On August 21st, J.D. Power, a leading global consumer insights and market research organization, officially released its China New Energy Vehicle After-Sales Service Satisfaction Study (NEV-CSI) in Shanghai. This marks J.D. Power's first release of such research in China, aimed at helping new energy vehicle manufacturers better understand customer focus points, current status, and demands regarding after-sales service experience, thereby improving overall service levels. NIO Inc., Li Auto, and other brands demonstrated outstanding performance.
The research results show that the overall score for 2025 new energy vehicle after-sales service satisfaction reached 775 points on a 1,000-point scale. From a brand category perspective, luxury brands, mainstream brands, and autonomous brands scored 776, 775, and 774 points respectively, presenting a highly competitive landscape.
In specific brand rankings, NIO Inc. achieved 801 points, winning the championship for both luxury brand and autonomous brand new energy vehicle after-sales service satisfaction. Li Auto secured 788 points, claiming the mainstream brand new energy vehicle after-sales service satisfaction championship while ranking second among autonomous brands. Additionally, XPeng and Zeekr also performed excellently, ranking highly in mainstream and autonomous brand categories respectively.
**Significant Regional Inversion Phenomenon**
The research revealed a significant regional inversion phenomenon in China's 2025 new energy vehicle after-sales service satisfaction. Service satisfaction is inversely proportional to city tier levels, with first and second-tier cities scoring 18 points lower than third and fourth-tier cities. This phenomenon indicates that users in first and second-tier cities have significantly higher expectations for new energy after-sales services, resulting in naturally lower satisfaction even when receiving identical services.
Therefore, automotive companies need differentiated strategies. In first and second-tier cities, focus should be on "exceeding expectations" and refined operations, improving efficiency, transparency, and personalized services. In third and fourth-tier cities, emphasis should be placed on strengthening basic guarantees and experience enhancement, ensuring service network coverage and basic service quality standards.
**Mobile Door-to-Door Services Emerge as New Battlefield**
Mobile door-to-door services have become an important trend in new energy vehicle after-sales services. The research shows usage rates increased to 32.3%, up 12.4% from 2024. Mobile door-to-door services have not only transformed from "emergency options" to "value creation centers" but have successfully converted low-frequency, passive maintenance scenarios into high-frequency, proactive value interaction touchpoints, significantly enhancing user stickiness and commercial value.
Users utilizing these services spent an average of 591 yuan more on after-sales services in the past year compared to non-users. Therefore, automotive companies should treat mobile door-to-door services as core strategic investments, continuously optimizing coverage networks, response speeds, technician capabilities, and standardized processes.
**Service Experience Becomes Core Competitiveness**
Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market, service experience has become the core competitiveness for the second half of the game. Xie Juan, General Manager of Digital Retail Consulting Division at J.D. Power China, noted: "New energy competition has entered the 'trust economics' stage. When energy replenishment satisfaction, benefit realization rates, and one-time resolution rates become user voting concerns, only brands that can transform digital capabilities into 'user experience certainty' can make services their brand moat."
Automotive companies need to deeply study expectation baselines of different user groups and design service processes, communication scripts, and value propositions accordingly, avoiding "thankless effort" phenomena.
**Future Trends and Recommendations**
The research also found that remote diagnosis services are currently trapped in an "efficiency trap" and need upgrading from "technical functions" to "closed-loop experiences." In 2025, 23.1% of new energy users utilized remote diagnosis services, but satisfaction and NPS scores were actually lower than non-users. The core issue is that 79.9% of users still need to visit physical stores, with optimal experience achieved only when services resolve problems within 20 minutes in one attempt.
Therefore, automotive companies need to integrate online and offline channels, achieving "perception-resolution" integration and creating "diagnosis-as-solution" closed loops. Simultaneously, vehicle usage services need dual-track reconstruction from "speed competition" toward "precise solutions" and "benefit infrastructure."
In 2025, automotive companies showed slight improvement in response speed for user vehicle issues, but the proportion of users experiencing "one-time effective problem resolution" declined. Additionally, new energy vehicle user benefit realization problem rates reached 48.2%, and when such issues occur, "owner benefits" satisfaction factor scores drop directly by 31 points. Therefore, future competition keys lie in upgrading "quick response" to "accurate resolution" and building benefit realization as "digital infrastructure" for brand trust.
The continuous decline in energy replenishment satisfaction also deserves attention. In 2025, new energy replenishment satisfaction showed a sustained downward trend, with traditional autonomous brands experiencing the most significant decline. Brand-exclusive public charging station problem rates rose from 44.6% in 2024 to 47.4%, while problem rates for finding charging stations through brand apps/vehicle systems climbed to 49.7%.
This indicates the industry has entered a "refined energy replenishment experience operation" stage, requiring automotive companies to redefine energy networks from "infrastructure assets" to "data products," achieving "zero user anxiety" experiences through intelligent scheduling, seamless interaction, and ecosystem openness.