Why Electric Cars Need Behavioural Science, Not Bigger Batteries!
Everything Electric Podcast
The Fully Charged Show
4.8 ā¢ 1.4K Ratings
šļø 20 October 2025
ā±ļø 52 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
In this weekās episode Imogen talks to behavioral economics expert Rory Sutherland who explains why understanding human psychology might be more important than building bigger batteries.Ā
Rory, who founded Ogilvy's behavioral science unit, shares brilliant insights on everything from why we need to "solve for anxiety rather than range" to why giving people rail vouchers might increase car usage (yes, really). This episode is packed with counterintuitive ideas that will change how you think about transport, behavior change, and innovation.
00:00 - IntroductionĀ
02:04 - What is behavioral economics?Ā
03:08 - Range anxiety: Solving for anxiety, not rangeĀ
06:32 - Why speeding barely saves timeĀ
10:28 - Transport for Humans: The bus information problemĀ
16:51 - Why 95% of EV drivers never go backĀ
22:37 - Network effects and why behavioral change takes timeĀ
28:10 - Travel smarter, don't travel fasterĀ
33:25 - Better alternatives to EV grantsĀ
38:03 - Removing political heat from EVsĀ
39:30 - The Heathrow Pod: Why it's magical and valuableĀ
44:23 - The heat pump vs. air conditioning debateĀ
46:51 - Why test drives should be two weeks, not three daysĀ
49:41 - Why psychologists arrive too late to solve problems
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Everything Electric podcast where today I'm joined |
| 0:12.8 | by Rory Sutherland. Now, he is one of the world's leading experts on behavioral economics |
| 0:18.3 | and human decision making and he has spent the past 37 years at the |
| 0:22.2 | huge advertising agency, Ogilvy, where he set up the behavioral science unit. And that means that |
| 0:28.1 | he basically uses psychology to creatively solve problems rather than always jumping to the |
| 0:33.1 | technological solution, really taking the time to understand human behavior and what motivates us. |
| 0:39.1 | And let's just take an example. Let's take range anxiety. Could we in fact solve for anxiety |
| 0:44.3 | rather than range? And if we did so, could we solve that challenge more effectively and for less |
| 0:49.9 | investment? Well, probably. Now that is the kind of thing that we are going to discuss in this |
| 0:55.0 | particular episode. And looking at where we are with electric vehicle adoption, could we |
| 0:59.6 | solve things slightly differently without deploying new technology? You're in for such a treat. |
| 1:05.4 | He is such a fantastic speaker. I have to do very little in this particular episode. And I really hope that you enjoy it. So do let us know what you think. All of that you're have to do very little in this particular episode and I really hope that you enjoy |
| 1:12.1 | it. So do let us know what you think. All of that to come, but first a very quick advert break. |
| 1:18.4 | Our three free YouTube channels on EVs and Clean Tech are funded by our fun-packed test-draftastic |
| 1:25.3 | events in Farnborough, London, the Southwest, the North, Melbourne and Sydney. |
| 1:31.3 | Next up, Everything Electric Melbourne. And you for UK viewers, you can buy a battery electric vehicle |
| 1:37.3 | or more at Everythingelectric.store. Rory, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. |
| 1:45.4 | I think safe today, when I've mentioned that you were going to be joining us for a discussion, people have been extremely |
| 1:49.3 | excited because they have no doubt seen various bits and pieces that you've done on TikTok |
| 1:53.6 | or various other platforms or listen to your new podcast. And I think you have an extraordinary |
| 1:58.9 | way of thinking about problems and solutions. |
| 2:02.5 | So I cannot wait for this discussion. |
... |
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