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Zero: The Climate Race

The extraordinary rise of electric cars in developing countries

Zero: The Climate Race

Bloomberg

Technology, Business, Science

4.7219 Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Something remarkable is unfolding in developing countries. From Nepal to Costa Rica, more people are buying electric cars than fossil-fuel vehicles, as battery prices plummet and cheap home-grown EVs come to market. And in China, more electric cars will be sold in the last quarter of this year than the total number of all cars sold in the US. Colin McKerracher, head of transport at BNEF, joins Akshat Rathi on Zero to unpack these trends, and what they mean for global oil demand.

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Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Siobhan Wagner, Sommer Saadi and Mohsis Andam. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

On his podcast Chasing Life, I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

0:04.1

CNN's chief medical correspondent brings you the secrets of the happiest and healthiest people on the planet so that you can live your best life.

0:13.2

Are some people just born happier than others?

0:15.9

And what might they be doing that the rest of us aren't?

0:19.9

Follow Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Apple, Spotify, IHeard podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0:30.2

Welcome to Zero. I am Akshatrati. This week, electric cars in developing countries.

0:47.7

Music electric cars in developing countries. I've been obsessed with cars since I was a kid,

0:50.3

but I didn't get a license till I was 35,

0:52.7

because for me, driving isn't the fun part.

0:56.4

It's everything else that I like about cars, like design. Until I left India when I was 21,

1:02.1

I could tell every model of car just by looking at the shape of their front or rear lights.

1:07.0

That's how obsessed I was. In any case, cars have been a good obsession when covering climate and energy.

1:14.1

Sure, the best climate solution is widely accessible, cheap, electric public transport in every city in the world.

1:21.1

But we don't live in the perfect world and cars aren't going to be obsolete for a long time.

1:27.5

So the climate solution for cars is electrification,

1:30.3

and what's happening now in the world of electric cars is a big deal.

1:34.6

They have impacts at so many levels.

1:37.0

At the consumer level, people are starting to learn how to charge

1:39.8

when there's cheap power available,

1:41.8

because utilities are creating new tariffs.

1:44.7

And on the geopolitical level, petro-states have to start thinking about how long they can bet on oil in the future.

1:52.0

There's always so much news about electric cars.

...

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