There are many Electric Vehicles that went on to revolutionise the automotive industry. However, for every success story, there are examples of ambitious EV projects that never reached their full potential, or in some cases never even made it to market.

We’ve already looked at the ‘Vintage EVs That Time Forgot’, so let’s jump ahead to the present day and explore some of the EV projects in recent history that either proved to be complete failures or never even made it to market at all.

 

The Electric Ford Focus

The Electric Ford Focus was introduced in 2011 and initially generated a lot of excitement. Ford is one of the automotive industry giants, and the Focus is one of the most popular cars of all time – so the electric variant was guaranteed to be a massive success, right? The Focus EV was Ford’s answer to the Nissan Leaf, with a 23kWh battery that was later upgraded to a 33kWh. The Focus EV was launched in the US in 2011 and arrived in the UK two years later in 2013, looking almost exactly the same as a regular Focus. The EV Focus remained on sale in Europe until 2017 with incredibly low sales numbers, in 2016 only 61 were sold in total. Whilst a total of 24 were registered in the UK, they were all in Ford dealerships and no one actually bought one.

So, why did it fail? Mainly due to it costing substantially more than any of its rivals at the launch price of £28,500, not bad value for a similar-sized EV these days but back in 2013/2014 you could get a Nissan Leaf for around £16,000. You also didn’t get much for the additional cost, the Focus EV had a realistic range of around 76 miles, compared to 84 miles for the Leaf.

 

The Lightning GT

The Lightning GT was one of the first completely electric sports cars to show off the capabilities and design strengths of EVs compared to traditional ICE cars. The Lightning Car Company, a London-based maker, had been working on the Lightning GT for years, with the official unveiling taking place at the 2008 British International Motor Show. It was an instant hit with performance specifications that even compared well to the EVs of today with years of technological advancements, it would reach a top speed of 185mph, a 0-60mph time of less than four seconds and a range of 200 miles.

However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the car never made it to production and only 2 exist today with 1 of them living in the British Motor Museum. We don’t like calling it a failure as had it gone on sale it was almost guaranteed to sell impressive numbers. There were reports that the Lightning Car Company didn’t raise enough investment to make the project a reality.

 

Apple’s ‘Project Titan’

The Apple EV project has been highly anticipated for the last decade or so, with reports suggesting that work on the car started in 2014 under the codename ‘Project Titan’. There were reportedly more than 1,000 automotive experts and engineers developing an electric vehicle with self-driving capabilities at a secret location near the company’s Cupertino headquarters.

In June 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook seemingly confirmed the rumours by speaking publicly about Apple’s work on autonomous driving software:

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems. It’s a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects. It’s probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on.”

In February 2024, reports suggested that Apple had officially pulled the plug and will be abandoning the most ambitious project in the company’s history. It is rumoured that Apple notified the 2,000 employees working on the project that many of the employees will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division and will focus on generative AI projects.

Apple has yet to make any official announcement so the future of ‘Project Titan’ is still unknown. We have also never seen anything official from Apple about the vehicle, so any images you see online (like the one above) are purely concepts, we hope that Apple takes a page from Dyson’s book and shows the world what could have been – more on that below!

The Dyson EV

Back in 2017, Dyson also announced that it had been secretly working on a “radical and different” electric car and that they were aiming for a launch in 2020. In October 2019, two years and half a billion pounds later, Dyson released this update that announced they were cancelling all work on the project.

Unlike Apple, Dyson has been much less secretive about their EV project, even dedicating a section of their website to it here. Their vehicle was to be unique using only their own manufactured parts. They designed a platform that allowed other body styles in the future to sit on it, the first body style was going to be an SUV that was exactly 5 metres long with massive 24-inch wheels. The interior was unique, the seats were very different to traditional seats and 100% of the controls were located on the steering wheel.

In the end, the project became too expensive and Dyson realised that the car was no longer going to be commercially viable. Part of the problem, according to Sir James Dyson, was that existing car makers could sell electric cars at a loss and offset it with their profits from selling traditional cars, effectively pricing the Dyson car out of the market.

 

Did You Find This Article Interesting?

If you found this article interesting, you might be interested in reading about the ‘Vintage EVs That Time Forgot’!

 

WDA Are Here To Help!

At WDA Automotive, digital marketing is our expertise, relieving you of that burden. We understand the dynamics, so you don’t have to. If you need support, reach out to us through our online contact form or call us at 01332 372728.

 

The automotive industry is constantly evolving, and 2023 was a year of exciting new developments. If we look back to 2023, it’s clear that electric vehicles (EVs) took centre stage, with more and more consumers opting for eco-friendly options on the road.

But what does the future hold for the automotive industry? In this blog we look into the new and exciting technologies to keep an eye on, the ongoing automotive supply chain shortage, the current state of the UK economy, the continued growth of the EV market, and what we can expect from the used car market.

Join WDA as we explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the automotive industry to keep an eye on in 2024 and beyond…

Continue reading 2024 & Beyond: The Future of the Automotive Industry

Once again it’s the time of year where we look back at the marketing trends that emerged in 2023 and look ahead to the new and exciting innovations that we can expect to see in 2024. If you missed last year’s edition, be sure to read it here to see how close our predictions were!

