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Pulsar is the next generation audience intelligence platform that’s taking social data insights to a whole new level.
 
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Pulsar is the next generation audience intelligence platform that’s taking social data insights to a whole new level.


<p class="p1">Through obliterating the distance between consumers and restaurants, the online food delivery industry is set to reach a valuation of $126.91 billion in 2021. And, in addition to these enormous valuations, the trend has also generated a considerable amount of data.</p>
<p class="p1">Because while the order process itself takes place on closed interfaces available only to the companies in question, we see a plethora of different conversations take place on more public forums. These incorporate any number of interactions with the brand’s official channels, between drivers, and within distinct online communities, as individuals complain, express preferences, form affinities, and create associations.</p>
<p class="p1">So how to make sense of this abundance of data? This analysis hones in on three competing companies: DoorDash, Deliveroo, and the JustEat conglomerate (which also includes the US-based GrubHub and Australian Menulog).</p>
<p class="p1">Each of was listed as a PLC between 2020-2021 following increasing user numbers &#8211; and a corresponding lift in both recognition and engagement:</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8507349?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1"><a href="https://www.pulsarplatform.com/solutions/pulsar-trac/">Pulsar TRAC</a>, which leverages social, search, and news data including Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, and Google Search, allows us to examine the conversations around these brands between November 1, 2021 and Feb 1, 2022 in greater detail, starting with disparities in SOV across the US, UK, and Australia.</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8495158?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1">Uber Eats and the Just Eat family of brands have a worldwide presence that DoorDash and Deliveroo can’t match, but the latter two dominate discussion within the US and UK respectively. In fact, DoorDash even has a respectable conversation share in the UK, thanks to pop culture detectives.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Throwback to when a DoorDash employee leaked that Andrew Garfield was in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpiderManNoWayHome?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SpiderManNoWayHome</a> 😭 <a href="https://t.co/Hr47eCoQ9z">pic.twitter.com/Hr47eCoQ9z</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1476953796542550024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p class="p1">For the average consumer, these brands are not hugely differentiated from one another, which has the potential to impact brand loyalty.</p>

        <div class="post-related-post">
            <h3>Related</h3>
            <h4><a href="https://www.greenbook.org/insights/imagine-turning-tiktoks-into-insight">Imagine Turning TikToks Into Insight</a></h4>
        </div>
    
<p class="p1">In lieu of genuine novelty, we can look at the five qualities consumers associate with brands over the course of their interaction with the apps: speed, ease (the degree of friction in the delivery process), price, attitude (friendly or unfriendly drivers and customer service), and rewards (is there any benefit to brand loyalty?).</p>
<p class="p1">Interact with the visualisation below to see how the relationship between brand, country, and point of value or differentiation intersect (with JustEat incorporating GrubHub and Menulog):</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-hierarchy" data-src="visualisation/8511076?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1">The first and most obvious observation is how much of the chart is taken up by the US-only Doordash. This reflects the maturity of delivery services in the US. Compare this to Australia, where the market is in its relative infancy, with younger Australians driving adoption.</p>
<p class="p1">Back to differentiators, speed stands out as the unifying factor across brand and territory both. Clearly, customers see a quick delivery time as a motivating factor behind choosing a service, given how it impacts both food warmth and overall convenience.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have got to stop using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UberEats?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UberEats</a> or at least cut down, but it&#39;s so quick and convenient <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UberEatsAddiction?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UberEatsAddiction</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Tom Gaska Jr (@TomGaska90) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomGaska90/status/1485814416339779588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p class="p6">There is, however, much more variance in terms of secondary priority. Within the USA, and setting speed to one side, each service is identified most with a different quality: DoorDash with ease, Uber Eats with price, and GrubHub (under Just Eat) with Rewards.</p>
