Renewable Energy Roundup

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg, Texas over the weekend.  While I’m keenly interested in renewable energy and in the Roundup’s focus on sustainability education as a general matter, I attended specifically because my brother was an exhibitor there.

My brother is co-owner of REVOLT Custom Electric Vehicles, LLC, and REVOLT demonstrated a 2008 Mazda3 that they converted from running on gasoline to running solely on electric power.  (Full disclosure: REVOLT is a client of mine.  However, I received no direct compensation for this post.  REVOLT is a registered trademark of REVOLT Custom Electric Vehicles, LLC.)

In addition to REVOLT’s display were the Austin Area Electric Automobile Association’s display cars, including a really neat VW Beetle conversion, and the University of Texas’s solar-powered car.

Electric cars, however, were not the only thing on display.  There were a great deal of wind turbines on display, all of which were quite interesting.  I heartily recommend the Roundup to anyone.  Fredericksburg is a fun little town, with interesting things to do, such as the Nimitz Museum, a lot of antiquing opportunities, and, of course, the Fredericksburg Brewery, which has delicious beer and sausage.

(Note:  the images have been obscured somewhat to avoid infringing trademarks and likenesses.)

Fiat’s Eyes May Be Too Big For Its Britches?

(Yes, I know I’m muddling up idioms…)

First, Chrysler.  Then Opel?  And Vauxhall?  And Saab?  If things shake out the way its been reported in the press the past couple of days, the Turin-based (or Torino, if you prefer) automaker is poised to become the second largest automaker in the world.  (After Toyota.)

Che?

That’s what’s being reported, anyway, in Bloomberg, which says “The Italian carmaker, having come to the rescue of Chrysler, is interested in acquiring Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile as [CEO Sergio] Marchionne tries to assemble a global auto group, including GM’s Opel and Vauxhall operations in Europe and Latin America.”

Who would have thought such a thing even a couple of years ago?  I know that Fiat’s have been incredibly popular in Europe as of late, but I would never have thought the company capable of becoming so powerful.  Very interesting, to say the least.

I will say this: if Fiat is successful in doing what is being reported, I want diesel Fiats on the road in America.  I had the opportunity to drive a Grande Punto 5-door in Europe last Summer.  The turbo diesel was satisfyingly rumbly (so what if it took a couple of turns of the key to gurgle to life?), felt more powerful and nimble than it really was, and quite fuel-efficient (somewhere in the mid-40s).  Where it distinguished itself was its road feel.  Top Gear had a joke last year when they reviewed an Alfa or a Fiat: they weren’t allowed to make hackneyed comments about “La Vita Bella.”  The truth is, though, it was a blast to drive, and it makes you feel all sorts of goofy things while you’re driving it.

Popular Mechanics agrees, by the way, including it as one of the cars it would like to see brought over in any sort of Chrysler-Fiat deal.  (If a Chrysler badge gets slapped on the thing, though, I expect it will sell about, oh, I don’t know, none of them.)

I hope it will happen, and, according to that Bloomberg article, Marchionne’s “goal is to sell the first Fiat 500 in the U.S. by the end of 2010.”  That bodes well, as the 500 is apparently an incredible car, the Abarth version even making the blokes on Top Gear happy.  It would be a formidible competitor to the Mini, which has been selling quite well in the U.S.  (According to Parkers.co.uk, the price range of the 500 is £8,100 – £13,250.  The Mini, by comparison is about twice that.)

So, here’s to seeing some fun, affordable cars on the road sometime soon. (Now if we can just do something about our damnable roads…)

Brand Imprinting

Audi, and its parent company, Volkswagen, has been on something of a tear recently, with VW being the surprising best performer in the first quarter of 2009. Audi has been running ads for its “unmistakable” Q5 SUV, which got me thinking.

I’ve seen two ads for the vehicle: the one with the woman in the parking garage trying to find her car among a sea of beige Lexus RXs; and the one with the kids coming out of school to a flotilla of beige Lexus RXs. Putting aside for a moment the fact that Lexus has redesigned the RX, the commercials are rather interesting in the way that brand imprinting works.

First of all, I’d just like to point out that the notion of the Q5 being so very distinguishable from the RX is simply laughable. Compare their profiles:

The Q5:

The RX:

Virtually indistinguishable. Yeah, the Audi’s got slightly sharper corners and appears to have a slightly beefier stance, but the humor, to me, is the tag line: “identity theft can happen to anyone.” The suggestion is, of course, that the Q5 stands out. But the Q5’s styling is clearly ripped off from the RX, so who’s stealing whose identity? Audi must realize this, so it has simply asserted: the Q5 is radically different; buying it shows you are an individual. Maybe, as I alluded at the beginning, it’s working because VW sales are very strong.

The reason I’m thinking about Audi this morning is the momentary glimpse of the father in the second commercial, whose second-long appearance told us everything we needed to know about him, his life, his choice of vehicle, and why we, by extension want to also own an Audi.

See, Q5 Dad loves his kid, because he’s picking his kid up from school. He is therefore one of a few things: A) unemployed (unlikely, as he’s driving a $48,000 vehicle, though it could be his wife’s, but why would Audi want to suggest unemployment?); B) independently wealthy, which is always a good thing to be; C) powerful enough at his office that he gets to dictate when he comes and goes, like a partner at a law firm; or D) someone who works at home, like an intrepid entrepreneur. And look at him. He’s middle-aged, but responsible. Rather than give in to the stereotyped mid-life crisis response by buying, say, a Corvette, he’s gotten himself a nice luxurious SUV. But he’s better than a middle-aged schlub, he’s cool. He’s got the oops-I’m-sexy beard going (thank you, Six Feet Under), and he just looks dignified with the gray. And his eyes are kind. So he’s probably an architect. A successful one. He’s certainly not a conformist, whatever he is.

And it really irritates me that that amount of inference was built into that one-second shot of a guy in his car, but the point is, Audi wanted me to get all that information in that one-second glimpse of Q5 Dad. It makes me think of Visual Literacy, a class taught at the University of Texas, but similar ones are probably taught across the country under various names. One of the main lessons from the class was the power of brand imprinting. To demonstrate this, a series of logos were shown in quick succession, and the students were asked to recall which brands stuck with them. And it’s impressive just how powerful imprinting can be, and why I was able to glean all that information from Q5 Dad in that one-second glimpse of him.

(Disclosure: I own neither an RX nor a Q5, and never plan on doing so. And what does it say about blogging that makes me feel compelled to point things like this out?)