Hi folks, ScottN back from vacation following my beloved New York Mets to Denver, and just had to do a quick blog on the baseball/hybrid convergence at this year’s All-Star Game (unfortunately won by the AL again . . . but that’s another blog entirely).
Chevrolet has been the “official sponsor” of Major League Baseball for some time, which you know very well if you watch Saturday baseball on Fox—where you are serenaded ad nauseum by John Mellencamp’s “This Is Our Country” while being shown how patriotic it is to drive gas-guzzling SUVs. This isn’t surprising considering how advertisers tend to label the typical sports-watching demographic.
What was surprising to me was that GM decided that for its central All-Star Game advertising device—giving a Chevy vehicle away to the winner of the game’s MVP award—it would unveil the Tahoe Hybrid to the nation. Now, yes, it’s a muscle hybrid, but to see GM preaching something fuel economy-related during a key moment in our national pastime is, to me, truly an expression (or in GM’s case, a reluctant admission) that there has been a cultural shift in our country when it comes to fuel economy.
Okay, also have to point out the irony of the Tahoe Hybrid being won by Ichiro Suzuki, Major League Baseball’s most popular Japanese import. A related post on Metsblog.com might show the kind of stigma GM is going to have to overcome to give its hybrids mass appeal:
[Ichiro] was all dressed up after the game to accept his mvp award in the form of a hybrid chevy tahoe...a hybrid tahoe, isn't that like jumbo shrimp...
Not only did GM use the All-Star Game to trumpet the Tahoe Hybrid, but to also roll out its Malibu hollow hybrid as well. Much like the Saturn Greenline Aura and Vue models, the new Malibu represents the kind of solid conventional technology improvements we would laud if applied throughout the Malibu fleet rather than packaged as a limited-production “hybrid”—something automakers will have to do if we get real improvements in fuel economy standards out of the Energy Bill.
Have a great weekend, and, oh, I can’t help myself…LET’S GO METS!
Posted by: ScottN
The real business and technology question about the "Muscle Hybrid" is how many of the 100's of patents hidden inside the SUV are American? It's been said that the Prius has 650 patents and the Ford Escape at least 400. 20 were traded for diesel patents in Europe. Although the consumer is focused on the outside of the vehicle, the future of business and technology success lies in who files those next generation patents...I would gander that the patent game is pretty much over on hybrids and America should pull out those electric car patents and 10x them in number of filings to put up a barrier of entry for the Japanese armed with cheap Yen. It's a trade war and patents are like bullets...
Posted by: John Acheson, MBA | July 14, 2007 at 11:15 PM
Here is a poll: Should hybrid vehicles stay out of the commuter lane if there is only one person in the car? I don't know about other states, but this is happening in California. Personally I think if I was one of the engineers that came up with the HOV lane idea I would have a fit at this political manipulation to encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly cars. It is a disadvantage to commuters, and an insult to the taxpayers who spent billions renovations making these HOV lanes. Here is a link to the poll: http://www.apopularitycontest.com/display_poll.php?ID=1
Posted by: Rob | July 20, 2007 at 05:39 PM
Gas guzzling SUV's wasn't part of the original commercials for Cheverolet.
Back then, they made real gas guzzlers.
Posted by: DannoRecommends | January 17, 2008 at 03:12 PM