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TED Business

The secret perks of driving electric | Cynthia Williams

TED Business

TED

Business, Modupe Akinola, Ted Business Podcast, Business Leadership Podcast, Ted Talks Business, Ted Modupe, Ted Talks

41.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2024

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Electric vehicles need to be more than just eco-friendly — they have to be more chic, convenient and affordable than their gas-powered alternatives, says sustainability leader Cynthia Williams. She explores what it'll take for an electric revolution to succeed in the US, calling on corporations, policy leaders, investors and more to collaborate in unprecedented ways. After the talk, Modupe shares her own approach to encouraging change that sticks.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Ted Audio Collective.

0:05.0

Today, I want to tell you about one of my first loves,

0:11.0

Sapphire. She was beautiful, she was reliable, she was a blue 1993 Honda

0:18.6

Civic and she was the first car I ever bought in the US. If you want to know how long ago that was, I can tell you

0:26.5

that in Massachusetts, where I lived, gas prices were barely even nudging a dollar a gallon at the time. So yeah suffice it to say it was a long time ago but my

0:38.9

experience with Sapphire was foundational to me. She was the first major material investment I ever made.

0:46.0

Purchasing Sapphire made me feel like a true adult with something in my name.

0:52.0

With a car, I had the independence to do whatever whenever. But now

0:58.1

gas prices are up we're overly reliant on fossil fuels and we have a climate crisis.

1:05.0

We know the old ways are no longer going to cut it.

1:09.0

But does this change how we feel about our cars, our connection to them?

1:14.0

I'm Madupak and Ola. This is Ted Business.

1:21.0

Our speaker today is Cynthia Williams. She's a global director at Ford Motor

1:26.7

Company and a third generation automotive industry worker. She honors that tradition by proposing something new, the Electrical Vehicle Revolution,

1:37.0

and she has a strategy to convince even the most stubborn of skeptics to switch to electric. Then after the talk I'll discuss my own

1:46.0

approach to encouraging change both on the road and off. But first a quick break.

2:01.0

Have you ever had to have a really tough conversation with your parents? Well, I remember one like yesterday. I can still feel the knot in my stomach

2:06.4

31 years later. Just imagine me. I was a fresh engineer out of Michigan State University with my first real job offer with guess what?

2:17.0

My dad's number one rival. You have to understand. I grew up in Flint, Michigan. My dad was a GM guy all the way,

2:29.1

like his dad before him, his brother, and all of his friends. They were GM lifers. But thankfully, my dad was satisfied

2:39.0

with the fact that at least I'd be working for one of the big three.

2:45.0

Now when my granddad started working in the auto industry in the mid-1940s,

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