Gen Z's Take on Car Culture Looks a Little Different

Much has been said and written about where Gen Z is headed, but how exactly they’ll get where they’re going is a far less explored topic. Fortunately, Morning Consult Audience data — which draws on millions of survey interviews about demographics, psychographics, and consumption behaviors in more than 40 countries — offers some answers, at least in a very literal sense.

Relative to all U.S. adults, Gen Z adults are less likely to own cars, less reliant on cars for transportation and generally less involved in automotive fandom. 

And while Gen Z car ownership may climb as more members of the generation age into adulthood, certain macro factors — such as continuously higher-than-normal car and gas prices — are working against a full-on embrace of all things auto by Gen Zers. But perhaps more importantly than anything else, car culture simply isn’t as relevant as it once was, a fact that is especially true for young people. 

(Non) daily drivers 

Gaining the ability to drive (and the subsequent freedom this ability affords) was long a defining part of the American adolescent experience. However, this is increasingly not the case.  

Gen Zers are less likely to have a driver’s license than their older counterparts at the same age, and even those with the legal ability to drive are doing so less than the average U.S. adult on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, according to Morning Consult audience data.

Compared to the general population, Gen Z adults are more likely to live in urban areas, be students, be unmarried and be without kids — all things that make driving less of a necessity. But also all things that were true of previous generations in their youth. What really differentiates the Gen Z driving dynamic (or lack thereof) is the extent to which digital experiences control their day-to-day lives. 

Though Gen Zers are less likely than all U.S. adults to be employed full-time, those who do work are more likely than all U.S. adults to do so remotely, lessening the need for a commute. Plus, they’re voracious users of transportation services like ride-share and meal delivery: Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) regularly use the latter — that’s 19 percentage points higher than the average consumer. 

In short, Gen Zers’ spend much of their days at home on their phones and computers, where, rather ironically, content around another, more humble mode of transport — walking — tends to thrive.

Fitness gurus endlessly tout the benefits of hitting 10,000 steps per day. Influencers document their “hot girl walks.” Walking pads are one of the most viral products on TikTok. Urban planners are even accumulating large followings for discussing the importance of walkable cities.

But Gen Zers aren’t just watching people talk about walking; they’re actually walking, too. Two-thirds (67%) of the young cohort cite walking as their primary fitness activity.

And while the circumstances, technologies and fixations that shape the contours of daily life for Gen Z will continue to inform their relationship to driving, it is, again, almost inevitable that their car ownership will increase with age. However, one automotive market segment may see little benefit: electric vehicles. 

Fizzling EV enthusiasm

The share of Gen Z adults who expressed interest in owning an electric car steadily declined from 52% in June 2022 to 42% in June 2024. Meanwhile, the share who said they had no desire to own an electric car grew almost equally, from 41% to 48%, during the same period. Similar movements were not observed among all U.S. adults.  

What’s more, Gen Z adults continued to report stable levels of interest in environmentally-conscious shopping habits, suggesting their decline in enthusiasm for EVs is not the product of a broader anti-environment movement.  

More and more, Gen Zers’ are starting to prefer classic, timeless styles over trendy ones, a shift in taste that could certainly be at play. For example, in Morning Consult Intelligence data, every legacy auto brand ranks above EV-only manufacturers on net favorability (the share with a favorable opinion minus the share with a negative opinion) among Gen Z adults — often in double-digit fashion. 

That said, 42% is still a sizable share of Gen Z adults reporting interest in EVs. The future of the Gen Z market will likely be a healthy mix of traditional car-seekers, EV-seekers and no-car-at-all-seekers. Regardless, with car-based transportation becoming less and less critical to young consumers’ lives, automakers will have to appeal to broader lifestyle interests, rather than baseline needs, in order to stand out. 

In the future, Gen Zers may just demand that car marketing become less about silver-toned action shots against sweeping landscapes, and more about how auto ownership can serve as a vehicle for self-expression.

This memo utilizes data from Morning Consult Audience, our new product that makes it easy to explore and build thousands of custom audience profiles to better understand your target customers. To learn more about Morning Consult Audience, request a demo here.