8/1/08 - WOW - Winning Aptera radio ad - radiomercuryawards.com

[javan]

I recently found out that a radio ad about Aptera won a 2008 Radio-Mercury award as the best ad produced by a radio station. I checked to see if it had been posted here before but couldn't find it, so here is a link: http://www.radiomercuryawards.com/rma/winnerDetail.cfm?id=4744. Although it uses the questionable 300 mpg figure, it is quite funny and well done, and I thought all y'all might like to hear it. Jim

[Matthijs]

"Your Lying" ehmm Yeah actually I am, it gets 130 mpg.
How good or how funny that radio commercial is, in my opinion pushing forward the 300 mpg figure as a primary selling point is not a good move.

Is the 300 miles per gallon claim unnecessarily misleading? (http://www.apteraforum.com/showthread.php?t=1186)

[KarenRei]

I wonder why Aptera doesn't understand that they're shooting themselves in the foot with that number :P

[Reellucky]

I respectfully disagree KarenRei. I dont think automobile companies shooting themselves in the foot when a gas miLlage sticker on a new car window has the small print "Actual millage might vary". Are you offended when a snack bar shows a very low calorie count, then when you read the small print that says "Calories are based on one serving...each snack bar contains 10 servings"? I guess what I am saying is that small print has been around since the beginning of advertising. If the Aptera 300mpg claim comes with the small print "Millage based on driving XXX number of miles, XX of which is on battery power only", I just dont have a problem with that.

Now, if they install an Chevy 454cc generator, and the gas millage drops to 7mpg after one 5 gallon tank of gas.....and they don't tell that to us ahead of time, THAT would be shooting themselves in the foot!

Education is power.....buyers beware!

[APTERA 2356]

They are using the same tactic that the major auto makers use,
quoteing MPG in reference to freeway miles down hill with a tail wind rather than real world driving conditions
is no more honest ( or dis-honest) than quoteing 300 MPG.

I have never bought a car that got the mileage promised on the window sticker.

[javan]

In fairness to Aptera, I believe this ad was produced some time ago. I learned about it from my neighbor who manages a local radio station which had an ad competing against this one for best radio ad. He didn't give me an exact timeline, but it seemed like it was at least six months ago that the ad was produced, but I'm not sure of the exact timing. Jim

[KarenRei]

I dont think automobile companies shooting themselves in the foot when a gas miLlage sticker on a new car window has the small print "Actual millage might vary".

It's not a case of "actual mileage might vary". It's a case of "Actual mileage is two-fifths what we're telling you it is." It's a huge, distorting difference.

They are using the same tactic that the major auto makers use,
quoteing MPG in reference to freeway miles down hill with a tail wind rather than real world driving conditions

No, the revised EPA drive cycle mileage is pretty close to what people generally get. It's nothing like arbitrariliy and deliberately 2.3xing the mileage that *on its own* could vary. To compare the EPA mileages to reported real-world MPG experiences, check out Fueleconomy.gov and pick several different models:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calculatorSelectYear.jsp

If you're going to defend Aptera on this, you might as well defend the "150 MPG SUV" that's really a ~20mpg SUV, but they only counted the gasoline for one day per week's driving. You might as well say the Aptera gets 1000mpg, or a million for that matter. Either way, you're purposefully giving people the impression that if they drive cross-country, they're going to be getting way better mileage than they're actually going to get. And I have firsthand experience with people who were interested in the Aptera being sorely disappointed when they found out that this isn't the case, and I was put in the uncomfortable position of having to defend a tactic chosen by Aptera that I find unacceptable.

Don't get me wrong; I love the Typ-1. It's pretty close to how I would have designed my ideal car. From my perspective, I really only have a two significant gripes: one, the complete lack of fast charging options, and two, the way that they present their mileage figures to the public. I have a couple lesser gripes -- the notion of calling the Typ-1e "Aptera Local", some concerns about repairability, etc, but only two that I would consider "serious", and the "300mpg" figure is one of them. It doesn't affect me personally, but it does affect my ability to advocate for and defend a design that I like.

[Apt3448]

So what Aptera is the add referring to? If the radio add is referring to the 1-h, it is definitely misleading, to the extend that there IS no series hybrid Aptera. And there will be no hybrid for a while to come.

If we are talking about an EV, which doesn't take any gallons of anything, MPG technically doesn't apply at all, which is also misleading. In other threads we are discussing various ways to apply an equivalence of MPG for an typ 1-e. And, funny to think about it: although we don't seem agree on what the 'best' way might be to compute MPG equivalence, we do seem to get above or around 300 MPGe either way.:)

Sooo... misleading in several ways and still kinda right ?:scared0008:

I had not heard of the add, or any add for that matter, and unless we have been missing more adds, they seem not to have any adds out (at least since the new marketing guy came on board?).

[speculawyer]

I'm definitely with Karen on this one. I worry about a backlash.

I think it would be better to say "First X miles are electric only and 130 mpg after the battery is depleted.'

But then again misleading and lying seem to work as witnessed by recent presidential campaign numbers. :mad:

Edit: Ugh . . . I just listened to the ad and it really grated on me. Especially since it says "You're lying! . . . 300 miles on a gallon of gas". Uh . . . THAT IS LYING! It goes 130 miles on a gallon of gas!

[jstdadd]

So...with a full charge, what is the mpg on the FIRST gallon of gas?

[MegaAutoBit]

LOL. Wow, I really liked this Ad. Mark does a great job; it makes me want to listen to his radio show again, if I could find it. However, I think some of you may be taking this ad a little too seriously. I think the intention of the ad was to be a little misleading to get across the point of the massive fuel savings of the car, but without weighting it down with technical details. I’m sure the Aptera lawyers are reviewing it, and if need be will require one of those fast talking 1000 word a minute voices at the end, that we have all been accustom to hearing on almost all car ads these days.

[Matthijs]

So...with a full charge, what is the mpg on the FIRST gallon of gas?

130 miles on 1 gallon + 40 miles electric range?

[Apt3448]

Actually, steve (you know, Steve Fambro, CEO of Aptera) uses the 300 MPG number here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj718vRrYGM&eurl=http://www.aptera.com/newsletter032508/ at around 1:30
He uses that number NOT for the 1h, but for the 1e, based on its electricity consumption. And for the 1h: 300 MPG for the first 40 miles, and after that it gradually decreases to 120 MPG. While in the sound bites the details get lost, it is good to know what Steve meant when he said 300MPG. And I think he uses just the efficiency in terms of energy alone, in the same way the X-prize apparently wants to express MPG numbers for EV's.

[n_dawg]

I think it was cute. It's the perfect response to those "it looks like a spermatozoon" refrigerator-huggers.

[sk8ndad]

The number of miles I drive a day, if I ordered an H, I would hardly ever use gas...my mpg would be well over 300...using the cost of gas here and the cost of electricity, I would need to get 650 mpg to have equivalent cost. I don't think saying 300 mpg is misleading (if true for 100 miles per day) They should also add that you will need to charge the battery and have some associated measure