What’s the best way to promote your newest EV? If you’re Volkswagen, then I guess that you would have answered: By hiring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to hawk it for you.
Via a new commercial of course, not just by the side of a busy road.
Because that’s apparently exactly what Volkswagen has done, using the well-known actors to portray their most famous characters (from Star Trek) in a new TV advert for the VW e-Golf (which, btw, CleanTechnica was invited to test drive at the first test drive event in the US).
While this ad is in German, it’s still a bit funny to watch for English speakers. Hard to say of course how much it actually helps sales (if at all), but oh well I guess. Most advertising always comes across as a bit on the stupid side, yet it does still seem to work, doesn’t it?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=g5hgt0xrSbo
Yep, that was the very limited in supply VW XL1 Spock was driving at the end.
A reminder here — the Volkswagen e-Golf EV is currently set to debut in the US less than a month from now, in November. With a starting price of $35,445, it is a fair bit above its strongest competition, the Nissan LEAF, but perhaps it will appeal to some people who don’t like the LEAF for some reason or another.
Regarding the commercial, Chris DeMorro adds:
“Shatner it seems is a big fan of the XL1, and he is one of the few with pockets deep enough to afford it, and he is actually a pretty good spokesman when you think about it. Electric and hybrid vehicles do have something of a spaceship quality to them, especially the Tesla Model S (an ‘Intergalactic SpaceBoat of Light and Wonder‘ as some put it) and mixing sci-fi icons with cutting edge cars is one way to drum up discussion of a new product.”
If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out Chris’s review of the e-Golf, and our close-up video of the XL1:
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