RE: Must See! Beautiful Pre-Production Tango!

["Arnaud Hubert" <arnaud@siliconvalleyfrogs.com>]

Hi Lee,

While I agree with your assumptions, I don't necessarily that the only way
to combat advertising "nonsense is with sense".
You just stated that buyers don't necessarily buy a car based on facts and
science. And you're right. That's what marketing and advertising is all
about.

It really all depends who you want to sell an EV to, and what kind of EV
you're talking about.
If you want to go for environmentally conscious people with a limited
budget, then you can use facts and logic, and sell them an EV, even if it
doesn't look very hot.

If you want to market it to the soccer moms, then you have to come up with
an electric equivalent of the SUV or the minivan, and the RAV4 EV might just
do that if Toyota markets it right.

If you want to market it to the hip crowd who likes flashy cars but wants to
have a clean conscience, then build an electric roadster with good looks.
Personnally, I strongly believe there is a very sizeable market for this
kind of car. If someone out there is ready to import Porsche 550 or 356
replica fiberglass chassis from Chamonix Cars in Brazil and load them with
NiCd batteries and decent motors and controllers, it might just cost less
than $25,000, look like a little asphalt monster, and compete with the likes
of the Ford Thunderbird, the Audi TT, the Lexus SC 430 or the Honda S2000.
Many roadster drivers (especially women) don't take those cars faster than
75 mph anyway.
If you show them a hot little EV that will dust almost any ICE roadster at
the green light, that will allow them to drive in the carpool lane to piss
off their co-workers at peak hours, and that's 30-70% cheaper than the
models prementioned, they'll buy it - provided you market it right.

Now all I need is a venture capitalist ;-)

Arnaud Hubert



-----Message d'origine-----
De : owner-ev@listproc.sjsu.edu [mailto:owner-ev@listproc.sjsu.edu]De la
part de Lee Hart
Envoyé : mardi 29 janvier 2002 15:06
À : ev@listproc.sjsu.edu
Objet : Re: Must See! Beautiful Pre-Production Tango!


Victor Tikhonov wrote:
> It is obviously safer for occupants in case of collision between
> heavy SUV and light car. Think of the impact.

Victor, you are an engineer. It is not "obvious", because there are so
many differences between cars. All things being equal, heavier is
better; but all things are not equal. There are MANY factors that affect
safety, and weight is only one of them.

Objective studies have shown that accident, injury, and fatality rates
for SUVs and light trucks are all higher than for cars.

Sadly, most people do not make decisions based on logic or facts. They
choose to believe what they WANT to believe ("I want a big car because
it's safer"). They then ignore facts that go against it ("poorer brakes,
poorer handling, easier to roll"), and exaggerate facts that support it
("heavier cars are safer").

Advertising encourages this way of thinking. Look at car ads; they are
almost totally devoid of facts, and heavy on images and rhetoric that
imply all sorts of intangible, untestable benefits.

The only way to combat nonsense is with sense. All it takes is one
player who uses real facts, and the house of cards created by
conventional advertising collapses. Does anyone remember the old VW
Beetle ads? Simple, plain, bald statements of fact are extremely
convincing!
--
Lee A. Hart                Ring the bells that still can ring
814 8th Ave. N.            Forget your perfect offering
Sartell, MN 56377 USA      There is a crack in everything
leeahart_at_earthlink.net  That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen