Martijn Versteegen, CEO of Imagin.studio, on how a lack of brand equity for industry newcomers means fleets and company car drivers are buying cars they know very little about.

Scroll through any leasing portal today, and you will encounter names that didn’t exist in the British consciousness just two years ago: BYD, Jaecoo, Omoda, and Xpeng. We are witnessing an unprecedented influx of new players, and with them comes a unique psychological phenomenon I call ‘badge blindness’.

For decades, the car industry relied on ‘badge equity’. Someone might lease a Toyota or a Volkswagen without ever seeing the specific unit, confident in the legacy the logo represents. But for the new wave of EV brands, that legacy hasn’t been written yet.

We must acknowledge that brands such as Jaecoo are already defying the ‘newcomer’ label. In 2025, Jaecoo became the fastest-growing mainstream brand the UK has seen in a decade, with the Jaecoo 7 even breaking into the top 10 monthly sales charts.

However, ‘doing well’ is no longer enough. To reach the UK’s ambitious ZEV mandate targets, which require 33% of new car sales to be zero-emission in 2026, rising sharply toward 80% by 2030, these brands need to move from ‘successful alternative’ to ‘default choice’. To reach government targets, they must become even more popular, and that requires overcoming a lack of familiarity, and ultimately, trust.

From SEO to GEO: Winning the AI answer

This trust gap is compounded by a fundamental change in how customers discover cars. We have moved beyond the era of simple ‘blue links’ on a search page. Today, the battle is won or lost in the AI overview.

Instead of searching for a specific brand, users now ask intent-driven questions: “What’s the best EV for a family of four with a dog and a £500 budget?” To remain visible, leasing companies must pivot from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).

GEO is the art of ensuring your brand is the ‘trusted source’ that AI engines, such as ChatGPT, cite when they synthesise an answer. If your digital assets are generic or inconsistent, AI models will ‘skim’ over them. To be retrievable, your data must be structured, authoritative, and, most importantly, visually unique.

Visual transparency as the proxy for trust

In the absence of brand heritage, visual transparency is the only proxy for trust. If a customer cannot touch the door handle, the digital twin of that vehicle must be beyond reproach.

To solve badge blindness and meet the volume required by the ZEV mandate, providers need:

Hyper accuracy: Every trim and paint shimmer must be rendered with 100% fidelity.

Interactive exploration: 360° views allow consumers to ‘inspect’ the car, providing the psychological reassurance of a physical walk-around.

GEO-ready assets: AI engines reward unique, high-quality imagery over recycled stock photos. Unique digital renders ensure your brand is the one ‘cited’ in the visual answer.

By providing total visual clarity, we replace decades of missing history with a modern, digital-first foundation of confidence. In the EV era, if they can’t see every detail, they won’t sign the contract.

Martijn Versteegen is CEO at Imagin.studio and senior automotive advisor. He regularly shares his opinion on developments in the automotive market.