2016 Chevy Volt Ad Looks… Very Normal

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Originally published on EV Obsession.

Chevrolet recently released a new ad spot for the new Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and I’ve got to say, it’s pretty good….

The ad doesn’t really have that sort of strange and tacky feel that many electric vehicle (EV) ads over the last few years have seemed to have. It looks as though GM is really looking to appeal to the middle-of-the-road, everything should be “normal,” consumers that make up the majority of the auto market.

That said, the ad fails to explain — or even hint at — what makes the Volt special. In fact, it’s hard to think of a more boring advertisement for such a hugely acclaimed and loved car. I’ll let you watch the ad before going on:

http://youtu.be/AKBW90bMbHQ

Of course, the 2016 Chevy Volt PHEV has a lot more going for it than just a few pretty clips — excellent fuel economy, the torque of a battery-electric motor, good all-electric range, extended range on gas for those times when you need to drive long distances, etc. It seems that GM didn’t consider capturing any of this in its new ad.

Gas2 provides some more thought on the “normal” approach GM took here:

The 2016 Volt is a clean, fresh design that is visually appealing but it looks like a normal car, not something from the future. It has what looks like a normal gearshift lever in the normal place. The touchscreen display and the instrument cluster look familiar and are in the normal location. Clearly the message is, normal people will be comfortable with this car.

And that’s not all. The video shows the Volt taking curves! This is a car that is fun to drive, not some boring econobox that sips fuel on the way to work. You can take it out into the great beyond, where the allure of the open road still exists. It’s not about hyper-miling. It’s about being free to enjoy driving again without worrying about the planet or gas prices or whether you have enough juice to get home.

I’m genuinely curious about how much of a difference this sort of advertising can make. What do you think — any at all? I don’t like to think that advertising is all that it takes, but sometimes it is, isn’t it? Why else would Apple have made an $80 billion dollar profit last quarter doing nothing but selling a slightly larger version of the same product that its been selling for years? But the real question is, how many new buyers will such a conventional ad pull to an unconventional product?

I think BMW has done a much better job on this front.