Bringing Electric Cars to the Public’s Consciousness

On several occasions I’ve written about the increasing visibility of electric vehicles. There was the post last fall about seeing three electric vehicles in one week and then a few months back there was the Chevy Volt plugged in at Canopy Airport Parking Lot. While laid up with a case of possible food poisoning, I watched the first few episodes of Suits. In the second episode, the show opens with two characters squabbling over a Tesla Roadster. At the end of the episode one of the main characters is seen driving off in a white Roadster (like the one seen in the post’s image).

As I wrote about in another post sometime back, Hollywood has an opportunity to raise the public specter of sustainable ventures. The Suits episode demonstrated the choices that writers, directors, and producers make. The Tesla Roadster is admittedly a more chic choice than the Nissan Leaf, but both send a certain message that gasoline powered alternatives do not.

If electric vehicles are to take hold, people need to see them. This extends beyond just the road and showroom to include television and other public media. Using the exotic nature of the Tesla Roadster, as opposed to a Ferrari, helps cement it in the public’s consciousness. It helps that the Roadster is indeed “sexy.” It is time to take advantage of this fact and promote these technologies. The likelihood of a high-powered Hollywood actor (or character in a film) riding their bike or walking everywhere is quite low. With that in mind, the next best option may just be electrified transportation.

[Image source]