Campaign group Electric Vehicles UK (EVUK) has announced its board structure, new executive team and a programme of activities for 2025/2026.

The group, founded in 2024, has followed up on a year of provisional activities, and a comprehensive consultation period with the whole EV industry, by establishing itself formally as a membership organisation with the mission to ‘drive demand’ for battery EVs, employing its #CheaperBetterBatteryElectric strategy.

It’s also recruited a new executive team of industry innovators and trailblazers.

Tanya Sinclair joins as CEO, bringing more than a decade of experience in OEM roles including Tesla, Nissan and LEVC as well as five years in senior positions within the UK and Europe at ChargePoint.

Sinclair said: “Having spent over a decade in the sector, representing UK, US and Asian-based companies, I recognise the globalised complexity of our industry’s current challenges. This is why it’s refreshing to take on the leadership of an organisation that’s focused on ‘driving demand’ and delivering tangible results for our industry as a whole and our partners in particular.”

Andy Palmer, who was previously CEO of Aston Martin and COO of Nissan and is known as the ‘Godfather of EVs’, joins as EVUK chairperson.

He said: “The EV industry in the UK is at a crossroads. If it can convince policymakers, press and purchasers of the value that battery EVs offer for individuals, we can accelerate uptake of used and new EVs alike. Failure to capitalise on the economic and technological benefits of electrification of vehicles, and adjacent technologies, could hamstring us for decades.”

EVUK has also set out plans for a 16-point programme of activities. Rather than lobbying government, or rely on taxpayer funding, the campaign group said it will proactively initiate an EV industry-funded programme of activities, targeted at policymakers, press and potential purchasers alike.

This includes support for a consumer campaign to advertise key benefits of battery EVs to prospective buyers and a year-round national test drive database to enable end-users to try battery EVs before they buy.

The campaign will kick off with a combination of EV education and test drives at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool in late September, an EV driver photocall at Everything Electric South in Farnborough in October, and a new event at LinkedIn in November entitled, ‘Everyone Electric’.

EVUK founder Dan Caesar said: “After 12 months of consulting with the EV industry in the UK, we can confirm that it is crying out for a seat around the policymaking table, as well as the opportunity to create a positive narrative around battery EVs, and to drive demand through marketing and test drives. That is what Electric Vehicles UK intends to deliver in the year ahead.”

Electric Vehicles UK will also reveal its full list of partners in October, with three OEM and 3 non-OEM ‘superpartners’ set to join the board. The latter includes Octopus Energy and Ovo Energy.