In ads that ran this week in the US, GM said the Volt - the plug in car it is betting its future on - is : "not just a car. It’s a vision of our future.” Another claimed that the vehicle would “completely reinvent the automotive industry.”
The NY Times reported today from the LA Automobile show that the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid, will not arrive in showrooms until late 2010. But is already straining under the weight of an entire company. The Volt is expected to go on sale in late 2010. G.M. plans to sell about 10,000, priced at about $40,000, in the first year. Executives at General Motors, the largest and apparently the most imperiled of the three American car companies, are using the Volt as the centerpiece of their case to a skeptical Congress that their business plan for a turnaround is strong, and that a federal bailout would be a good investment in G.M.’s future.
The Volt is not General Motors’ first electric vehicle. In 1996, G.M. started leasing the EV1, an electric car, to customers in California. Although its few hundred owners loved it, the EV1 was discontinued just three years later.
The EV1 was launched by John Dolye who has been working at StrawberryFrog the past year on the launch of Natura, P&G, and our Morgan Stanley campaign. His launch advertising concept and work for the EV1 are, still considered, some of the best-ever in the automotive industry.
StrawberryFrog's Morgan Stanley ads
John's extraordinary EV1 ads
The GM Volt
Comments