For years, the apps that automakers bundled with electric vehicles were largely an afterthought — useful, occasionally, for checking a charge level or pre-warming a cabin. Now they have become something closer to a daily habit, and the bar has risen accordingly.
A new industry study released Tuesday by J.D. Power found that churn among EV app users — the share of owners who stop using the apps — has collapsed to just 4.5 percent, down from 22 percent in 2023. Daily usage among non-Tesla owners has climbed to 55 percent, up from 48 percent a year ago. Overall satisfaction among mass market users reached 7.7 on a 10-point scale, compared with 6.1 in 2025 and just 5.5 in 2024.
But embedded in those improving numbers is a warning for the industry: owners who use these apps constantly are also the least forgiving when they falter.
“With 51 percent of our respondents new to vehicle apps, OEMs have a clear opportunity to set the standard,” said Violet Allmandinger, senior principal of OEM solutions at J.D. Power. “However, inconsistent connectivity continues to hold the experience back.”
The study, now in its sixth year, surveyed 1,610 owners of 2024 to 2026 model year battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles across 24 brands. It found that speed — not design, not feature depth — has emerged as the single most important driver of satisfaction, accounting for 25 percent of overall scores in regression analysis. Nearly three-quarters of users said they considered one to five seconds the maximum tolerable wait time before satisfaction began to erode.
One in three users still reported connectivity problems, a persistent weak point even as the industry has logged two consecutive years of improvement.
What do owners actually want? More useful features, according to 36 percent of respondents — a preference that outranked faster performance, cited by 17 percent, and better design, named by 11 percent. Interest in advanced capabilities has grown sharply: the share of owners seeking plug-and-charge integration at public stations rose 4.2 percentage points year over year, while demand for geofencing alerts and valet monitoring each climbed 4.6 percentage points. Core functions — vehicle status, over-the-air software updates, remote diagnostics — remain desired by more than 90 percent of users.
The moment a new EV owner first encounters their vehicle’s app turns out to matter more than previously understood. Among active users, 86 percent said they received setup guidance from dealership staff at the time of delivery. Nearly half — 43 percent — said they first learned about the app at the dealership. Those who received support reported meaningfully higher satisfaction than those who did not, 7.7 versus 7.0 on the 10-point scale.
Monetizing apps remains an elusive goal. More than half of EV owners said the app had played a meaningful role in their purchasing decision. But 64 percent said they would not pay a subscription fee for access — a finding that underscores how thoroughly owners have come to regard the app as an extension of the vehicle itself rather than a stand-alone service.
Tesla ranked highest overall and topped the premium segment with a score of 867 on a 1,000-point scale. My BMW ranked second among premium brands at 832, followed by the Genesis Intelligent Assistant at 822. In the mass market segment, MyHyundai with Bluelink led the field at 827, with Kia Access second at 796 and MINI third at 790.
The J.D. Power 2026 U.S. OEM EV App Report is based on an online survey of EV owners conducted in March and April 2026.
