URBAN SCIENCE AND THE HARRIS POLL RELEASE 2025 AUTOMOTIVE DATA AND INSIGHTS KEY FINDINGS

The gap between dealers' perceived industry momentum and auto-buyers' hesitation widens

DETROIT, July 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban Science®, a global automotive consultancy and technology firm, and the Harris Poll today announced the release of their automotive data and insights key findings. This survey, conducted in early 2025, takes a closer look into the developing perspectives and opinions from dealers and auto buyers on a variety of topics relevant to the automotive industry, including EVs, emerging technology, auto-buyer preferences, policy changes and more.

"Now in its fifth year, some telling patterns have emerged through this collaborative survey. While key themes have proven true or even escalated year-over-year, several unexpected data points emerged from the 2025 survey — which isn't terribly surprising given today's current rate of technology change and the macro-economic factors that pose an outsized impact on the automotive industry," said Thomas Kondrat, Global Lead, Advanced Analytics at Urban Science. "Data is what we do, and having a deep and robust understanding of both dealer and auto-buyer perception on critical decision-making factors like AI-adoption, EV-readiness, cost of ownership and the impact of tariffs is proving to be more important than ever — for OEMs, dealers, auto buyers and the industry at large."

Conducted in January 2025 with a smaller, follow-up survey issued in February, this survey gathered data from adults aged 18+ who currently own or lease or plan to purchase or lease a new or used vehicle in the next 12 months, including 3,026 adults from the United States, 1,008 from Germany and 1,010 from the United Kingdom. Apart from this, data was collected from 254 OEM automotive dealers across the United States with the title of sales manager, general manager or principal/VP/owner. This collaborative report is the result of the only survey in the industry today that positions dealer and auto-buyer perceptions, concerns and expectations side-by-side. 

Key highlights from this year's findings include the following:

• Even before tariff announcements began, affordability has remained a top concern for auto buyers. This has proven to be true especially when referring to the cost of owning a vehicle, with 64 percent of auto buyers and 40 percent of dealers citing the affordability of a vehicle as their biggest concern.
• Tariffs continue to remain top of mind for both dealers and auto buyers. In fact, in response to the February 2025 omnibus survey, 3 in 5 auto buyers believe the tariffs will have a negative impact on the U.S. auto industry.
• Dealers remain optimistic on electric vehicles, while auto buyers feel less confident. Despite the expectation from dealers that customer interest in EVs will grow, only 47 percent of auto buyers agreed with dealers' statement that auto buyers would be ready for EV-only options by 2040 (with 48 percent saying they may never be ready).
• Dealers are enthusiastic about AI, whereas auto buyers have mixed feelings. Even though the overall awareness of AI's involvement in the shopping process has remained high for auto buyers, positive sentiment on the subject has declined year-over-year.

For a comprehensive breakdown of key findings from Urban Science's 2025 Harris Poll survey, visit www.urbanscience.com/harris-poll-report/.

About Urban Science
Urban Science is a leading automotive consultancy and technology firm that serves automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and dealers, and AdTech companies that support them, around the world. Headquartered in Detroit and operating in 20 office locations globally, Urban Science taps the power of its science – and its unrivaled data, solution offerings and industry expertise – to create clarity and business certainty for clients in even the most chaotic market conditions. Visit UrbanScience.com for more information about how Urban Science helps the automotive industry gain a competitive edge by taking the guesswork out of critical business decisions. This, in turn, drives improved efficiency and profitability industrywide.

About The Harris Poll
The Harris Poll is one of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., tracking public opinion, motivations and social sentiment since 1963. It is now part of Harris Insights & Analytics, a global consulting and market research firm that strives to reveal the authentic values of modern society to inspire leaders to create a better tomorrow. We work with clients in three primary areas: building 21st Century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking and earning organic media through public relations research. Our mission is to provide insights and advisory to help leaders make the best decisions possible.

Method Statement: 
This survey was conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Urban Science among 3,026 US adults aged 18+ who currently own or lease or plan to purchase or lease a new or used vehicle in the next 12 months (referred to in this report as "auto-buyers" or "auto-buying public"), and 254 U.S. OEM automotive dealers, whose titles were Sales Manager, General Manager or Principal/VP/Owner.

The auto-buying public surveys were conducted from January 10 to February 4, 2025. Data are weighted where necessary by demographics to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. The dealer survey was conducted January 9 to January 30, 2025. Data were weighted as needed based on the average of current and previous waves for gender, car types sold, job title and urbanicity.

The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within ±2.2 percentage points for U.S. auto-buyers and ±7.1 for U.S. OEM automotive dealers using a 95% confidence level.

SOURCE Urban Science