Five things we learned at the Auto Trader New Car Awards 2023

Last week, at the Auto Trader New Car Awards 2023, we revealed the very best new cars as chosen by a survey of 220,000 UK car owners.

As well as unveiling the 23 winners of this year’s awards, we also took the audience through our very latest new car insights along with some of what we found in this year’s survey. So read on to discover the five things we learned at this year’s Auto Trader New Car Awards.

1. The demand is there

We’ve seen the new car market bounce back from the lows of 2021 and 2022, with May marking the 10th consecutive month of sales growth.

And demand is looking strong on our marketplace. There are over 5 million views of new cars each month. These views are converting as well with over 300,000 new car inquiries being sent to retailers. That’s a lead every two minutes. So new cars appeal is on the rise but what are new car buyers looking at?

2. Buyers look at new and used cars

Those who view a new car may not just be looking at a new car. In fact consumers move between looking at new and used cars, with consumers looking at 12 different brands on average as they shop.

But there are big differences in consumer behaviours, though. Let’s look at how people find electric vehicles(EVs).

There are a few ways to research with people filtering by the make and/or model they’re interested in, or they filter by the budget they’ve got, or they ask the site to show them electric cars (often within a budget range).

The biggest brands remain some of the most popular when it comes to the raw volume of searches for EVs. Perhaps no surprise there but when we start to look deeper at how consumers are searching we can see that certain makes and models are more popular among certain search preferences i.e. by specific brand, fuel type.

First up, looking at a relatively new brand to the UK, GWM Ora, we see that almost 9 in 10 people looking at the brands models came to look specifically for the brand / searched for it rather than stumbling on it through a generic search for an EV otherwise.

At a model level, the Tesla Model Y is the most searched-for electric car, followed by the Audi e-Tron and Porsche Taycan. The Nissan Leaf, MG ZS and I-PACE are the three EVs most discovered via a budget search

And DS is the brand most discovered via a fuel type search e.g. 41% of DS people come across the brand having used the fuel type filter

Many people are looking outside their traditional shortlist makes and discovering new options whether they be premium or mainstream brands.

At last year’s awards, we shared how the Kia EV6, Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Cupra Born were getting into even more shortlists than the big ICE models such as BMW 3 Series, Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus. But that’s no longer the case. The Kia Niro, MG4 and Renault Megane E-Tech are now the main EV contenders, but they trail the big ICE models

People then are interested in new EVs but, in many cases, their curiosity dwindles and moves to the next shiny new EV.

There’s a curiosity at play, which we’ve never really seen with ICE models with the Citroen Ami, BYD Atto and Ora Funky Cat generating loads of interest. Car buyers then seem to look at the newer brands and models but aren’t really comparing them with the more established makes.

So electric continues to move at pace, and a couple of big questions are how newer models maintain salience, and what the change in competitor sets means for more established brands.

3. New makes and models could lead to decade of confusion

Whilst new makes and models are entering the market, we’re also seeing some iconic stalwarts departing. Models which have been around for decades such as the Ford Fiesta will soon be consigned to the past as we see manufacturers consolidate their ranges. This shake-up does mean that there’s a risk of leaving consumers a bit perplexed, with new and unfamiliar makes and models not easily recognised by car buyers who’ve grown up with easy reference points like Fiesta, Golf and 3 Series. Coupled with all the new jargon of EVs, that does mean - if we’re not careful - that we could well be looking at a decade of confusion for car buyers. That may make for opportunities for some, but no doubt also risks for many.

4. There has been a downturn in demand for EVs

Interest in new EVs has stalled. Last year we saw more than one in four new car advert views being for an EV. Right now, it’s less than 1 in 10. External factors such as rising electricity costs and less than helpful media or political agendas are partly to blame for this drop in interest, but the lack of progress on long-known consumer concerns by our industry is also a culprit.

There are three main reasons behind this.

First up, the higher upfront cost remains the primary barrier for many car buyers. This problem has only worsened with only nine models available to buy for under £30k, down from fourteen at the end of last year. Many new EV prices rose even faster than the ICE side of the market. The average price of a new EV at the start of last year was just above £42,000. At the start of this year, it was above £52,000, 23% higher.

But more recently, as both used EVs have fallen in price by 18% on the prior year, coupled with some brands either cutting new EV prices or introducing consumer offers, we’ve seen some promising signs of consumer reaction on those cars and faster sales. That seems to indicate that there is of course price elasticity and that car buyers can be brought into the EV market by the right offers.

Second, electric cars remain confusing to most buyers. Do many people really understand what a kilowatt hour is or the difference in charging speeds? There’s work to be done to educate consumers, which is something that we’re committed to at Auto Trader. But progress is hampered by the continued use of industry jargon, brand-specific terms of reference and some confusing names, that are too easily forgettable to most car buyers. Instead of this confusion, we need common standards.

Finally, we all know that aside from cost, the biggest barrier to entry remains charging infrastructure, particularly for potential buyers without a home charging solution. Potential EV buyers expect brands to come to come together to make this process simpler. Again, that should mean common standards and a broad offering accessible to all, rather than focusing on brand-specific solutions that often make the issues more complex.

5. But owners love their EVs

Despite the issues we are seeing in the EV market, one thing that our survey made abundantly clear is that EV owners love the product.

Not only did we see EVs scoring incredibly high across all our awards, but we also saw more EV winners than ever before with 10 of the 22 car category winners being electric. In fact the winner of the aptly titled Most Loved Car was, for the first time, an EV, with the Hyundai IONIQ 5 taking home the sought-after accolade.

Most notable was the New Car of the Year winner which, for the fourth year running, was an EV with the Kia EV6 taking home the top award.

The awards, therefore, have shown us that, despite challenges in the EV sector, owners do see the benefits of electric vehicles and are clearly advocates of their electric vehicles. Getting more consumers behind the wheel is crucial to driving more adoption of electric vehicles. We’ll be helping to do just that at the upcoming EV Live event this July, where consumers will have the opportunity to test drive a wide selection of EVs for themselves and learn how an EV can fit into there lifestyle. Head over to the event site to find out more.