As it does every year, the Super Bowl left us an abundance of well-received commercials. This year a 30-second ad slot raked in $5.6 million, higher than all previous years. With nearly 100 million eyes and the costs so high, each company advertising tries their best to outdo the last.
Throughout the years electric car commercials have been scarce. As compliance cars, manufacturers didn’t really want to even sell them. The only true EV for a while there came from Tesla, a company that refuses to have an advertising budget. Now that just about every manufacturer has stated their plans to shift towards an all-electric lineup, they must get consumers on board. This is easiest done through marketing and what better place to shine a light on your new electric car than through a Super Bowl commercial?
Surprisingly, an electric car commercial first made an appearance during the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX. It was BMW displaying their i3 as the future.
Since then we took a not so needed break from electric car commercials. Since no one really had anything serious available, there was nothing to showcase.
That was until last year when the electric car revolution seemingly began. As technology progressed and manufacturers made commitments, we received the first glimpse of our automotive future. A few legacy automakers made their EV debuts last year with one of them being Audi.
Audi made plans to electrify one-third of their vehicle lineup by 2025. They decided to announce it to the world with a pricey Super Bowl ad slot featuring the upcoming Audi E Tron GT. Some called it the most important commercial of the night.
This year we decided to break all sort of records. We jumped to an impressive three electric car Super Bowl commercials. The VW Group continues to state their commitment to electrification by placing two ads this year. One for the Porsche Taycan and another for the Audi E Tron. Two electric vehicles that are currently for sale today.
In the Porsche Super Bowl ad you can see the company imply that the electric Taycan is just as good of a sports car as any other Porsche ever made. In the commercial, it remains in the lead through a race involving all of histories greatest Porsche’s.
Meanwhile, in Audi’s corner, we received a layered message. The E Tron can be seen driving while letting go of the past. The Maisie Williams sings the original Disney Frozen song, Let It Go, to enhance the message. She’s not only letting go of the past, she’s letting go of ICE (internal combustion engines).
GMC who just announced their intentions to bring an electric truck to market decided to make the announcement louder with an ad slot last night. Featuring Lebron James, GMC let the world know that the Hummer will be reborn as an EV in the coming months.
Jeep ran a commercial for their non-ev truck, the Jeep Gladiator. But within that commercial they showed a glimpse of their upcoming electric bicycle. That’s right, Jeep is making an electric bicycle. What a time to be alive.
Even with a $0 marketing budget, Tesla managed to snag two slots for free. In the Little Caesars Super Bowl commercial Rainn Wilson can be seen crying in his Tesla Model S at 0:40.
Electric car commercials also ran during the Super Bowl locally. According to EVAdoption, this Ford Mustang Mach E ad could be seen in parts of California along with a second Audi E Tron commercial.
