Britain's electric switch is gathering pace, but it is leaving one group of drivers behind, and it has little to do with the usual suspects of price and range.

The EV gender gap: women risk being left behind in the switch to electric

June 15, 2026 Richard Alvin

Britain’s electric switch is gathering pace, but it is leaving one group of drivers behind, and it has little to do with the usual suspects of price and range.

Electric vehicles now account for close to a quarter of new car registrations, yet fresh research from Auto Trader suggests confidence, not cost, is the quiet brake on adoption among women. Some 17 per cent of women told the marketplace that a lack of knowledge about the technology was the main thing stopping them from buying an EV. Among men, the figure was less than half that, at 8 per cent.

It is a gap that should worry an industry racing to hit increasingly steep electrification targets. With men largely enthusiastic about plugging in, the danger is that the transition becomes lopsided, powered by one half of the driving population while the other watches from the kerb.

The numbers tell a consistent story. Auto Trader found that only 8 per cent of women actively considered an EV the last time they bought a new car, compared with 12 per cent of men who felt confident enough to make the leap away from petrol.

So-called range anxiety, the worry about running out of charge, weighed on both sexes. But women were noticeably less enthusiastic about relying on Britain’s public charging network, particularly on longer journeys. Earlier Auto Trader work went further still, finding that many women regarded an EV as another hassle to manage rather than a chance to adopt a cleaner technology.

Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, argued the findings expose how poorly the industry has spoken to female buyers.

“With electrification, the automotive industry has a massive opportunity to fundamentally change the way we talk about, market and sell cars to women,” Plummer said. “We’d like to see significant action from the industry to address the gender gaps we’ve uncovered, so that more drivers feel confident enough to make the switch.”

The research lands at a delicate moment for policy. Ministers are weighing whether to ease the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which currently requires 80 per cent of new car sales to be fully electric by 2030. Carmakers have lobbied hard to see that 2030 figure cut to 50 per cent, warning that the tougher target threatens jobs.

The headline registration data underlines the pressure. The latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders put EVs at 23.9 per cent of the market, comfortably short of the 33 per cent share the mandate demands in 2026. Hitting that trajectory means converting far more of the cautious majority, and women are a decisive slice of it.

“We need as many car buyers as possible to get on board with electric cars in order to hit the steep annual targets that are coming in the next few years of the ZEV mandate,” Plummer said. The industry’s calls to soften those targets only sharpen the point: every reluctant buyer left unconvinced makes the maths harder.

Some manufacturers have begun to respond. Renault and Volkswagen are among the brands that have made a deliberate decision to target women in their advertising, while a clutch of industry groups has sprung up to draw more women into the sector. Auto Trader’s own research, published with British Gas, has repeatedly argued that EV messaging leans too heavily on technology and not nearly enough on the things many buyers say they actually prioritise, such as safety and ease of use.

Gill Nowell, who founded the Global Women in EV Day campaign, reframes the issue entirely. The problem, she argues, is not female drivers, it is who builds the cars and the infrastructure around them.

“I don’t think women have an EV problem,” she said. “I think the EV sector has a representation problem.”

Historically, Nowell points out, the industry paid too little attention to safety, accessibility, lighting, facilities and ease of use at public charging sites. “Increasingly it is doing so, but these are consumer considerations that can significantly influence perceptions and adoption.”

The gender gap is not a story about women being slow to embrace electric cars. It is a story about an industry that has, until recently, designed its products, its charging network and its sales pitch with a narrow buyer in mind. Close that representation gap — in marketing, in the showroom and at the charge point — and a large, sceptical group of drivers becomes a large, persuadable one. With 2030 looming, the industry can ill afford to leave them behind.