Being on the road in a Prius makes you really appreciate both the hybrid and the full on electric car. While traveling to cover startups in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Cameron and I saw charging stations out in front of local government office buildings, which was a breath of fresh air. We also brought you this story earlier this month about a NC startup that is re-inventing the charging station.
With all this talk about electric cars it’s no wonder that Ford has teamed up with Yahoo to release a web-based reality show about electric cars.
The new show called “Plugged In” will chronicle the lives of three two person teams driving the new Ford Focus electric. The teams will compete in scavenger hunt like challenges in 10 major cities including Los Angeles in New York, mostly on the east and west coast where electric cars are gaining popularity and where gas is over $4.00 per gallon and quickly approaching $5.00.
More after the break
The deal with Yahoo shows that Ford isn’t afraid to change their marketing up, something that other car manufacturers have struggled with. By using Yahoo as the platform for “Plugged In” Ford is able to reach the environmentally conscious twenty something consumer through videos and social media.
“We’re being much more targeted and building awareness of the product in a much more efficient way,” John Felice, general manager of Ford and Lincoln sales told , said at a news conference at Yahoo’s New York office Tuesday Reuters reported.
Some auto industry experts aren’t sold yet on the adoption of electric cars. The infrastructure to support a society of electric cars still needs major improvement. There are several charging stations in California, New York and other states where electric cars are popular. As we said earlier we actually saw charging stations in Chattanooga which is a very environmentally conscious city.
“It’s very difficult to get a read on what consumers’ adoption will be,” Felice said. “We just know it’s going to grow. We just don’t know how quickly.”
The target market seems right with the Yahoo web series though. Make no mistake though, Yahoo needs this kind of content as much as Ford needs to reach these new audiences. Yahoo recently laid off over 2,000 employees and said that content would be their key to success going forward. Luckily those keys, now, are to a Ford Focus electric.
source: Reuters
We discovered this story using Wavii
One comment
Leave a reply →
Comments are closed.