The new Chevy Volt is not available for sale, it doesn't exist yet except in theory, and it may or may not be headed for production by 2010. But Chevy is advertising it in magazines such as The New Yorker reaching the educated, affluent and environmentally enlightened. What gives?
The campaign is very curious. If the target is potential GM investors, the ads fail, since the GM name is missing from the copy and appears only in the legal fine print. If the target is consumers, the ads are tripped up with subtlety, since the curious will want to go to the web for more information. The fine print directs you to chevy.com, where the Volt can't be found, even under upcoming vehicles. You have to type "Volt" into the site's search engine to find it.
The main promo at chevy.com is a button talking about "gas friendly to gas free," which two clicks later takes you to ... a lovely selection of big-ass trucks that can run on an 85% blend of ethanol, with nothing electric in sight. GM actually has a decent web site for the Volt here, but you need Google to find it.
The car is certainly sexy, with an electric-petroleum engine combo that is nothing new, but sheet metal and glass that make grown men drool. Perhaps the goal is to build buzz by teasing us. Chevy, we've seen the future and we want it. Too bad it's not available for sale.
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