Netflix promised to put an electric car in every film and series it makes. Three years on, electric cars on screen are a routine sight in streaming dramas and blockbusters. One brand still dominates the cast list.
In February 2023, Will Ferrell drove a run of General Motors EVs through Squid Game and Stranger Things in a Super Bowl advert. He also took a Cadillac Lyriq through Bridgerton. The spot launched “EVs On Screen”, a GM and Netflix partnership to put more electric cars into the streamer’s shows.
GM’s global chief marketing officer, Deborah Wahl, set out the goal at the launch. “We want to make EVs famous on streaming, small and silver screens to build an EV culture through storytelling that incorporates the experiences of driving and owning an EV,” she said.
Did Netflix keep its promise?
Netflix committed to include at least one EV in every film and series it produced. Its 2023 shareholder filing confirms that it supported its own productions in putting at least one electric vehicle on screen. By its 2023 ESG report, 90 per cent of Netflix productions were choosing to feature EVs on screen.
Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer at the time, said the cars were editorial choices. “It’s not product placement,” she said. GM wasn’t paying for its vehicles to appear, and showrunners decided how to use the fleet. Lee added that storylines could include real hassles of ownership, such as hunting for a public charger.
Netflix’s European teams make the same pitch. Ester Velasco of Netflix Spain said its sustainability consultants ask productions: “Could the character drive one, so that we can reflect sustainable behavior on screen and influence our audience?” She spoke at the Series Mania festival in France in March 2023.
Will Ferrell as part of his GM partnership in 2023.
Which electric cars get the most screen time?
EVLife checked the Internet Movie Cars Database (IMCDb) on 30 October 2026. Its contributors had logged 1,371 Tesla appearances in films and TV series. The Model S accounts for 522 of them and the Model 3 for 380. The Model X follows with 203 and the Model Y with 174.
Other EV brands trail far behind. IMCDb lists 60 Polestar entries, 50 of them the Polestar 2, and 35 for Rivian. BYD has 226 entries, although many are older petrol models such as the F3, which alone accounts for 53.
That gap stands out, because BYD moved past Tesla on sales. In 2025 it sold about 2.26 million fully electric cars, while Tesla delivered 1.64 million vehicles. Outside the US, BYD is now paying to close the screen gap.
UK leasing company Leasing Options ran an earlier IMCDb analysis. It found EV appearances in film rose 140.6 per cent in the five years to 2023, with a Tesla the most used model.
Who pays for the screen time?
Some appearances come from paid deals. In Captain America: Brave New World, the 2025 Marvel film, Sam Wilson drives a GMC Hummer EV SUV. Entertainment marketing agency BENlabs says the partnership gave GMC six integrations in the film and more than 175 million impressions.
Other cars arrive through creative choices. Polestar says its Polestar 3 appeared in HBO’s Succession. Meanwhile, Barbie drove a custom electric 1956 Corvette in the 2023 film.
Jon Alain Guzik, an automotive correspondent for The Hollywood Reporter, says writers resist obvious placement. “From everyone I’ve spoken to, from writers and directors to producers, it has to be in the service of the show as opposed to it being shoehorned in,” he told Polestar in 2023.
How is BYD getting onto screens outside the US?
In January 2026, BYD signed a partnership with Mediawan, the Paris-based group behind Call My Agent!. The deal puts BYD vehicles into productions across Mediawan’s 80-plus labels in 13 countries.
The first major outing is the Netflix film of Call My Agent!. It features the Dolphin Surf, the Sealion 7 and the Denza Z9GT. Denza, BYD’s premium brand, also appears in a Miraculous special on YouTube. An earlier BYD episode of the cartoon drew 25 million views in 34 countries.
Pierre-Antoine Capton, Mediawan’s chairman, set out the business case when the deal was signed. He said that “increasingly involving brands as partners in our productions is becoming essential”.
How has the on-screen image of EVs changed?
Jonathan Eisen, curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, has watched the portrayal shift. “In the 80s or 90s, electric cars were a source of comic relief,” he told Polestar. “But nowadays, electric cars in popular culture have just become a normal thing.”
Guzik is still waiting for an electric car that becomes a star in its own right. “We haven’t hit that yet. Maybe the next couple of years,” he said. “I think as soon as you see Dom Toretto in like Fast and the Furious 14 driving like an electric dodge, then I think maybe that’ll work, but we’re not there yet.”
A Tesla pile-up in Netflix’s 2023 techno-thriller Leave the World Behing starring Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali.
Do screen stories reflect the real world?
Researchers have focused more on whether screen stories reflect climate change at all. Good Energy, a non-profit that advises screenwriters, worked with Colby College on 250 popular films from 2013 to 2022. Only 9.6 per cent passed its Climate Reality Check. The test asks whether climate change exists in a story and whether a character knows it.
“The top line is just that the vast majority of films, popular films produced over the last 10 years in the United States, are not portraying the world as it is,” said Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, the study’s lead researcher.
On average, films whose characters acknowledged climate change earned 10 per cent more at the box office. Meanwhile, in 2026 a record 31 per cent of eligible Oscar nominees passed the test, according to Good Energy.
Netflix’s own goal remains one electric car per production. In the US, that car is still most likely to be a Tesla. In Europe, BYD is paying to change that.