<p class="p6">Within the UK, meanwhile, speed is not only the most cited quality, but also, in the case of both Uber Eats and Just Eat, attracts as many mentions as all other qualities combined. Only Deliveroo, the largest, bucks the trend.</p>
<p class="p6">Viewed alongside the greater spread of emphasis within US markets, and the Australian focus remaining very much on expediency and delivery time, it suggests that only when online conversation around a brand reaches a certain volume does speed become deemphasised.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Stop accepting orders if you can’t fulfil them and the food comes late and cold &#8211; pretty over the app to be honest. Predicted arrival 505 &#8211; latest arrival 525. Actual arrival 540. Pizza cold &#8211; not the first. If you don’t have drivers don’t take the $$$ <a href="https://twitter.com/Uber_Australia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Uber_Australia</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/UberEats?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UberEats</a></p>
<p>&mdash; life at the non strikers end (@life_non) <a href="https://twitter.com/life_non/status/1476806610898980865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2021</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p class="p1">Of course, a brand’s ability to deliver on these qualities can sometimes fall short of what the consumer expects. And, given the distance between delivery and social media apps across the width of a screen is miniscule in terms of either millimetre or pixel, it’s second nature for individuals to express instant dissatisfaction.</p>
<p class="p1">Once again, the relative similarity of interface and surface means a general pattern, with Quality of Service (relating to delivery time and interactions with staff), edging out Condition of Food (Cold, Spilled, or otherwise damaged) and Wrong Order.</p>
<div id="attachment_33606" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33606" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-33606" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Food-Delivery.-Brand-Complaints-1024x649.png" alt="Chart: Food Delivery. Brand Complaints." width="1024" height="649"   /><p id="caption-attachment-33606" class="wp-caption-text">PULSAR</p></div>
<p class="p1">Within this, however, various brands over-index on specific complaints. In each case, the brand itself has relatively little control over the issue at hand, which is rarely a result of technical fault and more likely human error on the part of either restaurant or delivery person. But as issues mount up, and are reported either as one-off complaints on Twitter, or else as part of continuous conversations on Reddit, brands can find themselves becoming associated with specific complaints.</p>
<p class="p1">Quality of service can also have a profound impact on tipping etiquette. It takes a back seat, though, to the nationality of the prospective tipper:</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8511386?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1">Clearly, the United States was always going to come out on top here, thanks to its more established culture of tipping. Australia, meanwhile, has a comparatively loosely defined tipping culture, reflected in its low showing, while many posts emanating from the UK appear related to the effects of the pandemic and an appreciation of key workers.</p>
<p class="p1">More illuminating is a move away from national lines and towards segmentation by affinity and behaviour. When we split the participants within the conversation by their interactions online, we see distinct communities within both the largest US conversation (Doordash) and the largest British equivalent (Deliveroo).</p>
<div id="attachment_33624" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33624" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-33624" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MicrosoftTeams-image-46-1024x636.png" alt="The main communities discussing everything Deliveroo" width="1024" height="636"   /><p id="caption-attachment-33624" class="wp-caption-text">PULSAR</p></div>
<div id="attachment_33625" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33625" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-33625" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/MicrosoftTeams-image-47-1024x636.png" alt="The main communities discussing everything Doordash" width="1024" height="636"   /><p id="caption-attachment-33625" class="wp-caption-text">PULSAR</p></div>
<p class="p1">There are clear commonalities between the two. In both instances, the male:female split is approximately 60:40. President Biden and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rank as among the top influencers for both, losing out to Lil Nas X in the US, and Marcus Rashford in the UK.</p>
