Toyota is no longer among the top names when it comes to brand loyalty in the United States, slipping into seventh place in the S&P Global Mobility study that analyzes the first four months of the year, according to Automotive News.
Typically, Toyota is “neck and neck” with Ford and Chevrolet, analyst Tom Libby said, but in this latest installment of the rankings, the Japanese automaker has suffered a demotion that was partly caused by customers jumping ship and choosing Tesla.
As per the source, the percentage of customers who migrated from Toyota to Tesla was up 2.1 points to 5 percent year over year.
Among the mainstream car names in the US, Ford recorded 59.5 percent brand loyalty this year through April, followed by Chevrolet with 57.1 percent and Subaru, Nissan, Kia, and Hyundai. Toyota recorded 52.3 percent brand loyalty, down 5.7 points from the same time last year.
"We will obviously have to watch the results going forward, but just in these first four months, Toyota is a disappointment," Libby said.
In the luxury brands category, Tesla topped the rankings once again, with 68 percent recorded – 18.8 points above BMW in second place and 1.1 points up from the previous year. In fact, Tesla is the only brand in the study that enjoys a loyalty of over 50 percent, with Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Cadillac following BMW in the rankings.
Furthermore, Tesla is the only brand in the United States that is keeping more customers than it is losing, according to Libby, which is surprising, considering the Austin-based EV brand hasn’t released a new vehicle since 2020 when deliveries of the Model Y started.
In related news, starting next year, vehicles made by Ford, General Motors, Rivian, and Volvo will have access to Tesla’s Supercharger network of DC fast chargers across the United States and Canada. At first, the EVs made by these companies will be able to charge with the help of a CCS1 to NACS adapter, and from 2025 the manufacturers will fit the NACS inlet on their vehicles on the assembly lines.
