With 87% of motorists unable to recognise some of the EV brands currently available to buy in the UK, we wanted to find out how drivers’ knowledge and attitudes towards EVs will influence their next car purchase.
To get this information, we surveyed 2,000 UK car owners on everything from EV car brands and their logos to how easy motorists found it to educate themselves about battery powered cars.
This is what we found:
Attitudes towards emerging EV brands
When looking at driver attitudes towards up-and-coming EV brands, two-fifths (40%) of motorists agreed that the introduction of new EV brands was good for the UK car market.
However, when split by fuel type, the data was more telling. Three-quarters (75%) of EV owners agreed with the statement, compared to over half (57%) of hybrid vehicle owners and just 37% petrol and diesel drivers – showing that drivers of ICE vehicles need a little more convincing about the benefits of emerging EV brands.
According to our research, EV owners were more than twice as likely to consider buying a car from a brand they were unfamiliar with, and over three times more likely to consider purchasing a car from at least one of the brands included in this study.
When it came to emerging EV brands, we found that EV owners were most open to consider buying from these newer brands and were less concerned about a car brand already being established in the market.
While EV owners were certainly the most open to emerging EV brands, the data revealed that most motorists (90%) were unconcerned about where their car was manufactured. This suggests motorists are generally open to buying from brands that are new to the UK market, such as those from China.
Who is most likely to make the move to battery-powered cars?
Unsurprisingly, EV owners almost all agreed that we should all be planning to make the move to electric. However, when looking by age group, we found that drivers aged 25 –35 were the most likely to agree that EVs were the future, and motorists should be planning to make the switch. Car owners in this age bracket were also the most likely to:
- Plan to buy an EV when changing their current car
- Purchase a car from a brand they were unfamiliar with
- Consider emerging EV brands
- Buy a car from a brand that was relatively new to the UK
From this, we can see that motorists looking to buy their second on third car are the most open to EV adoption and we can expect to see a larger proportion of motorists in this age bracket purchasing EVs compared to other age demographics.
When looking at the findings regionally, motorists in London and Glasgow were most likely to say that EVs were the future, with car owners in London believing their lifestyle would be conducive to owning an EV.
From the data, we found that motorists already driving an electric vehicle or familiar with battery-powered technology were more open to considering emerging EV brands. In fact, 100% of EV owners surveyed said their next car would be an EV.
A quarter of drivers (25%) said they’re not quite ready to buy an EV yet but will be in the future, with motorists in Liverpool and Birmingham being the most likely to do so when they feel ready to make the switch.
Nottingham was the most EV-ready city in the UK, with a fifth of car owners (21%) drivers wanting to go electric and plan on buying an EV for their next car.
Looking at other cities where motorists are planning to make the move to electric when changing their current car, we found the top five were:
- Nottingham (21%)
- Bristol (19%)
= London - Belfast (18%)
- Newcastle (16%)
How familiar are motorists with EV-only car brands?
Despite EV brands from around the world becoming more common on UK roads, 87% of motorists we surveyed couldn’t name all these EV-only brands based off their logos.
How many do you recognise?
When looking at who was most likely to recognise the brands listed, we found that EV owners were 1.7 times more likely, than other fuel types, to know the brand these logos belonged to. This suggests that EV owners are more familiar and engaged with the EV ecosystem and more likely to encounter these brands day to day compared to petrol and diesel drivers.
Which EV brands do motorists recognise?
Tesla was the most recognised EV-only brand in the UK with two-thirds of drivers (66%) recognising the logo.
Their success is largely thanks to a strong presence on UK roads over recent years as well as an extensive Supercharger network and heavy media coverage working to build the brand’s recognition nationally. It is also considered an older EV brand that secured early market dominance, contributing to why it is the most recognisable EV-only brand within this study.
At the other end of the spectrum, the least recognised brands from the study were Chinese-owned EV makers NIO and XPeng, alongside California-based company Rivian. These brands are new to the UK market, with only pre-orders available for XPeng currently.
Over time, we suspect that recognition will naturally increase as these brands become more commonplace on UK roads.
The three most recognised EV brands are:
- Tesla (66%)
- Polestar (23%)
- BYD (18%)
Is this any different for motorists already with an EV?
Despite not making the overall top three, Genesis was the third most recognised EV-only brand for EV owners included in this study.
Despite being only three years old and being able to buy globally from September 2021, Genesis has quickly built up a reputable brand selling luxury crossover SUVs, estates and saloon cars. However, as Genesis are owned by Hyundai, this could be a key factor that contributed to their fast-growing brand awareness, as the global prestige of Hyundai has been built in the motoring world over the past five decades.
The top three most recognised brands for EV owners are:
- Tesla (61%)
- BYD (35%)
- Genesis (34%)
Polestar (29%) came in fifth when it came to EV owners being able to recognise the logo, but this was at odds with the number of EV owners who were familiar with the brand name (88%) - suggesting that those surveyed struggled to recognise the brand purely from its logo.
Having already made the move to a battery-powered vehicle, we were interested to understand what EV-only brands EV owners were most open to purchasing.
According to our research, the top three brands that EV owners would consider buying from today were:
- Smart 53%
- Polestar 51%
=Tesla 51%
It’s interesting to see that Smart is the brand EV owners are most interested in buying from. It’s worth noting that Smart has been around in some form since 1998 – making it much older than many of the other brands in this study. Having introduced its first battery-powered car in 2007 and switching to a fully electric offering in 2018, Smart has had more time than many brands included in this study to build consumer confidence.
Regardless of fuel type, Tesla was the EV brand that the remaining motorists in the study were most likely to consider purchasing, with almost half (48%) of hybrid drivers and over a third (36%) of petrol and diesel owners open to owning one of their vehicles.
Do motorists know enough about EVs?
Looking at brand awareness for emerging EV brands, it’s clear that many EV-only brands will need to work hard to firmly establish themselves in the UK car market.
We wanted to know if drivers' knowledge about electric vehicles is a barrier to interest in newer brands. According to our research, 40% of UK car owners didn’t feel they knew enough about EVs with 20% finding information about EVs contradictory and 17% struggling to find information they felt was accurate and impartial.
Car owners aged between 25-34 were the most likely to want to know more about EVs and believe that the media plays a role in how battery-powered vehicles are perceived by motorists.
Unsurprisingly, EV owners reported having the strongest knowledge about their vehicles’ technology and hybrid drivers were most likely to want to know more about EVs – suggesting that a significant number of hybrid owners could be considering making the permanent move to electric.
According to our research, a quarter (25%) of hybrid owners are planning to buy an EV when changing their car.
A lack of immediate resources for those wanting to learn more about EVs suggests a broader issue with misinformation. The results found of those struggling to find accurate information highlights a need for better transparency and trustworthy information to help motorists make informed decisions about EVs and to assess if they’re the right choice for them.
Find out more about what you need to know if you’re thinking about buying an electric car.
Methodology
Research conducted by The Leadership Factor on behalf of Motorpoint with a sample of 2,000 UK car owners. Data was collected in January 2025. All statistics and findings have been rounded to the nearest whole number. A full data set is available on request.