<p class="p1">The two audiences also share a clearly defined community in LinkedIn Business Bros, while in Daily Show viewers and Guardianistas, Gaymers who stream and Gay Millenial Only Fans users, Conservatives, and GB News Fans, there are clear parallels.</p>
<p class="p1">So what happens when we filter discussion of charges not by country, but by community?</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8587862?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p6">Liberal communities contribute disproportionately to conversations around tipping, frequently critiquing brands for restricting or seizing tips.</p>
<p class="p6">Tipping is, naturally, not simply a matter for the consumer, but also for the driver.</p>
<p class="p6">And nowhere is the driver’s experience more clearly mapped than on subreddits such as r/doordashdrivers, r/deliveroos, and r/couriersofreddit. Within these forums, drivers exchange frank opinions on their day-to-day activities and perspectives on the brands who commission them, as well as pursuing more niche topics like investing money earned within trading schemes.</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8511668?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1">Negative experiences with customers occupy first place. Whether ultimate fault and accountability lie with the customer themselves, or else with the brand and its operational model, drivers use the subreddits as an opportunity to vent irritation, shame, and anger with individuals able to relate.</p>
<p class="p1">This sits in comparison to Twitter, which tends to host more consumer-centric content about drivers, focusing on incidents that range from humorous interactions to unionisation and collective action.</p>
<p class="p1">These concerns can seem quite removed from the consumer at times, particularly when they’re ordering in something of an &#8216;altered state&#8217;:</p>
<div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/8582507?516077"><script src="https://public.flourish.studio/resources/embed.js"></script></div>
<p class="p1">Deliveroo and DoorDash are the outliers here, with the latter over-indexing for drunk orders, and the former for hungover orders. The latter likely stems from the British preoccupation with &#8216;hangover busters&#8217;, a concept that <a href="https://foodscene.deliveroo.co.uk/tag/hangover.html">Deliveroo itself has leaned into</a>, while DoorDash’s association with drunkenness appears the results of anecdotes incorporating inebriated riders and <a href="https://brobible.com/sports/article/john-daly-drink-taco-bell-order/">monumental drunk orders</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">Clearly, there are a number of motivations behind individuals and communities ordering certain foods. And, by using Pulsar’s Communities integration, we can see how specific audience segments show an affinity for specific types of cuisine.</p>
<div id="attachment_33608" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33608" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-33608" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Food-Delivery.-Community-Food-Habits-1024x556.png" alt="Chart: Food Delivery. Community Food Habits." width="1024" height="556"   /><p id="caption-attachment-33608" class="wp-caption-text">PULSAR</p></div>
<p class="p1">Sidemen/YouTube Comedy Fans talk a lot about chicken. In part, this is because other prominent British YouTubers have called out their orders, each containing chicken of some type, for being late or in bad condition. Simultaneously, posters make frequent references to wings and nuggets in both anecdotes and references. Clearly, chicken is central to both this demographic’s ordering habits and online vernacular.</p>
<p class="p1">Both U25 Liberal Daily Show Viewers, in the US, and LinkedIn Business Bros, in the UK, express interest in grocery. But while the latter report their experiences of ordering groceries:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’ve been using <a href="https://twitter.com/Deliveroo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Deliveroo</a> since they started but the service has got worse and worse &#8211; just has a grocery delivery from <a href="https://twitter.com/waitrose?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@waitrose</a> with missing item which happens- but now they are saying,sorry no refund ! We are currently isolating with Covid and now don’t have food for everyone</p>
<p>&mdash; Steve⭐️⭐️ (@xelmota) <a href="https://twitter.com/xelmota/status/1480188688445366273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 9, 2022</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p class="p1">…the former is more likely to amplify posts that take a dimmer view of the whole enterprise and the driver-customer relationship.</p>
<p class="p1">As delivery brands consolidate and expand their presence globally, the gourmets, grocery shoppers, cheat-mealers, and drunk orderers who make up their user base remain unified on fundamentals (such as speed), but wildly diverge on everything from tipping etiquette to which food types end up in their order &#8211; and on their social channels.</p>


A Moveable Feast: How Do Consumers Talk about Food Delivery?

