Why Wealthy Young Buyers Are Driving the EV Boom originally appeared on Autoblog.
Automakers love to put out ads featuring the Smiling Nuclear Family. Usually, the family is pretty young- you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone over 50 in most of these ads. The truth is, a lot of new car buyers are older than that. Subaru, for example, has an average buyer age north of that. But that's mostly for the brand's gas-powered cars. EVs are a very different story, according to a recent Forbes study.
Young, Wealthy Buyers Are Snapping Up EVs
Per Forbes Research 2025 Mass Affluent Survey, conducted between May and June this year, the relative youth are using their cash to buy EVs. These are pretty wealthy citizens, broadly, with Forbes' criteria narrowing the field to those with "$200,000 to $2 million in investable assets." Around 20 percent of people in this category, under 50, own an EV, while a further 27% own hybrids. It's a monstrous generational gap in EV ownership: those over 50 with $200,000 to $2 million in investable assets almost always have a gas car, with just 4% owning an EV and 12% owning a hybrid.
Buyers Under 50 Will Fuel Electrified Car Demand
What's more, the data shows that EV ownership rates among these people will remain strong. In the next year, 26% those surveyed, regardless of age, said they are going to purchase an EV if they didn't have one already, and another 31% said they were planning to do the same for a hybrid.
Just like the current ownership divide, it's the under-50 crowd that is driving demand among those polled. A staggering 41% of respondents under 50 said they are likely to purchase an EV, and another 39% said they'd do the same for a hybrid. Inversely, only 15% of polled shoppers over 50 would be in for an EV, and 26% said they'd be likely to buy a hybrid.
While the data set is rather narrow, only covering wealthy buyers for a span of a few months this year, the age gap between new EV buyers and gasoline-powered car owners is something we'll likely see continue. That gap is important to automakers, and the next generation of buyers' preference for tech and alternative powertrains has and will continue to shape the next generation of cars.
Automakers Are Right To Push High-Tech EVs
A few items are driving these buyers to purchase the cars they have. 74% of respondents said reliability was important, but so was safety (66%) and affordability (62%). Meanwhile, specific features can also put buyers into electrified vehicles. The study found that 44% of buyers valued "best-in-class" tech, like in-car Wi-Fi, smartphone integration, and advanced navigation. A similar percentage said they wanted advanced safety tech like adaptive cruise control. Automakers are already leaning into this, and in today's cars, technology is often a byword for luxury. Automakers are always chasing younger buyers, and this is the latest evolution of that strategy.
Unsurprisingly, sustainability also came up. 44% of those polled said that "sustainable and eco-friendly transportation solutions" were important to them. While truly affordable EVs are still out of reach for many buyers, the wealthiest buyers still prioritize the affordability of their vehicles.
It may be a part of the reason we're seeing a push for more affordable EVs, like the upcoming Slate truck and Ford's recent announcement for its smaller electric truck. Smaller, more affordable vehicles that are still heavy on tech and new electrified powertrains are automakers' way of welcoming new, younger, and likely less wealthy buyers into the fold. EV sales may not be sky-high, but for a certain kind of buyer, it appears automakers are making exactly what they're looking for.
Why Wealthy Young Buyers Are Driving the EV Boom first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 19, 2025
This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 19, 2025, where it first appeared.
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