{"id":2733,"date":"2021-02-01T14:25:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1336868"},"modified":"2021-02-01T14:25:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:25:58","slug":"the-29-words-thatll-make-you-want-to-buy-an-ev-or-so-says-uk-gov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=2733","title":{"rendered":"The 29 words that\u2019ll make you want to buy an EV \u2014 or so says UK gov"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The UK government is really keen on getting drivers into electric vehicles. Like, really keen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so keen in fact, that it\u2019s not only banned the sale of new combustion engine vehicles, but is carrying out \u201cbehavioral science messaging trials\u201d to find the best words and phrases to encourage drivers to make the switch.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the winning phrase, here\u2019s a breakdown of what the UK government did.<\/p>\n

Starting on March 6, 2020, the UK government started displaying messages to people who had just renewed their vehicle tax online. In the UK, drivers pay vehicle excise duty, which is an emissions based tax. (FYI: road tax isn\u2019t a thing.)<\/p>\n

The trial ran for 130 days, and tracked the actions and responses of over 4.2 million users of the government\u2019s road duty website.<\/p>\n

[Read: How Netflix shapes mainstream culture, explained by data<\/span><\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

There were eight messages in total, seven were tests and one was a control. The messages that appeared after the driver renewed their tax, encouraged users to click through to the Go Ultra Low (GUL<\/abbr>) website<\/a>, a joint government and industry initiative that aims to promote EV purchases.<\/p>\n

The most effective message in getting users to click through was:<\/p>\n

\n

The Government are consulting on ending the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans by 2035 or earlier. Are you ready? Make your next car electric.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Welp, that\u2019s a pretty direct message, to the point. Translating this from government speak to regular English it basically says: \u201cThe end is nigh for diesel and petrol, click here, because you\u2019ll have no other choice in 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least those proposed bans on combustion engine vehicle sales are proving to be effective, even before they\u2019re enforced.<\/p>\n

Messages, such as the below, which appealed to the community and herd mentality of the public also performed well.<\/p>\n

\n

Join the 6,000 new drivers every month who make the switch to an electric vehicle. Make your next car electric.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"government,
Credit: Gov.uk<\/a><\/figcaption>
<\/i><\/a>Chart 1: percentage of visitors to the government vehicle tax payment website that clicked through to GUL for each message for the whole trial (130 days from March 6 to July 14, 2020) (%). \u2018Are you ready?\u2019 performed best.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Messages that focused on the availability of charge points, the low cost of charging an EV, and the ease of charging did not appeal to drivers. Given that these are often touted as some of the most important considerations when buying an EV, it\u2019s interesting that people were least responsive to these words.<\/p>\n

At the moment it seems that British drivers care about two things: changing their car ahead of gasoline bans, and keeping up with what everyone else is doing. Everything else is perhaps too complicated to consider before actually buying an EV.<\/p>\n

With all that in mind, I\u2019ve come up with a new marketing slogan for all EV makers, and governments to use: \u201cBuy an EV, everyone else is.\u201d Please send my royalties in Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s full report can be read here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

<\/a>SHIFT<\/a> is brought to you by Polestar. It\u2019s time to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance.<\/span><\/i> Find out how<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Published February 1, 2021 \u2014 14:25 UTC <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK government is really keen on getting drivers into electric vehicles. Like, really keen. It\u2019s so keen in fact, that it\u2019s not only banned the sale of new combustion engine vehicles,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}