Around 90 million cars were sold across the globe in 2025, with Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai-Kia reigning as the leading vehicle manufacturers. Electric vehicle manufacturers, such as Chinese brand BYD, continue to grow year on year, with EVs accounting for 25% of all new vehicle sales in 2024. EV adoption has experienced major growth in China and Europe, with over 11 million EV sales reported in China alone in 2024.
In the UK, the automotive industry contributed a significant GBP93 billion to the national economy in 2024, employing over 813,000 people. As 8 out of 10 UK-manufactured cars are exported, the industry accounts for 12% of total UK goods exports. Recent updates to the UK’s move to de-carbonise the economy mean government targets for manufacturers have again been brought forward from 2040 to between 2030 and 2035. FieldworkHub has supported both B2B and consumer projects in the automotive market, including projects on electric vehicles, used cars, lubricants and engine conditioners, and paint finishing products.
Focus groups bring together a small number of participants for a moderated discussion, either in person or online. They are particularly useful for exploring consumer attitudes, evaluating new concepts and understanding how people react to and build on one another’s ideas.
In-depth interviews (IDIs) involve a one-to-one conversation between a researcher and a participant. They are well suited to exploring complex decisions, personal experiences and sensitive subjects, particularly in B2B research or when specialist knowledge is required.
Ethnographic research involves observing people in their everyday environments, such as their homes, workplaces or shops. It is useful when researchers want to understand how products and services are used in practice, rather than relying solely on what participants say.
Online bulletin boards (OBBs) allow participants to complete research tasks and respond to questions over several days, at times that suit them. They are useful for diary-style research, gathering detailed reflections and exploring topics that benefit from considered rather than immediate responses.
Market research online communities (MROCs) bring participants together on a digital platform for ongoing research. Unlike shorter OBB studies, MROCs can cover multiple topics over weeks or months, making them useful for user engagement, innovation and tracking changing attitudes.
UX testing involves observing people as they use a website, app or digital product, often while completing specific tasks. It helps identify usability problems, understand why users encounter difficulties and evaluate prototypes or existing digital experiences.
Customer experience research examines how people interact with a brand, product or service across touchpoints. It can combine interviews, surveys, focus groups and other methods to understand satisfaction, identify frustrations and explore opportunities to improve the customer journey.
Video surveys ask participants to record short responses to research questions, usually using their smartphones. They can involve selfie videos, product demonstrations or narrated activities, making them useful when researchers want to capture reactions and experiences in participants’ own words.
Vox pops involve short video interviews that capture people’s immediate opinions and reactions, usually in public locations or remotely. They are particularly useful for gathering spontaneous feedback on familiar topics, products or brands and illustrating research findings with real voices.
Online surveys allow respondents to complete structured questionnaires on their computers or mobile devices. They are often the most efficient option for reaching larger samples, testing preferences and measuring attitudes when respondents can be recruited and surveyed remotely.
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) uses interviewers who follow a digital questionnaire and record responses during a telephone call. It is useful for reaching business professionals or other audiences who may be difficult to engage online, and for surveys with lots of open-ended questions.
Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) involves an interviewer recording responses on a tablet or similar device during an in-person survey. It is useful for street intercepts, location-specific research and research where participants need to see or try a product before answering questions.
Our client wanted to understand the decision-making process of UK car repair workshops when ordering replacement electronic control units and their views on the use of refurbished products. We delivered quantitative results from over 200 respondents using a combination of telephone interviews and an online survey.
FieldworkHub recruited owners of small and medium-sized independent garages in Manchester to take part in interviews at their workplaces about engine coolants and fuel additives. In a second phase of this project, we also recruited commuters, cab drivers, car enthusiasts and vintage car drivers for interviews.
A design consultancy was working with a European motor manufacturer to develop a new product to help owners of battery electric vehicles to recharge their cars more easily. We recruited respondents in France, Italy and Spain to take part in focus groups and IDIs about pain points with charging and the new product concept.
FieldworkHub was asked to recruit UK-based respondents for a three-part development study discussing difficulties that people encountered when claiming from their motor insurance provider following an accident. We recruited 13 respondents who had made a recent claim and were able to speak about their experiences.
Our client was working for Toyota and Lexus in the Middle East and wanted to explore topics around car ownership, car servicing and personal mobility in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We were asked to recruit 60 car owners, car drivers and people who used other personal mobility solutions for 90-minute online and face-to-face IDIs.
This research was looking for professional paint sprayers and paint finishers working in the automotive and maritime industries in the UK and Ireland for tele-depth interviews about paint finishing systems. FieldworkHub recruited the full quota of respondents in both countries.
