Competition among new energy vehicle brands has shifted from product specifications to experience design. How brands manage touchpoints, emotions and memories determines whether they build lasting trust. Experience is a brand asset in its own right.
Products in the new energy vehicle sector are becoming increasingly similar. Gaps in battery technology, smart cockpits and driver assistance are narrowing, making specifications alone a less useful basis for choice. Across our projects, we have observed that emotional factors carry increasing weight in purchase decisions. Brands now establish a distinctive place in consumers’ minds through the coherence and consistency of the overall experience.
Experience is how a brand delivers on its promise. From online research to test drives, delivery and after-sales support, every touchpoint communicates brand value. A systematic approach to experience design determines how quickly trust develops. Isolated highlights rarely create lasting brand memories; consistency across the entire journey builds recognizable brand assets. Automakers need to treat experience management as a strategic investment.
Experience Is a Brand Asset in Its Own Right
Every interaction with a brand is an opportunity for experience design. Websites, apps, showrooms, delivery centers, charging locations and after-sales services form a connected network of touchpoints. In practice, most automakers assign these touchpoints to different departments, with little consistency in design language or emotional tone. The resulting gaps in brand expression make it difficult for trust to accumulate.
Systematic touchpoint design starts with a clear experience framework. Define the core emotion each touchpoint should convey, translate it into practical interaction details, and establish ways for departments to work together. We recommend mapping the full customer journey, identifying key touchpoints and emotional turning points, and prioritizing the moments that most influence decisions. Each touchpoint is an integral part of the brand experience.
Brands need to define their position across two dimensions—energy level and emotional expression—and translate it into practical principles for touchpoint design. The chosen quadrant shapes visual language, the pace of interaction and service tone.
Emphasizes specifications and reasoning; suited to technology-focused early adopters.
Conveys speed and a drive to push boundaries; suited to sports and performance segments.
Emphasizes technical transparency and professional service; suited to business and family users.
Builds connections through storytelling and warmth; suited to lifestyle brands.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Showrooms and delivery centers are the most important physical settings for a new energy vehicle brand’s experience. They are where customers make the crucial transition from awareness to trust. Spatial design, lighting, materials, circulation and service processes together give the brand a physical presence. Our work suggests that the return on investment in spatial experience is significantly underestimated. Customers may spend only a short time in these spaces, but the memories they form are much stronger than those created by online touchpoints.
Spatial design should express brand positioning. A sense of technology, warmth or expertise needs to take shape through a specific design language. Material choices, the placement of interactive equipment and staff training all contribute to the experience. We recommend treating space as a three-dimensional expression of the brand, investing in specialist design and establishing standards that can be replicated. Physical spaces are central to how people experience the brand.
Emotion is central to experience design, yet most automakers lack a practical method for designing it. The feelings a brand hopes to convey often remain abstract words that design teams struggle to translate into concrete solutions. In our practice, we use a four-quadrant emotional design model spanning rational to emotional expression and low to high energy. Brands need to define their position within the model and translate it into principles for visual design, interaction and service.
AI tools are making experience design more efficient. Faster concept generation, visualization and content production allow designers to explore and refine multiple directions quickly. Final judgments about emotional impact still require human input. We recommend that automakers establish a standardized experience design process, bringing emotional objectives, design principles and validation methods into a reusable framework. Experience design puts brand strategy into practice across the organization.
Identify every touchpoint from awareness to repeat purchase, and mark the key emotional turning points. Prioritize the touchpoints that most influence decisions, and establish cross-functional collaboration to keep the experience consistent.
Treat showrooms and delivery centers as core brand assets, supported by specialist design expertise. Create a spatial design manual that can be applied across locations, covering materials, lighting, circulation and service processes.
Define the brand’s position in the emotional design matrix and translate abstract feelings into actionable design principles. Establish a standardized process covering emotional objectives, design methods and validation criteria.
Use AI tools to accelerate concept generation and visualization, shortening experience prototype cycles. Retain human decision-making to ensure sound emotional judgments and brand consistency.
Financial brands are shifting their touchpoints from communication to interaction. A four-dimensional framework helps institutions identify critical moments and direct resources toward the touchpoints that influence decisions.
The core shift in real estate and cultural tourism marketing: replacing one-way broadcasting with interactive experiences, so audiences build understanding and emotional connection through participation.
AIGC at scale introduces new brand consistency challenges. Shift from pre-production control to process monitoring and post-production refinement, establishing asset libraries, generation rules, and dynamic monitoring systems.
