Size of the target segment for luxury BEVs and the user persona. Comparing Japan-made and non-Japanese car manufacturers

BEV is an abbreviation for “Battery Electric Vehicle" and refers to a battery-powered electric vehicle that is charged using electricity. The term EV (Electric Vehicle) is used interchangeably, but in a broader sense, EV means a vehicle that moves by converting electricity into power.

・BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)
A battery-powered electric car that charges using electricity, runs on a motor.
・HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)
An electric car that runs on a hybrid of electricity and fossil fuels, runs on an engine and a motor, and cannot be charged with an external power source.
・PHEV (Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle)
An electric car that runs on a hybrid of electricity and fossil fuels, runs on an engine and a motor, and can be charged using an external power source.
・FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle)
Electric car powered by fuel cell (hydrogen), powered by motor

To avoid confusion, other than “BEV,” they "E (Electric)" is generally omitted, like in “PHV,” and BEV is also abbreviated as "EV."

We will compare and investigate the SUV “Lexus RZ,” “Mercedes-Benz EQS,” and “Jaguar I-PACE” among the BEVs from luxury car manufacturers.

The research was conducted using VALUES's online behavioral analytics tool “Dockpit,” which uses online behavioral data that is updated monthly to research competitors’ websites and investigate trends.

First, below are the basic indicators for each official website.

Perhaps because it is a Japanese manufacturer, Lexus RZ's official website had the highest number of visitors. Additionally, the average time spent on the website is high and the bounce rate is low, indicating that visitors are taking their time to view the page.

Jaguar I-PACE has the highest number of sessions per person at 3.1 and page views at 4.3 page views, which is the highest among the three companies. This may be due to the fact that Jaguar I-PACE's sales channel is online.

Additionally, Mercedes-Benz EQS has a CTA (Call To Action) button in the first page that prompts you to move to request a quote or estimate or the online showroom, which may have an impact on metrics such as average time spent on the website.

Next, we will investigate what kind of people are visiting each company's website.

The gender of visitors was similar for all three companies.

More than 80% of website visitors to all manufacturers are men. This may have something to do with the fact that the subject of this comparison is an SUV, which emphasizes driving and performance.

In contrast to gender, there was a slight difference in age.

Lexus RZ and Jaguar I-PACE have many visitors in their 50s and 60s, while Mercedes has many visitors in their 40s and 50s, with a certain number of visitors in their 30s as well, with the number of younger people increasing.

For example, a test drive video by TV personality Nicole Fujita has been posted on the official YouTube channel, and they are executing marketing strategies that target the younger generation, and the effects of this may be seen.

The difference between companies was in the annual household income of the visitors.

For Lexus RZ, the percentage of website visitors is roughly the same regardless of annual household income, but for Mercedes EQS, the higher the annual household income, the higher the percentage of website visitors. On the other hand, Jaguar I-PACE has the highest number of visitors for cars worth less than 4 million yen, and although the percentage of visitors decreases at about 9 million yen, interest is increasing again for cars worth 10 to 15 million yen or more.

[Price range for each company]
Lexus RZ
Starting from 8.2 million yen
Mercedes EQS
Starting from 15.78 million yen
Jaguar I-PACE
Starting from 15.17 million yen

The Lexus RZ can be purchased from 8.2 million yen, but the other two car models are priced at more than 15 million yen. It seems that not only those who actually purchase products visit the official website.

Interest across different residential areas differs depending on the manufacturer.

The ratio of Mercedes-Benz EQS is high in the Kanto and Kyushu regions. Lexus RZ has many website visitors nationwide, mainly in the Chubu and Kansai regions, and Jaguar I-PACE also has website visitors nationwide, but there are also many visitors from snowy regions such as Hokkaido, Akita, and Miyagi.

All three companies showed the same trends in terms of whether they were married or had children.

There are many married visitors and visitors with children. This may be due to the fact that a large number of visitors are in their 40s and 50s for all brands.

All three companies had different structures for attracting customers to their websites.

All three companies had different structures for attracting customers to their websites.
For Lexus RZ, more than 50% of website visitors come from organic searches, followed by 31.1% from display ads.

Looking at the percentage of display ads, Yahoo! ads accounted for 66.3% and Google display ads accounted for 32.8%.

Like Lexus RZ, Mercedes-Benz EQS also has the highest number of organic searches at 48.2%. This is followed by paid search at 32.7%.

Looking at the keywords in the paid search, we found that in addition to the model name “EQS,” we also saw listing ads using the brand names such as “Benz” and “Mercedes-Benz.”

Jaguar I-PACE has a very different customer attraction structure from the two companies mentioned above. Display ads account for about 90%.

LINE ads account for 57.0% of display ads, which is a different composition from Lexus RZ, which had a lot of Yahoo! ads.
The fact that the only sales channel is online may have an effect on the difference in customer acquisition methods.

Next, we will focus on the Lexus RZ, which had the most website visitors among the different cars in this survey, and dig deeper into their hobbies and interests.

Persona research is conducted using VALUES's analytics tool “story bank” (Japanese only), which uses online behavioral data and survey data to aggregate the movements and attributes of target users before and after a specific online behavior.

First, let's see what kind of interests they have.

In the chart, the horizontal axis is the feature value, and the vertical axis is the reach rate, and the further you move toward the upper right, the more the analysis target shows interests that are characteristically more interesting compared to that among overall Internet users.

Many people are interested in economic matters such as money, investment and business, and cars, but what I would like to note is that many people are interested in domestic travel in Japan, housing, and (housing) exteriors. Both require a good amount of spending, so it is assumed that they have a stable income.

Next, look at sports that interest them.

A high percentage of people watch “Japan National Football (Soccer) Team” and “Japanese Professional Baseball,” but on the other hand, many people also practice “skiing” and “windsurfing.” This is a sport that can only be done by an SUV that can carry a lot of luggage.

Additionally, they often work out at the gym, jogs, and runs marathons, which gives an impression of someone who cares about their health.

We investigated the official websites of the luxury car manufacturer's BEV SUVs “Lexus RZ,” “Mercedes-Benz EQS,” and “Jaguar I-PACE,” and analyzed the size of the target segment and persona of the users who are assumed to be the target group.

Perhaps this is related to the fact that Lexus RZ has a large number of visitors to its website, while Jaguar I-PACE's only sales channel is online, so the website visitors’ behaviors and traffic sources seem to be different from other companies.

It will be interesting to see what strategies each company uses to differentiate itself from other companies and use sales strategies to increase the number of users.

▼Data from Dockpit was used in this case study. Dockpit is an online behavior analytics tool provided by VALUES, Inc., and it allows you to access online behavioral data (updated monthly) via your browser so you can research competitor websites and investigate trends. There is a FREE version of Dockpit, so if you are interested in using it, please register below.