Nissan Leaf takes shot at Chevrolet Volt in new ad 06/01/2011
With only two mass-produced electric vehicles on the market, you'd think that the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt would want to see each other do well. However, a recent ad from the Japanese automaker has made it clear that there's no love lost between the two models.
In the ad, entitled "Gas-Powered Everything," an alternate reality is shown where devices that are normally electric are all powered by gas. An alarm clock goes off and starts spewing smoke into the atmosphere. A man starts up his coffee maker like you would a lawnmower.
Even iPods and cellphones are shown powering up with engine noises and smoke pouring out the back. It's clever marketing to be sure, and definitely something that makes drivers stop and think for a minute about the advantages that electric vehicles ultimately have over their gas-powered counterparts.
Of course, the ad wouldn't be complete without visiting an actual gas station to really drive the point home. Nissan could have really gone with anything here, and maybe a comically oversized SUV is what most people would be expecting. Instead, they opted to show the Chevrolet Volt at the pump as its owner looks on forlornly.
Perhaps that's really what the ad does best - hammers home the difference between the Leaf and Volt. The Volt uses a gas generator to assist its electric engine, meaning it has a farther range than the Leaf. However, this also means it has to fill up from time to time - not as much as a normal vehicle, but still more than the Leaf, which runs solely on battery power.
With the Volt shot coming at about 45 seconds into the minute-long ad, it remains to be seen if it will remain when the commercial airs on television during the NBA Finals on June 12th. Sometimes, these ads get cut down to 30 seconds, so it's possible the Volt takedown might end up as an Internet-only secret.