Nissan and GM Poor Online Electric Car Marketers

Electric vehicles are now ready for the masses.  Top tier auto companies are now shipping production vehicles.  Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are now available in select markets. 

Neither company is doing the best job building demand on-line. 

Let’s take the Volt.  The company is spending big bucks advertising the car on the TV and online.  I just saw a display ad on techcrunch for instance.  Cool, I clicked on it and it took me to the Volt site.  So, when can I buy one?  No information there.  Where can I buy one?.. well not around here.  My neighborhood in Santa Monica has EVs all over the place.  Teslas, RAV4 EVs, Zenns and GEMs can been seen frequently on the streets.  We probably have the most informed poplulation when it comes to EVs.  In fact, my neighbor, Paul Scott a co-founder of Plug-in America is an expert on EVs and solar power.  See his blog, evsandenergy.com here.

Fortunately, Paul is helping the local Nissan dealer get the word out on the Leaf.  However, the online situation at Nissan is still pretty frustrating - although better than GM’s.

Still, the Nissan site is out of date.  There is a link to schedule a test drive, but the link goes to past auto shows.  How about Nissan tells us when we can test one at the local dealer with no appointment?

My view is that these companies need to think more unconventionally  and connect up with the customer in a more intimate fashion if they expect to overcome the reluctance of the public to buy version 1.0 of some very cool but complex vehicles that are likely to have some trips to the dealer for recalls in the first couple of years. 

Is someone online to chat with me about the purchase?  No, but I did find the phone number of the dealer in downtown Los Angeles.