‘Generation E’ to drive the switch to EVs

Drivers in their 30s look set to spearhead the switch to Electric Vehicles in the UK, according to a CTEK survey of more than 1,000 UK drivers by Find Out Now. 

The answers reveal that 30 to 39-year-olds are the generation most primed to buy EV and ditch petrol and diesel cars first. 

The survey found almost two thirds (61%) of drivers currently in their 30s foresee they will be driving an EV in the year 2035, when they will be in their 40s. Only one in six (17%) thirty-somethings think they will still be driving an ICE (purely petrol or diesel) vehicle in a decade’s time. The rest don’t know. 

Even by 2030, a majority (59%) of what we’re terming ‘Generation E’ will be driving a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or a hybrid. Just over a fifth (21%) think they will be driving an ICE car. 

Including all age groups of drivers, 2030 could see 45% driving an EV, outnumbering the 34% who imagine they will be powered by the diesel or petrol in an ICE vehicle. The ICE drivers fall to a quarter (25%) by 2035. 

We’re calling UK drivers in their 30s ‘Generation E’ because they are leading the way in practically every question we asked in our nationally representative survey. 

People in their 30s are likely to have both the financial means to be able to choose electric and the environmental and climate awareness to want to do so. Not far behind them are the 18 to 29-year-olds, who are the second age group most set to go EV. 

In contrast, it is the older generations aged 55 and above who are least likely to switch, despite probably being financially able to do so. They are, we suspect, more wedded to fossil fuels after decades of driving ICE cars. 

Whilst many current EV drivers are set to still be driving the same kind of cars (BEV, PHEV and self-charging hybrid) in 2030 and 2035, the notable shifts the survey predicts include 43% of PHEV drivers going fully electric by 2030 and 57% of them by 2035. 

Overall, the survey results point to a rapidly approaching future of mass adoption of electric mobility, especially by the younger generations.  

This suggests millions more EVs on the UK roads in just a few years, begging the question: where will they all charge? The roll-out of public charging must accelerate to keep pace with the huge demand our survey results suggest will emerge