In case anyone has missed it https://insideevs.com/watch-electrify-americas-new-jetstones-ad-campaign/ I did not realize that Electrify America was owned by VW
I tried to find anything compelling about that ad but nothing: Opens with an orange wagon in shot framed by power lines and power poles. Background is pretty but the staging spoils the landscape yet the orange wagon is too small to suggest anything desirable. Panning left and a Bugs Bunny black hole approaches the car that you wonder if it is going to drop in. Scene 2: a grimy bumper sticker shows two hands holding a blue rat with a pejorative "PLANET HUGGER" like we use 'leaf looker Bambi hugger'. Although there is exhaust seen in the heat distortion, it needed burned piston ring smoke. Scene 3: Scruffy, hippy-like bearded driver stops at a light. Looks to his left at a car that has pulled into the next lane where the sign suggests the wrong direction lane. The camera angle doesn't show the divider. Self-satisfied, illegal lane, psycho driver looks back. Only the dog has attractive facial hair. Dog is the most attractive character being driven by a dangerous, psycho driver in the wrong lane. Hippy-like driver looks down in envy of the dog's facial hair. Ends with the psycho driver car at least one length ahead of the hippy-like driver (see shadows) and psycho driver moves towards the camera at an angle that doesn't show relative acceleration as much as hippy-like driver is asleep ... safe in the correct lane of travel. Scene 4: Psycho driver pass the out of focus, back of head woman. Shifting to see her in focus, she stands with the plug in her hand to look at the orange car, psycho driver instead of plugging in her car. Does she want him to come back and plug-in her more attractive car? Did she recognize the psycho driver from a wanted poster at the post office? Scene 5: At last a pretty landscape with a brightly lit city behind a hill in the background. It looks like a two lane road with cars dangerously trying to pass each other approaching a blind curve. Closes with "ELECTRIC FOR ALL" that makes no sense. Worse, "PRESENT.COM" pulls up a Go Daddy, domain selling web site (Oh the temptation!) GOOD THINGS Nice dog. Attractive plug-in car at EVSE. BAD THINGS Everything else. Good thing we didn't see the charger in operation as the four in Manchester TN are definitely broke. Bob Wilson
You are right in that the ad was not compelling. The good thing as I see it was that it tried to bring attention to EV's. What I did not like was the plug in (pun intended) for VW. They have decided not to sell the e-golf here and may not have an offering in the US until 2020. Then why advertise EV's? Maybe the reason for the ad being bad, is that VW is trying to play a balancing game, bring attention to Electrify America but not to EV's in the market. I don't know
I think any ad that brings attention to EV's is great... Jaguar and VW seem to be the only ones out there promoting EV adoption. Now when you talk about VW owning Electrify America, I think that is sad that our lawmakers first let them convert 2B of their fines into a charging network, but also sad that they maintain the ownership, and will profit from Americans charging. Over a period of time VW may even recover their 2B meaning the fine is negated, and more of an investment. Did anyone notice the timing of the Electrify America deployment dates nearly exactly match VW bringing cars to the market, and the capabilities of those cars exactly match the Electrify America Network? 150KW charging for the E-tron, and 350KW charging for the Taycan... Hmmm, an exact match... Ultimately I am happy they are building the network to benefit all EV's, but that does not mean I am too stupid to see what is going on behind the scenes. VW gets to build their very advanced, and huge charging network using house money that had already been committed to fines... And then they get to profit off the people that use that network... Electrify America also chose 17 cities to get the community based charging stations as well, let me guess, those cities are strong VW, Audi, Porsche, markets? I am too lazy, but someone should research to see if that is the case... Domenick?
When you are handed a lemon, make lemonade. VW is doing exactly what anyone else would do in the circumstances. The cynic is me will even go as far as suggesting that someone from VW planted this idea in the ears of the powers to be. If Tesla has the supercharger network, VW has Electrify America as the Trojan horse. Today they may welcome all users. Over a period of time they could subtly pressure customers to prefer VW. It may sound far fetched, but VW is the company that systematically manipulated the process for years. Have they changed their colors. I don't know. For the Tesla supporters who keep brushing off potential competition by asking, "where is the competitor charging network", the answer could be that it is being built but it is in disguise. When VW decides to enter the market in a big way, they will not be subtle about their control of Electrify America. VW is not being subtle even today as the ad states it is being sponsored by VW. Please also do not forget that Audi and Porsche are VW companies, and the rumor is that they will be in the market in the next few months. Yes Electrify American may not have the footprint of the Tesla Supercharger network, but they are putting the foundation in place. If you look at their website, it is clear that they are already doing their research on where to put their charging stations. Like DG says, it could be the markets where VW/Audi/Porsche are eying. (This is my opinion only).
Right, one of my concerns is that VW's influence over EA could be a future problem, however I think there is language that the network is usable by all, but if you look at the fact they are putting 1 chademo plug at each station, they are obviously making it tougher for Tesla (with adapter) and Nissan owners already. EA does not have the footprint of the supercharger network now, but that should change by next year, Tesla currently has 560 locations with superchargers in the USA, EA will have 300 highway stations, and I am not sure how many of the community stations will have CCS charging, but the station at EA's home office, is considered community, and it has 150-350 CCS as well as nearly 20 L2 chargers for employees in the business park. They are also building 2 stations in Everett WA, one on Everett Mall Way is a 10 stall highway charger, and the other a 4 stall CCS, with additional L2. These stations are less then 3 miles apart.
Not exactly sure where I can get the data. I did poke around a bit, but can only find revenue by region. Interesting factoid: in 2017 VW Group made over three-1/2 times as much in Europe as the US. Considering the kind of numbers the company does, I don't imagine a lot of emphasis was put on which particular state sold the most VW group product as much as where it made the most sense for drivers. For instance, I imagine VW sells a high number of cars in Tennessee per capita (they have a least one factory there), but I don't think they would necessarily put more charging infrastructure there as they might in California.
I am also not sure how you get that data either... but EA already has 5 stations open or under construction in Tennessee . You are right though, California is getting 800M of the 2B investment, with the first 6 stations just staring construction recently. Another interesting tidbit to put that 800M investment in perspective, Tesla's book value of their entire supercharger network around the world is less then <500M at the end of Q2 2018, that really puts into perspective what CA is in for charging wise in the next 8 years. Of course EA is doing much more then fast chargers in CA, I think they are also deploying some BEV buses.
