EVs top the enquiry-to-sales rankings on carwow in Q1
April 04, 2023 by James Hind
Car changing is a big deal
- carwow evaluated enquiries to see which were most likely to convert to a sale
- EVs performed best, taking 1st (Vauxhall Corsa Electric), 2nd (Peugeot e-208) and 4th (Peugeot e-2008)
- Brand partnership with carwow helped Vauxhall Corsa Electric achieve remarkable enquiry-to-sales ratio of 15.4%
- Best-selling new car on carwow in Q1 was the Nissan Qashqai, aided by falling lead times
- Over 1.25 million cars configured on carwow year-to-date; most popular were Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai
4 April 2023, London: carwow, the UK’s online car buying and selling marketplace, has revealed the models that delivered the highest enquiry-to-sale ratios on its platform during the first quarter of 2023. The single model that topped the carwow rankings was the Vauxhall Corsa Electric, with a sales conversion rate of 15.4% from all enquiries placed – boosted by a recent multi-faceted brand partnership on the platform.
Second to the Vauxhall Corsa Electric was another EV – the Peugeot e-208 – with an enquiry-to-sale ratio of 12.8%, a figure matched by the Vauxhall Crossland. These were closely followed by the Peugeot e-2008 (12.7%), Kia Sportage (12.1%) and Toyota Corolla (12.0%).
“carwow has always been a destination for prospective buyers with very high levels of purchase intent, and we saw again in Q1 how that translates into market-leading enquiry-to-sales ratios,” said James Hind, CEO of carwow. “We’re consistently seeing above-average conversion rates among those considering a shift to electrified mobility – many have done lots of research and are ready to commit.”
Vauxhall’s enquiry-to-sale performance has been boosted by a partnership with carwow, part of its campaign to secure a leading presence in the EV market. The carmaker took over all media placements on the carwow site, allowing it to reach a very large and highly engaged audience of prospective EV buyers.
Qashqai takes the sales crown in Q1
In terms of best sellers across all brands and segments in Q1, the Nissan Qashqai topped carwow’s sales chart by a significant margin, with 737 sales in the quarter. The Volvo XC40 was the second best-seller with 452 sales, then the Volkswagen Polo (425), Hyundai Tucson (424), Volkswagen T-Roc (380) and the Kia Sportage (375).
“The Qashqai’s success on our platform is testament to the car’s lasting popularity, as well as Nissan’s recent success in improving output from its Sunderland plant,” Hind added.
Configurations point to future sales
Consumers’ use of carwow’s vehicle configurator tool continues to provide useful indicators about patterns of demand and potential future sales. Over 1.25 million vehicles were configured on carwow in Q1 alone, and the single most frequently configured model was the Kia Sportage with 34,195 configurations, followed by the Nissan Qashqai, which was configured 32,371 times.
The tool also offers invaluable insight into customers’ wish lists, revealing the humble reversing camera as the most-specified feature in Q1. This was followed, in order, by privacy glass, heated steering wheel, panoramic sunroof, head-up display, space-saver spare wheel, heated front seats, bi-tone black roof, surround-sound audio, and heat pumps.
“Inclusion of some very specific items in our ranking across all marques highlights some long-standing patterns of demand. For example, the popularity of Harman Kardon stereos, in particular, speaks both of that item’s popular appeal and the fact that BMW configurations remain very high – topping 82,000 so far this year,” Hind added.