Consumers from each country present their own set of diverse curiosities and concerns shaped by cultural and economic differences.
Brands face two main challenges when navigating consumer discourse across different markets:
The challenge
The complexity of researching discourse across borders
Synthesizing their findings into actionable insights that capture the subtleties of each region.
Understanding the unique context of the viewpoints coming from each market
The case study
Plugging into the global conversation on electric vehicles
While perspectives and priorities may differ by culture, consumers mainly express themselves on two channels:
Search engines
Social media
The solution
Bridging cultural differences with universal data sources
Search engines
Search is the gateway to unstated behaviour where individuals go to privately seek out information, answers, and insights.
Social media
Social media is a showcase of stated behaviour, where individuals present curated personas, express public sentiments, and engage with a wider community.
Looking into search data
Searches on EVs mainly reflected growing concerns over the negative environmental and social impacts of the EV supply chain
Looking into search data
The main search themes revealed significant doubt over how sustainable EVs really are
Does the power to charge EVs still come from gas?
+2400%
“do electric cars still use fossil fuels”
+1200%
“electric cars coal”
+233%
“are electric cars powered by fossil fuels”
Do emissions from making EVs outweigh their environmental benefits?
+596%
“electric car battery production co2”
+221%
“electric car manufacturing emissions”
+147%
“bilan carbone fabrication voiture electrique” (carbon footprint electric car manufacturing)
Is the disposal of EV batteries hazardous?
+1300%
“ev battery disposal problems”
+400%
“lithium battery waste management”
+350%
“how are ev batteries disposed of”
Discourse on EV
Social conversations reflected similar environmental concerns with a tone of skepticism over the perception of EVs as sustainable
“Anyone who chooses an electric car also chooses the environmental pollution of battery scrap in the sea….But you people all know that, don’t you?”
🇩🇪
“Anyone thought of the pollution due to mining EV components?”
🇮🇳
“The power grid doesn’t support everyone converting to EVs. Also, where does everyone think the electricity comes from?”
🇬🇧
“At the end of a battery’s life, when you recycle it, it will pollute as much as a thermal/petrol car. So today, electric cars aren’t as green as you think.”
🇫🇷
Looking into social data
Social discussions involved detailed concerns about specific harms, indicating a level of informed debate
“Green EV cars are not as green as they want you to think. For example Lithium that they need contaminates the ground water of their mines for 300 years”
🇬🇧
“A single electric vehicle charges with around 20 KW and drives around 4 hours. That is the consumption of around 20 households. Where should the electricity come from?”
🇩🇪
“70% of our electricity requirements come from coal power and we charge using that electricity which is actually polluting the environment…are we in a loop?”
🇮🇳
“Do EV owners know where electricity comes from? 3400 power plants in the US still use fossil fuels to power their cities & EVs.”
🇺🇸
Distilling the discourse
Key themes emerging
Unlocking meaning in discourse using AI
To interpret the large volume of data on EV sentiment, we employed large language models to detect and classify the data into key themes.
723,000
🔎 Search keywords
4000
💬 Social media posts
5
🌏 Countries
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