<h2>The electric vehicle revolution is accelerating.</h2>
<p>At the same time, online interest is also rapidly expanding &#8211; producing numerous signals as to public preference, priority, and comprehension. Search interest in electric vehicles (EVs) has more than doubled over the past year, while social chatter has grown by a full 500% between Apr 2020 and Mar 2021.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-28113 size-full" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/1-Electric-Vehicle-Growing-Trend.png" alt="Line chart, &quot;interest in electric vehicles has grown over the course of a single year&quot;" width="1500" height="1124"   /></p>
<p>In recent months, references to electric vehicles or cars were larger than recycling as a topic, with a general parity punctured by major EV events – in this case, Volvo’s commitment to going fully electric by 2030.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28114" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2.-Surpassing-Recycling.png" alt="electric vehicles surpass recycling as a topic" width="1500" height="990"   /></p>
<p>But this growing audience interest is not all alike.</p>
<p>In this analysis, we used <a href="https://www.pulsarplatform.com/solutions/pulsar-trac/">Pulsar TRAC</a> to analyze over 300k posts &amp; articles authored in the US and UK between Feb 15 – Apr 5, across social and news platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok, Amazon, and extensive News sources, to answer:</p>
<ul>
<li>What does the new Electric Vehicle consumer want?</li>
<li>What features do they care about, and which doubts do they have?</li>
<li>How is this shift driving excitement and concern at the society level?</li>
<li>Which brands, CEOs, and public figures are most often associated with EVs?</li>
<li>What’s the role and audience of Tesla in all of this?</li>
</ul>
<p>The integration of Google search data into TRAC helped guide the direction of analysis, with recurrent or popular queries providing signposts to the common behaviours and perceptions that EVs provoke. Essentially, and at the risk of inducing groans, this functionality acted as a satnav for insights, helping us navigate the electric vehicle conversation.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>What do people talk about when they talk about Electric Vehicles? Societal Change vs. Consumer Preference</h2>
<p>One way to look at this topic and the data behind it is to try and understand the perceived societal impact of electric vehicle growth, from environmental benefit to investments in infrastructure. Another lens is looking at the EV itself as a consumer good –a car– and understanding how the public’s attention falls on elements like cost and aesthetics.</p>
<p>In terms of the societal impact of the EV growth, public attention is split between the different implications, as campaigners, critics, politicians, and investors jostle to frame and make sense of the direction of change.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28115" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/3.-How-are-EVs-spoken-about-in-terms-of-societal-impact.png" alt="electric vehicles' societal impact: charging infrastructure catching up with eco-concerns" width="1500" height="963"   /></p>
<p>A particularly contentious conversation is playing out on EVs as vehicles of environmental change (or lack thereof) as Joe Biden’s ambitious and expensive infrastructure plan, with its focus on EVs, comes under scrutiny from both the right and the left.</p>
<p>The economic effects of this shift (in jobs and investments) make up a quarter of total conversation, with attention falling onto the ethical (averting environmental catastrophe), the practical (how are these new fleets of electric vehicles going to get charged?), and the material (how can I make money off of this revolution?).</p>
<p>As we’ll see later, a large portion of the audience in the EV conversation has a high affinity for investments and is looking to position themselves to benefit and contribute to this revolution. But it&#8217;s the charging question in particular that remains top-of-mind when EVs are discussed as consumer goods.</p>
<p>While much of the EV-as-consumer-good conversation is future-facing, with many automaker plans stretching well into the next decade, people’s concerns are currently focusing on cost and how the car will get charged – the two topics making up over 90% of consumer concerns over EVs.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28116" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/4.-How-are-EVs-spoken-about-personally.png" alt="Charging &amp; cost by far the biggest factors when public discuss electric vehicles" width="1500" height="852"   /></p>
<p>Driving experience and aesthetics, factors that have been at the heart of traditional automobile branding and advertising for years, make up a comparably small percentage of total conversation, at 7.3%.</p>
<p>To dive deeper into consumer intent, we identified some of the sources of doubts among the public by looking at <a href="https://www.pulsarplatform.com/blog/2020/search-data-insights-social-search-listening-one-tool/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google search data in Pulsar TRAC</a>. In this case, search queries beginning with ‘can…’ hint at lingering doubts.</p>
<p>And those doubts are: can they tow? And will they catch fire?</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28117" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/5.-Can-Electric-Vehicles.png" alt="The most searched for electric vehicle capabilities" width="1500" height="1197"   /></p>
