The conversion to electric cars has left motor manufacturers with some fairly redundant kit in the car, what’s the point of a gear stick, it’s goodbye to the exhaust and now its time to consider the RPM gauge, because electric cars don’t rev!
Now a group of influential car manufacturers have pulled together to form a group, the EPM Advisory Council, with EPM standing for ‘experiences per mile’.
With concerns that electric motoring could become too standardised, the car brands are keen that owners have different expectations and experiences based on their model.
The council, which includes representatives from Ford, Hyundai, Nissan and Stellantis, have created an experience-per-mile metric, which considers ‘experience goals’ based on the vehicle being connected, productive or entertained. Each of these factors will provide a rating from 1-100.
The aim is to give each vehicle an overall EPM rating, and consumers can buy their cars knowing that a car might have a high EPM for road trips, or a high EPM for commuting. The idea is that the more premium the model, the higher the EPM, so therefore encouraging us to spend big. It may sound like another bizarre marketing exercise from the car brands, but the EPM is being taken so seriously that the council have commissioned Ipsos to research the first set of scores.
“Where consumers once asked 'how fast will my car go from 0-60mph?', they now want to know how the vehicle will improve their commute or whether they can access content or people from it,” said Tom Rivers, vice-president of automotive global marketing at Harman International.
"There has been no established rating to measure this in-vehicle experience, so this way of thinking about experiences as a value-add is new territory, and OEMs have indicated they see value in the measurement to help build their brand with new generations of consumers."