Are younger consumers buying cars like they buy phones?

Until recently, buying a car meant obsessing over horsepower, transmission types and brand heritage. But step into the market today and the showroom floor looks entirely different.

With the aggressive expansion of electric vehicle production and the entry of smartphone giants like Xiaomi and Huawei into the car market, vehicles are rapidly transforming into rolling computers.

This shift raises a fundamental question for the modern market: are younger consumers beginning to evaluate cars the exact same way they evaluate smartphones?

To understand the buying behaviour of young consumers, we must first recognise that the car industry is undergoing a profound digital transformation. Traditional factors like brand prestige and mechanical engineering, while still relevant, are steadily losing ground to software capabilities and digital integration.

Tech-focused manufacturers are prioritising software-driven car systems, leaving legacy car makers struggling to adapt. For millenials, this technological pivot is not just an added bonus; it is becoming a baseline expectation.

Market-specific factors like electric vehicle pricing and availability in regions like China may accelerate this trend, but the underlying data reflects a broader, cross-national generational shift among digital natives (someone who grew up around digital technology, such as smartphones) are revealing this shift in China, North America and Europe.

A generational perspective

When technologically minded consumers encounter an electric vehicle, they do not necessarily see a mechanical machine with a...

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