For years, car marketing has relied on the same story. Freedom. The open road. The feeling of escape. It’s an idea that defined entire generations, but it’s also one that doesn’t quite land with the next.
When we talk about Gen Z and car ownership, the first thing we need to accept is this: the world they’re living in doesn’t look like the one those stories were written for.
This is a generation that grew up connected, digitised. They can work, socialise, shop and explore without needing to leave their postcode. For them, cars aren’t the symbol of freedom they once were. They’re practical tools that should make life easier, not artefacts of a lifestyle that feels out of reach or out of date.
That doesn’t mean the emotion has disappeared. It has just changed shape.
The joy isn’t in the drive itself anymore, it’s in the ease. In a world that’s automatic, app-enabled and always on, the most powerful marketing story isn’t about the journey; it’s about how seamlessly you get there.
When you see the rise of automatic-only driving lessons, the popularity of electric cars and the expectation of hassle-free motoring, it’s clear that car culture is evolving. Vehicles are starting to be viewed like other connected devices: updated regularly, upgraded easily and expected to just work.
That’s the mindset shift automotive marketing needs to catch up with.
For years, brands have sold cars as objects of desire, attached to a story of freedom and exploration. But when every new car is reliable, safe and efficient, the rational reasons to buy have become table stakes. Gen Z doesn’t choose a car because of what it does; they choose it because of what it says about them.
They’re not buying engines. They’re buying identities.
That’s why some of the most interesting work in automotive right now is coming from brands like Renault, who have recognised that cultural fit matters as much as functional performance. The Renault 5 E-TECH EV works because it balances nostalgia and accessibility. Heritage design meets a modern, connected experience at a price point that feels achievable. It speaks to younger drivers without alienating the older ones, and it proves that a car can feel both familiar and new.
But for many brands and retailers, that level of clarity still feels out of reach.
The challenge isn’t just making the next EV more sustainable. It’s making the story around it more human again. Sustainability is no longer a unique message; it’s a hygiene factor. The next wave of differentiation will come from how brands make EVs feel, how they inject soul back into a product that’s become defined by silence and efficiency.
For retailers and marketplaces, this matters even more. They’re often the first and last touchpoint in the journey, yet the industry still struggles to modernise those experiences. Gen Z doesn’t expect to buy a car like they buy trainers, but they do expect the process to feel familiar: transparent, flexible and designed for them. If your digital experience is clunky, they won’t even make it to the showroom. The fact is, they may never actually want to visit a showroom, so online and digital presence in the process is paramount.
That’s where the opportunity lies, not in what’s being sold, but in how it’s being sold.
Retailers can’t control the product spec, but they can own the customer experience. They can make the transaction effortless, the finance clear, the aftersales experience frictionless. Every moment of ease adds value. Every bit of unnecessary effort erodes it.
Gen Z isn’t hard to please; they just have different (and higher) expectations of convenience, authenticity and design. They’re used to experiences that fit their lives perfectly. So, when a car brand or retailer feels stuck in the past, they don’t get angry. They just move on.
The industry has spent decades perfecting the mechanics of the car. Now it needs to perfect the mechanics of the story.
If we want Gen Z to fall in love with cars, we can’t keep selling them as machines of the past. We have to show them as enablers of the future: connected, customisable and part of the culture they’re already building for themselves.
That’s not a creative challenge. It’s a brand one. And the brands that figure it out first will own the next era of automotive loyalty.
