BROKERS will have as many as 15 new car brands to sell in 2025, according to Auto Trader.
The vast majority of the new entrants will be offering purely electric cars aimed at business users.
However, the new brands will put pressure on traditional manufacturers and raise the likelihood of some exiting the market.
According to Marc Palmer, Auto Trader’s Head of Strategy and Insights, there is precedent for a rapid change in brand loyalty. He pointed out that 10 years ago fleet stalwarts Ford and Vauxhall had a combined market share of nearly 25%; today that figure is less than 10%.
Palmer said: “In 2024, 7% of new car registrations went to new brands, by 2030 that could be 20%. Customer loyalty within ICE cars is 41%, that’s the number that have an ICE car and stick with the same brand to buy another ICE car. When people buy an EV – either switching out of an ICE car or between EVs – that loyalty figure drops to 19%.
"EVs have half the brand loyalty of ICE buyers."
Commenting on the likelihood of some brands exiting the market, Auto Trader CEO Nathan Coe added: “There will be 62 brands in the market in 2025, in 2019 there were 45.
“The one thing you can guarantee is that if we go back to 45 brands, then it won’t be the same 45 there were back in 2019.”
And in a veiled hint at Jaguar’s rebranding, plus other brands’ naming strategies for EVs, he added:
“OEMs don’t help themselves. With EVs, traditional OEMs have moved to new names and confused customers and caused them to look elsewhere.”
The new brands for 2025
- Leapmotor
- Skywell
- Hongqi
- Link & Co
- XPeng
- Seres
- Zeeker
- Jetour
- Exeed
- Nio
- Tank
- Rimac
- Canoo
- Farizon
- Haval
Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
