10:12 am, February 27, 2026
Car buyers are more concerned with the quality of their next car than where it was built, according to new research.
The survey of 1,000 in market car buyers, conducted by What Car?, showed that EV owners were slightly more likely to buy British (17%) than petrol or diesel owners (14%).
However overall, 80% were more concerned with whether the car – regardless of where it came from – was well made.
Even with a financial incentive, only 14% of EV buyers and 9% of those buying an internal combustion car said this would convince them to buy British.
What Car? has said this should be a wake up call to British manufacturers to ensure quality over anything else, but added British built models like the Nissan Leaf are well placed to do this. It’s previous model was the third-best performing EV in the What Car? Reliability Survey with a rating of 96.5%.
Mini also has a good track record for quality and was the second-highest rated car brand in the What Car? Reliability Survey, while the 2014-2024 Mini hatchback is the third-highest rated small car.
Unfortunately for Land Rover as a brand, it placed 26 out of 30 car manufacturers but its Range Rover Sport (2014-2022) was the second-best performing luxury vehicle and the Defender the fourth best seven-seater.
What Car? consumer editor Claire Evans said: ‘The fact that car buyers value quality over where a car is made means UK car producers need to ensure their vehicles are robust and reliable.
‘This is something Nissan did with the previous Leaf, but Land Rover needs to build on its recent progress when it introduces its own pure electric models, starting with the Range Rover Electric later this year.’
