ABM_1 - Flipbook - Page 10
ROUND-TABLE
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
give to their customers to make
it an easy sale – the tools that
customers need to be confident
on the road, for example, or
demonstrating how easy it is to
tap and go.
“It’s about empowering them
with the information to then feel
confident to educate the people
coming into the dealership.
People tend to choose the path
of least resistance.”
As infrastructure and take-up
grows, some progress will be
achieved through ‘the neighbour
effect’, whereby consumers see
driveway charging becoming
the norm, and speak to people
they know about their own
satisfaction. This natural
progression is not a reason
for the market to sit back on
its laurels; far from it, this is a
tool that can be harnessed by
dealerships, manufacturers and
everyone in between to create a
positive narrative.
Keeping EVs in the headlines
for the right reasons will
continue to spark those
conversations, particularly when
combined with the real-life
evidence blooming across the
UK’s streets.
Phillpott says: “It's easy to
underestimate the role that
word-of-mouth plays for
consumers. The question is how
do we as a market seed that.
“Generational helps retailers
sell used EVs with reassurances
about battery health, and we
publish the data we have and
make it transparent, to seed
that narrative that, actually,
these are really good, welldesigned things.”
Compelling
framework
Data must be framed
through relatable, local
stories rather than defensive
rebuttals or abstract
national totals.
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS Q4 2025
In a sector that is often having
to fight pervasive messaging
around range limitations
and grid inefficiencies, the
conversation comes back time
and again to data and proof.
Numbers alone – no matter
how compelling – are unlikely to
change hearts and minds. This
is where good PR comes in.
For Sinclair, some of the
negative narrative is founded,
and must be tackled by more
than just messaging.
She says: “I don't have a
driveway or a dedicated bay,
and one piece of misinformation
that I've been addressing is
that it can't be done. That's
not the case, but it’s not as
straightforward and it does
cost more.
“What’s frustrating is that the
technology is there to be able to,
for example, identify you as a
resident in order to charge less
for on-street charging. It’s just
not implemented.”
There is, then, continued work
to be done around funding and
infrastructure. In the meantime,
however, these issues feed into
a wider problem with public
perception, potentially blocking
some from adopting who would
not be so heavily affected as
they might think.
O’Reilly points to crosspavement charging grants.
Greater communication around
these options could “open up
the industry to people that were
previously not able to take part.”
Overall, the message must be
a proactive, positive one.
Wilbraham says: “We miss
a trick sometimes. There's the
argument that the charging
network is awful. To deal with
that, we meet them with a
graph about how many public
charge points there are and how
it's improved.
“We don’t tend to speak about
the fact that over the past few
years, many workplace chargers
have gone in, or home chargers.
Salary sacrifice means that
loads of people have got on
board, and the vast majority will
have a home charger.
“When we’re trying to tell the
story, we rebuff the negative
rather than creating our own
positive story – on the back foot
from day one. And because the
negative has appeared first and
is more emotional, it sticks.”
Phillpott agrees: “We're quite
good at publishing stats and
data, like how there’s now
85,000 public charge points
in the UK, but it's not really
sexy enough.
“There's a choice in the
numbers that we go for. A lot
of the charge point stuff is just
boring. Knowing that there's
loads of charge points – that
doesn’t create a sensation.”
Staveley agrees that there is
a “huge messaging gap,” and
recommends that brands start
with understanding the positive
images they are trying to create.
bClears's James Staunton
adds: “If there’s one thing that
the EV industry has, it’s pots and
pots of statistics.
"What’s great is it’s not just
the same story – we can plot the
change and improvements over
time, with rich sources of data.
It’s a great industry for PR from
that point of view.”
This also comes back to
personal identity. Sinclair says
statistics about the number
of public chargers fall flat
because “they’re not relatable
or anchored in anything that’s
relevant to us,” but that a
consumer might feel differently
knowing that their local
supermarket has invested in
charge points.
The panel agrees that
local framing and relatable
human experiences are the
key to unlocking further
adoption of EVs.
Nevertheless, these are by
their nature different from one
person to the next. There is no
easy way to perfectly tailor a
message to each individual
