Erin Baker: Why more EV buyers are prioritising sustainability

What’s driving EV buying decisions in 2025?

EV owners were asked what had the largest impact on their choice of car in a survey of 200,000 drivers carried out for the Auto Trader Drivers’ Choice Awards in June.

Unsurprisingly, running costs (including tax, fuel, and insurance) had the biggest impact, with a third of drivers citing it first. The second-largest factor was “How an EV fits my lifestyle needs” – one the industry would do well to prioritise, rather than defaulting to power, battery size, handling, or the worst offender: B- or C-segment cars, which mean absolutely nothing to most people.

But the most significant revelation was the third-biggest factor: “The environmental impact.”

Just five years ago, this motivating factor wasn’t even present, let alone in the top five influences on consumer behaviour when it came to buying the next car. When I started writing a monthly sustainability newsletter for EV-curious consumers three years ago, everyone thought I was mad, because there were so few Google searches for “The greenest car,” “Most eco-friendly cars to buy,” “What are the greenest car brands?” or “How big is my car’s carbon footprint?”

I kept going, driven by two thoughts: 1) sometimes it’s just the right thing to do, and 2) consumers are worried about the environment in every other aspect of their life, so surely it’s just a matter of time before similar concerns filter down to car buying? I think behaviour has lagged here because cars remain such an expensive purchase that most drivers can’t afford to make eco choices – their decisions to date have been confined by their budget.

The impact of the Electric Car Grant

That’s no longer the case, thanks to the Government’s new Electric Car Grant (ECG), worth up to £3,750 for electric cars costing up to £37,000. The grant is only available for models from brands with a Government-approved Science-Based Target (SBT) and that are manufactured in factories with low energy usage.

To create the final environmental score for a model – which determines its grant eligibility – a weighting of 70% is applied to the assessment of CO₂ from battery production, and 30% from vehicle assembly emissions.

The planets are finally aligned for consumers: the cost of a car is starting to be linked to its environmental impact, forming the optimum buying environment for EV drivers concerned about the planet.

The total list of eligible cars will be published on August 11, so stand by. Such was the rush with which the Government announced this new EV grant, it caught every OEM by surprise. Some PR bosses had no idea whether their company even had an SBT, or had applied for one, while others were left scratching their heads over whether one model was manufactured in China or Europe, because in some cases, production is split across continents, making final emissions calculations far from straightforward.

Creating a sustainable battery industry

What is clearer, however, is the sustainability story around batteries, which, after all, play a major role in a vehicle’s overall emissions.

We have at least another 10 years of extracting lithium and other rare earths before we have enough in perpetual circulation to meet demand. And whether you mine it or extract it from salars, there is a negative impact on the planet.

But we are on a promising trajectory: working to minimise impact to local communities and the planet from the extraction process, phasing out cobalt, concentrating on shallow mining with companies like Pensana, and processing the sulphates where they are extracted rather than shipping them off to China. We have a long way to go, but we’ve begun.

We’re much further down this happy road when it comes to repairing and remanufacturing batteries – essentially putting off recycling until there is no other choice. Car brands have woken up to the need to partner with companies like EV Battery Solutions to diagnose the issue, carry out repairs quickly and efficiently, and deal with mass recalls. It’s vital for consumer confidence in EVs, but also for the planet. We have to take care of the resources and the assets (batteries) that are already in circulation.

It’s like the famous Patek Philippe ad line, that has remained in people’s consciousness for the past 25 years: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” That catchphrase was dreamt up to make people feel better about dropping £25k on a watch, but there’s a universal truth here that the EV industry would do well to embrace: we are guardians of batteries, and we must look after them, for the sake of future generations.