The number of EV brands entering the UK market showing no signs of slowing down.
With this in mind, we wanted to find out how familiar motorists are with these emerging brands and if they would consider buying their cars. We surveyed 2,000 UK car owners and compared the findings to data we collected in 2025, allowing us to see how attitudes towards EV ownership and brand awareness have changed over the last 12 months.
What emerging EV brands are motorists most likely to be familiar with?
Driver awareness of emerging EV brands has grown by 15% on average over the last 12 months, with motorists increasingly likely to know these brands by name:
| Brand | Year launched in the UK | 2025 | 2026 | % change |
| BYD | 2023 | 41% | 62% | +21% |
| Genesis | 2021 | 37% | 53% | +16% |
| Polestar | 2020 | 65% | 73% | +12% |
| Jaecoo | 2025 | N/A | 50% | N/A |
| Deepal | 2025 | N/A | 36% | N/A |
| Omoda | 2024 | N/A | 42% | N/A |
| GMW Ora | 2022 | 29% | 41% | +12% |
| Skywell | 2024 | 25% | 38% | +13% |
| XPeng | 2025 | N/A | 38% | N/A |
| Leapmotor | 2025 | N/A | 39% | N/A |
Respondents were most likely to have heard of Polestar, BYD and Genesis, probably because they’ve been on the UK market the longest. However, the research revealed that awareness for newer EV brands that have launched since we ran the survey last was also relatively high.
On average, awareness for brands included in the study for the first time this year is already at 41%.
Unsurprisingly, EV owners tended to be the most familiar with emerging EV brands, with those already driving a battery powered vehicle 57% more likely to be familiar with the brands included in this study than those driving a petrol or diesel car.
Can drivers name brands based on their logos alone?
While brand name recognition is growing, we found most motorists still struggle to identify emerging EV brands based solely on their logos. Although things have improved over the last 12 months, there’s still a long way to go before logo recognition for these brands will rival more established manufacturers:
| Brand | 2025 | 2026 | % change |
| BYD | 18% | 34% | +16% |
| Genesis | 22% | 27% | +5% |
| Polestar | 23% | 25% | +2% |
| Jaecoo | N/A | 16% | N/A |
| Deepal | N/A | 16% | N/A |
| Omoda | N/A | 11% | N/A |
| GMW Ora | 5% | 9% | +4% |
| Skywell | 5% | 9% | +4% |
| XPeng | N/A | 8% | N/A |
| Leapmotor | N/A | 6% | N/A |
The research found that while 73% of car owners had heard of Polestar – making it the emerging brand motorists were most likely to have heard of only 36% could identify its logo.
This difference between brand name and logo recognition was much more notable for Polestar than it is for BYD, whose logo has the highest level of recognition. This is likely due to the fact BYD’s logo prominently includes the brand name.
How do people feel about buying from emerging EV brands?
With almost half of motorists (44%) agreeing that the introduction of new EV brands is good for the UK car market, we wanted to find out how likely motorists are to buy from these brands.
The overall number of motorists who would consider buying from an emerging EV brand remains relatively low. However, we’ve seen a notable shift in attitudes over the last 12 months – with drivers on average 10% more likely to consider buying from these brands today compared to this time last year:
| Brand | 2025 | 2026 | % change |
| BYD | 16% | 30% | +14% |
| Genesis | 13% | 25% | +12% |
| Polestar | 28% | 36% | +8% |
| Jaecoo | N/A | 25% | N/A |
| Deepal | N/A | 16% | N/A |
| Omoda | N/A | 19% | N/A |
| GMW Ora | 10% | 19% | +9% |
| Skywell | 9% | 16% | +7% |
| XPeng | N/A | 16% | N/A |
| Leapmotor | N/A | 17% | N/A |
Polestar remained the emerging brand that car owners would be most likely to consider, closely followed by BYD. Interestingly, despite only being on the market for year, a quarter of drivers (25%) said they would consider a Jaecoo.
Is this influenced by what motorists are already driving?
Our research found that EV owners were the most open to emerging EV brands. Those driving battery-powered vehicles are 1.7 times more likely to agree that they were a good addition to the UK car market than petrol and diesel owners. They were also 3.3 times more likely to buy from a brand that is relatively new to the UK.
EV owners were 80% less likely to want someone they knew to have bought from a brand before considering it for themselves, and half as likely to want to see other people driving a car before looking to buy.
While EV owners are the most likely to buy from an emerging brand, the study highlighted how much motorists' attitudes in general have shifted over the last 12 months:
- The number of non-EV drivers who said their next car would be an electric vehicle rose by 34%
- One-in-six motorists said they would consider buying from a newer EV brand – compared to one-in-10 last year
- There was a small drop (2%) in the number of petrol and diesel owners who said they continue buying vehicles with combustion engines for as long as possible
Methodology
For this study, Motorpoint has classed emerging EV brands as those that have been available on the UK market since 2020. For a brand to be included in the research, they would have to have to been available to buy for at least 22 weeks prior to the date the survey was published.
Comparisons within the report use two separate surveys of 2,000 UK motorists to allow us to accurately compare results year-on-year.
Survey 1:
Conducted by The Leadership Factor on behalf of Motorpoint with a sample of 2,000 UK car owners. Results were collected in January 2025. All statistics and findings have been rounded to the nearest whole number. A full data set is available on request.
Survey 2:
Conducted by The Leadership Factor on behalf of Motorpoint with a sample of 2,000 UK car owners in January 2026. All statistics and findings have been rounded to the nearest whole number. A full data set is available on request.