Tesla fastest growing brand for used car searches in August

Tesla emerged as the fastest growing car brand among car buyers searching online for used cars in August, according to analysis by Honcho.

Internet searches using ‘Tesla’ as a search term, rather than a specific model, increased by 98% to 30,280 in August, followed by MG up 74% and Porsche up 17%.

Honcho’s analysis of Google searches for used cars by car brand revealed a total of five million for the month, up 1.05% year-on-year.

General searches for used cars, excluding brand names and models, but including the terms ‘used car’, ‘used cars for sale’ and ‘part-exchange’, increased by 9% to 2.4 million.

Honcho recently announced Volkswagen remained the top car brand in the UK for converting online searches into purchases, retaining the position it held for the same period in 2019. 

Telson Thomas, SEO analyst at Honcho, said: “Our research shows the relative strength of car brand names as the starting point for Google searches where buyers begin with the marque rather than specific models.

“With Tesla still an emergent carmaker, the results show the strength of its brand equity among buyers considering purchasing a used electric car and using the carmaker’s name as their starting point.”

Last month Jato Dynamics reported that Tesla had posted a 76% decline to 1,050 registrations across Europe during July, following production challenges in Fremont, California.

Market analyst Felipe Munoz said: “In contrast to the general trend of increasing demand for electric cars, Tesla is losing ground this year in Europe.

“Some of this can be explain by issues relating to the production continuity in California, but also by high competition from brands that play as locals in Europe.”

Honcho's online search data analysis revealed that German premium marques dominated the top five used car searches in August led by BMW with 276,170 searches, followed by Audi (261,480). 

Ford was the third most viewed brand (255,030), followed by Mercedes-Benz (199,770) and Nissan (155,960).

With the rise in used buyers searching by brand, Honcho has urged franchised dealers to review their paid search activity to increase the online visibility of the marques they represent.

Thomas said: “Since coming out of lockdown online activity has increased, so now is a good time for dealers to review and refresh their search activity.”

“While SEO remains a long-term strategy, there are opportunities within paid media which will unlock immediate performance benefits.

"We’ve seen less competition in paid search with dealerships generally being slow to react to the changing landscape, making it an easy win for those that do.”

Kia has seen web traffic increase by 30% year-on-year after continuing to invest in digital marketing during the lockdown.