<p>Taking these insights- <a href="https://www.pulsarplatform.com/blog/2021/how-search-insights-complement-social-media-data/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sitting a tab away from the rest of the analysis</a> &#8211; and using them to ask better questions of the dataset means that a researcher can land at questions that better address actual consumer concerns.</p>
<p>And, in this case, it underlined the degree to which the public’s inquisitiveness turns on one key issue: charging logistics.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28106" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/6.-The-public_s-biggest-EV-priority.png" alt="circle chart, &quot;At-home charging the public's biggest electric vehicle priority&quot;" width="1500" height="1054"   /></p>
<p>And, within that broader topic, at-home charging stations emerge time after time as a key point of discussion.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The Audience Communities powering the Electric Vehicle conversation: Tesla vs. non-Tesla</h2>
<p>But – as we often say – different people talk about the same topic differently, and that’s something we can highlight with <a href="https://www.pulsarplatform.com/social-insights-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pulsar Communities</a>, real-time segmentation that zooms in on the different communities behind a given conversation, grouping them by affinities and behavior and recording their differing responses to a topic.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, the Tesla audience, which has been caring, talking about, investing, and often driving EVs for years now.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28107" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/7.-The-different-audiences-behind-the-EV-.png" alt="word map &quot;Tesla audience skews younger, with political affiliation a less key factor than for wider electric vehicle community&quot;" width="1500" height="1034"   /></p>
<p>Compared to the non-Tesla EV audience, people talking about Tesla are younger, more male, and American. They are also less politicized than the rest – partly because Tesla’s plans are not as tied as the broader EV industry is to the ambitious investment plants of a newly instated administration.</p>
<p>And zooming in on the charging conversation previously highlighted shows how the topic is playing out differently amongst different communities.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28108" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/8.-Charging-at-home-and-in-public.png" alt="Circle charts comparing Interest in at-home charging lags behind that in public charge-points&quot;" width="1500" height="651"   /></p>
<p>Communities focusing on entrepreneurship and finance are more likely to talk about the shifts in public infrastructure that will make widely available charging possible. The more politically conservative communities in the US, on the other hand, are more focused on the practicalities of fitting charging points to their own properties.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Where and how to reach different Electric Vehicle audiences</h2>
<p>But how can you reach the different communities in this conversation? Based on the top news links each of these communities is sharing (something we can easily visualize in Pulsar TRAC), we start to get a picture of where a media buyer might be best placed to reach them.</p>
<p>The segment labeled <strong>Petrolheads </strong>tend to be fans of a site called Taxassist, Reuters, and The Guardian for their news.</p>
<p><b>On</b> the other hand, US Conservatives are sharing links from conservative publications Washington Times, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, and Fox News.</p>
<p><b>On</b> the other hand, young investors share news links from Apple News (its own distinct behavior tied to iPhones), Investor News, Seeking Alpha, and Bloomberg News.</p>
<p>In terms of influencers, Petrolheads show a strong affinity for the Top Gear program and specialist news sources such as Autocar &amp; Car and Driver.</p>
<p>The US Conservatives within this conversation are notable for listening habits that incorporate conservative podcasters like Mark Levin and Dan Bongino. At the same time, Young Investors are orientated around market &amp; finance publications, ranging from The Economist to Stocktwits.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The Top Electric Vehicle Car Brands by Share of Voice</h2>
<p>However, for all the mooted changes to infrastructure, when it comes to the vehicles themselves, this is very much conversation-driven by brands. Here’s the share of voice for the largest automaker conglomerates and EV brands (if you don’t see your favorite car brand, it’s most likely owned by one of these companies).</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28109" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/9.-Biggest-brands-in-the-EV-convo.png" alt="circle chart, &quot;Tesla the biggest electric vehicle brand, with Volkswagen the most mentioned heritage brand&quot;" width="1500" height="1267"   /></p>
<p>Establishing which brands are front of mind in the EV conversation suggests how much the public is associating each brand with EVs – a hint about what might develop into consumer preference.</p>
