantial loyalty gains to the rising inventory levels that met the demand for its SUVs and pickups.
The industry-wide customer loyalty rate fell for the third year due to ongoing supply chain, manufacturing, and delivery disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues. For the 2022 awards, S&P Global Mobility did not supply raw data for the outcomes.
By Kevin Armstrong
The Tesla community comes through again. As soon as invited guests started showing up at the company’s annual Investor Day, new images of the latest Cybertruck prototype started hitting social media. For the last couple of weeks, the highly anticipated vehicle has been spotted in the wild, and we’ve dissected every frame of images posted online. But now we have close-up, clear pictures that reveal far more than previously known.
Front-to-Back Tour
Front Bumper Camera
Let’s start from the front and work our way back. We begin with the front bumper, which has a camera in the center. This is a big find. We know Hardware 4 is starting to show up in some vehicles, and it allows for up to 12 cameras. The new camera location may have something to do with the removal of the ultrasonic sensors. However, it's hard to say how useful this camera location will be as the front bumper takes the brunt of bugs, snow, slush, and rain.
Frunk Opening
The front end offers a bit of a mystery for the frunk. Some speculation is that it’s not just the hood, but part of the bumper would come up with the frunk. But really, you have to wonder why anyone would need a frunk with all of this space.
Giant Air Suspension Cylinders
Moving back, we find gigantic air suspension cylinders. We’ve reported on videos showing Cybertruck both high and low. These cans suggest that it has the ability to go over almost any obstacle.
Windshield Wiper
Further back, the next one is hard to miss. The biggest windshield wiper ever produced (slight exaggeration) still exists. Perhaps Tesla has not found a suitable solution to a problem identified by Elon Musk. He has tweeted that the wiper troubles him the most and “No easy solution. Deployable wiper that stows in front trunk would be ideal, but complex.”
New Cybertruck Steering Wheel
Let’s move inside the cockpit. The first thing many investors noticed was the new steering wheel design. It’s not a yoke, it’s not a circle but a circular yoke"a sort of rectangular-shaped wheel complete with the usual scroll buttons. Like the Model 3 and Model Y, one screen is in the middle of the dashboard. But this screen looks bigger than the ones found in the other models. Could it be the 17" screen that's on the Model S and Model X? The dashboard appears to be some sort of fabric, possibly Alcantara, instead of the marble look that appeared in previous prototypes.
Rear Screen and Rear Seats
Jump into the backseat, and we find another screen, which appears to be the same size and location as the one in the Model X and Model S. The rear seats fold up but don’t fold down, confirming what was speculated a few months ago. Leaked images of the mega cast revealed the rumored midgate did not make it to production. The thought was the midgate, combined with folding rear seats, would make for an excellent camping experience or allow long items to be transported.
Roof Rack Rails
But it will not be difficult to transport whatever you need with Cybertruck. It looks like there are roof rack slots and an impressive box that seems incredibly rigid. On the side edge of the box, it looks like a switch to adjust the truck's rear suspension up or down. This would be handy to line up a trailer.
The sign near the Cybertruck noted that this is the Beta version of Cybertruck. Production is scheduled to start in the summer, with a full ramp-up starting next year.
By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla's Investor Day peaked at around 145 thousand viewers on YouTube as the company's vehicle designer and engineering leaders gave their presentation. Viewers were hoping for a new product announcement. However, the view count quickly dropped, and the nasty comments increased as the leaders wrapped up their portion of the show.
After a presentation on reducing costs and finding efficiencies, chief designer Franz von Holzhausen said, "I think our track record proves that we can deliver the best cars, and we deliver the best cars despite, because of, these constraints. I'd love to show you what I mean and unveil the next-gen car. But you are going to have to trust me on that until a later date."
Then, perhaps sensing the disappointment as the air left the room, he added, "I promise we will always be delivering exciting, compelling, and desirable vehicles as we always have."
Not One, But Multiple New Teslas
While we have to wait for the next platform launch, we did get some more details. Lars Moravy, the Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, said, "The next-generation platform is not one vehicle; it is multiple, and it's in a segment that we really try to focus on affordability and desirability."
He added, "Our next-generation platform is more than one segment, and really we are thinking of all the segments that are available that we haven't captured and where the market would be."
So while we have been trying to determine if the next vehicle will be an affordable car or a "highly configurable" van, both guesses are correct. Tesla has major plans for the affordable car, often called the Model 2. A slide detailing what Tesla's global fleet would look like to achieve a sustainably powered earth, the covered-up 'Model 2', accounts for nearly all of the other cars models combined. The Master Plan suggests there are 700 million cars in the Model 2's category and 740 million of the rest.
Franz Talking About the Next-Gen Platform
Watch Franz von Holzhausen talk about Tesla's next-gen platform. The video below starts at the beginning of the segment:
Easier Said Than Done
It's not so easy to create a vehicle that will change the world. Musk stated, "The issue is how do we build the cars. The hard part is how do we build the cars. I can't emphasize that enough. The hard part is building the cars and the entire supply chain that goes with the cars. This is a logistics challenge of extraordinary difficulty."
It's not just building the physical car but also where to make it, according to Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla's CFO. "As we have been thinking about our next-generation platform, we have been thinking about the volume that we aspire to build against that, how many individual factories do we need to build, and what is the fastest possible way to expand that footprint around the world."
Infinite Demand
So, while investors may go away disappointed in the short term, long-term, there is plenty of positives. Musk was asked about the risk of the new affordable car taking away the demand for other Teslas. His answer was very pointed, "demand for our existing vehicles in terms of the desire to own them might as well be infinite. It's indistinguishable from infinite at this point. Affordability is what matters, as you get the car more affordable, demand will go crazy - basically."
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Tesla Wins Big at Annual Awards; Dethrones Ford for 'Overall Loyalty' and Wins 'Most Improved' - Not a Tesla App
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