AI Marketing: Work Smarter, Not Harder

AI Marketing saw significant growth in 2023, most notably in the form of chatbots, targeted advertising, and content generation.

We mentioned ChatGPT last year in the ‘Automotive Marketing Trends for 2023’ blog, and we weren’t wrong about it being easily detected. Since then many different AIs with the sole purpose of being used to detect AI-written content have emerged, such as Originality.ai, Sapling, and Copyleaks to name a few.

Looking ahead into 2024, AI Marketing will continue evolving and becoming even more advanced. AI’s role in content creation will surely expand, generating personalized and engaging content based on audience preferences and behaviours. AI could also become more emotionally intelligent, becoming better at comprehending a human’s emotions and responding accordingly with the content delivered.

Overall AI Marketing is set to completely revolutionise the consumer experience, making every interaction they have with a business highly personalised and tailored to their specific needs.

Short Form Video Dominance Continues

TikTok’s rapid growth has been very impressive, positioning it among the fastest-growing entertainment apps of all time, and it shows no signs of slowing down. So there’s no surprise here, short form video content is still the most popular way for a user to consume content. The competition is fierce however, with both YouTube and Instagram having ramped up their emphasis on Shorts and Reels to try and match the monumental growth seen with TikTok.

If you are wondering how short-form video content can be utilised within the automotive industry, look no further than Fernando Alonso’s TikTok. His analytics are impressive to say the least, he has 1.6 million followers and his reach is 152.5%! Alonso’s success on TikTok is a result of his understanding and willingness to hop on Gen Z trends.

Looking ahead to 2024, it is obvious that short-form video content is the future of entertainment. The question is, who will come out on top…

Influencer Marketing Is Here To Stay

Influencer Marketing is an effective strategy, proven to have the highest ROI, that is becoming more widely adopted. Influencers are split up into 4 different categories depending on their number of followers, with the ROI and overall cost differing between each:

  • Nano-Influencers – less than 1,000
  • Micro-Influencers – 1,000 to 100,000
  • Macro-Influencers – 100,000 to 1 million
  • Mega-Influencers – 1 million +

In total, there are over 300,000 YouTube channels with over 100,000 subscribers and over 60,000 on TikTok. It’s already a massive market and it’s only going to get bigger as we go into 2024.

Influencer Marketing is a popular strategy for brands trying to advertise specifically to a niche market. There are plenty in the automotive marketplace for example, from big-name automotive YouTubers with millions of subscribers to micro-influencers and social promoters with smaller followings, usually in the thousands.

Marketing In The Metaverse

The Metaverse is still an ongoing project with billions being invested into it every year. So far, brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Samsung are already utilising it as a method to reach out to their customers. Gartner released an article where they stated that they expect 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in a metaverse for work, shopping, education, social media and/or entertainment.

The Metaverse is unlike any other marketing strategy. It allows you to take your customers through an immersive experience in a world made entirely for a specific product or service. The excitement however does seem to have died down significantly compared to late 2021 when Facebook rebranded to Meta. There are several reasons as to why: there have been very few recent updates or developments of the concept, too many brands are trying to milk it for publicity, and the recent growth of AI in general has taken the shine off it somewhat.

That’s not to say that the Metaverse is a complete failure though, it’s just not where we thought it would be by now. There is massive potential for the Automotive industry for example with virtual showrooms and test drives, allowing customers to easily research different car models and features. Automotive brands could use the metaverse for advertising and events, making it fun and interactive for people to learn about vehicles. Overall, the metaverse has the potential to allow the automotive industry to create and sell cars more effectively.

Mastering SEO Content

In 2023, SEO remained an important component to any online marketing strategy. There are millions of websites competing to rank number 1 in the search engine results so it is crucial that businesses implement SEO best practices.

SEO has long been a standard practice within the digital marketing world, and it will be for the foreseeable future. However technology and user behaviour have advanced, with a new form of optimisation emerging as a result, Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). The concept of AOE refers to optimising a website’s content for queries that are phrased as questions. Well-optimised content could appear as the featured snippet or answer box on the search engine results page. The massive growth of virtual assistants and voice search has made this type of optimization very important going into 2024.

User Generated Content Is On The Rise

User Generated Content, or UGC, continued to develop in 2023, becoming a standard practice within most businesses’ social strategies. There were notable developments in both creation and consumption.

There’s a growing recognition that a brand’s authenticity holds significant importance in how it’s perceived by consumers, this is evident in how brands are now interacting with their audience, building genuine connections with unfiltered content rather than relying solely on scripted material. This emphasis on authenticity goes hand in hand with the development of Influencer Marketing, leading to a rise in micro and nano influencers who resonate more authentically with niche audiences.

Going into 2024, the Automotive industry is increasingly leveraging User Generated Content to engage with consumers and shape their brand. Curating and presenting UGC effectively takes a keen eye and social optimisation, so you won’t be surprised to read that we do exactly this for a lot of our clients!

 

Even with an in-house marketing team, it’s challenging to maintain the expertise required to navigate today’s evolving landscape. Adapting to market shifts and trends is becoming increasingly complex. Whilst you don’t have to master every aspect, a cohesive strategy is crucial.

At WDA Automotive, digital marketing is our expertise, relieving you of that burden. We understand the dynamics, so you don’t have to. If you need support, reach out to us through our online contact form or call us at 01332 372728.

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