<p>Despite their small size, “pure” EV makers are still winning on this front. Tesla, for instance, is in a league of its own, owning around a third of the total brand conversation. Along with other brands like Lucid Motors and NIO, brands only making EVs make up almost 45% of the total brand conversation.</p>
<p>And that percentage would certainly be even higher if it wasn’t for Volkswagen’s publicity around their April Fools’ rebranding as ‘Voltswagen,’ which propelled the German automaker to a second-place with around 12%.</p>
<p>Share of voice did not translate to a positive outcome for the German giant. However, confusion and irritation at the false rebrand contributing to a swell of ultimately negative emotion toward the wider automotive group.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28110" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/10.-Voltswagen-rebrand.png" alt="line chart 'Volkswagen' rebrand negatively sentiment around parent brand&quot;" width="1500" height="766"   /></p>
<p>Away from Tesla, Volkswagen, and BMW (7%), some of the largest US automakers like General Motors and Ford are beginning to solidify their perception as EV makers, with GM’s commitment to producing Electric Vehicles having provided the single largest spike in conversation, and GMC launching its EV Hummer.</p>
<p>Hyundai, too, benefited from their affiliation with K-pop group BTS but have failed to convert that into anything greater than a 3.4% share of total conversation in recent months.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>The top personalities (and Automaker CEOs) in the Electric Vehicle conversation</h2>
<p>Sustaining attention is what Tesla does, thanks to the celebrity status of their CEO, Elon Musk. In fact, Musk is one of the most prominent figures in the total EV conversation. But he is not #1.</p>
<p>Joe Biden’s infrastructure announcements and focus on electrifying the federal vehicle fleet have driven huge interest (and ensuing partisan debate) in the topic. It has elevated Pete Buttigieg, his secretary of transportation, to fifth on the list.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28111" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/11.-Biggest-celebrities-in-the-EV-convo-copy.png" alt="circle charts, &quot;Biden and Musk the most dominant figures in the electric vehicles conversation&quot;" width="1500" height="1395"   /></p>
<p>The Biden administration’s activity around EVs ensures a preponderance of politically aligned figures, mostly from the United States. Despite contributing a little under half the conversational volume, the UK offers up few notable people able to drive interest in the topic, with former  Labour Party leader Ed Miliband benefiting from his long-time association with environmental causes to sit top of a relatively insubstantial pile.</p>
<p>As an aside, it’s striking just how male conversation in this space is perceived to be, with sole female representative Nancy Pelosi’s 1.4% share of voice appearing rather isolated.</p>
<p>Dialing in on the automobile CEOs mentioned within the electric vehicle conversation, on the other hand, we see General Motors CEO Mary Barra buck the trend somewhat. She’s the fourth most spoken-about auto-manufacturer CEO not called Elon Musk.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s Musk who ultimately conditions – and distorts – this entire conversation. Barra and her all-male equivalents all lag behind the Tesla figurehead, who accounts for more than 3x the number of mentions of all the leading CEOs combined.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-28112" src="https://greenbook.org/mr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/12.-Biggest-Car-CEOs.png" alt="circle charts, &quot;Volkswagen CEO best of the rest as Musk dominates electric vehicles CEO conversation&quot;" width="1500" height="1194"   /></p>
<p>Herbert Diass, the Volkwagen CEO, has been elevated by the media take-up of his comments on the purported ‘Voltswagen’ rebrand. However, as with the company he represents, an apparent gain on Tesla’s share of voice contains a large degree of negative comment within it.</p>
<p>This highlights the issues faced by other brands in closing the gap between Elon Musk and his Tesla. Clearly, it will require more than an April Fools campaign. This being electric vehicles and the pack leader being a meme-fluent CEO, you can’t bet against stunts reconfiguring people’s perceptions and expectations. No one wants their car to be the last one out of the (charging) station.</p>
<p>A particularly contentious conversation is playing out on EVs as vehicles of environmental change (or lack thereof) as Joe Biden’s ambitious and expensive infrastructure plan, with its focus on EVs, comes under scrutiny from both the right and the left.</p>
<p>The economic effects of this shift (in jobs and investments) make up a quarter of total conversation, with attention falling onto the ethical (averting environmental catastrophe), the practical (how are these new fleets of electric vehicles going to get charged?), and the material (how can I make money off of this revolution?).</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Photo by <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@theidahoan?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Chad Russell</a></strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-white-and-red-tesla-charging-station-2480315/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></strong></em></p>


What Are The Consumer and Societal Reactions Towards Electric Vehicles?

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