BMW tries to cash in on the late delivery of Tesla Model 3, takes a jab on the electric car in its recent ads


BMW, in an attempt to get buyers to notice the all new BMW 330e plug-in hybrid, has taken a swing at Tesla, being careful enough to skip taking the name and yet being obvious enough in its ads to suggest that Tesla is meant to be the big red centre of the board it’s throwing darts at.

Tesla Model 3, another one of Elon Musk’s wonders and a commercial success already, is kind of a late bloomer. With more than 400,000 pre-bookings within two weeks of the curtain raiser, Model 3 is very much on its path of becoming one of the most wanted cars in the US and the world. Following the path of its predecessors, Roadster, Model S and Model X, Model 3 is also expected to get delayed for whatever reasons Tesla presents. However, the expected delay does not seem to be a problem for the Tesla lovers, says the huge number of advance bookings.

BMW seems to be having a field day with this delayed arrival. In the two new advertisements it has released to promote its brand new 330e plug-in hybrid, it clearly indicates the extension in delivery time that Tesla will end up taking and thus presents its electric car as the solution. Although, it wisely refrains from using the name, referring to Tesla as the ‘other electric car company’.

Alibaba, one of the many renowned e-commerce sites, has recently admitted that the problem of counterfeiting has risen way above the bar. Founder Jack Ma has expressed his concern over the whole deal and has disclosed that the present time imitations of various products are making better profits with their quality, price and absolute nil sense of accountability.

This calls for stricter actions. Alibaba is a huge platform with a business coverage of truly wide range. The inability to clean such an e-marketing place displays weaknesses in the system of the entire concept. While Mr Ma tried consoling the outrage with his believe that Alibaba is clearer than most and has been fighting the counterfeit deals with a lot of success, the entire idea of penetrated online markets raises a sense of doubt.

The first ad shows a man sitting on his doorstep, looking bored while the voiceover tells the audience that he’ll pay his taxes twice and celebrate New Year twice in the wait before he gets his car delivered.

The other ad shows a lady walking past two car charging units that look an awful lot like the Tesla superchargers, but hey, nobody is taking any names! The lady crosses these charging units to get to her 330e while the voice-over says,‘you can wait or you can drive’.

In both the ads, BMW stresses its points and quote, “Reinventing what a plug-in hybrid is like only BMW can” and “It’s the car you’ve been waiting for, without the wait”.

With these two thirty-something seconds’ ads, BMW has put in its focus on telling the audience what they already know, that Tesla won’t be available for a few more months. So much hype around Model 3 left both ads lacking a feature portrayal of the 330e. All that anybody would gather from the ads is that 330e has an EPA rated gas consumption of 72 MPGe. And that isn’t smart advertisement considering that Model 3 appears to be way better in its features than 330e.

Then again, when the ads are looked at with a close and clear eye, BMW seems to be saying just one thing; ‘buy our car because Tesla isn’t here yet and won’t be for a long time’.

While 330e has a range of fourteen miles, Model 3 can go up to 215 miles. 300e begins from $44,000 and Model 3 begins from $35,000. And none of this can be gathered from the two spots BMW has uploaded on YouTube in early August.

By the looks of it, BMW is ready to turn this train of thought into a full blown campaign with the #wait or drive scenario. The ads are expected to be aired during the Olympics.

Taking a dig at the competition has always been a fun thing in almost every industry because it isn’t supposed to be taken seriously in the name of humour and well, peace among the industries. However, this new BMW campaign seems to be hurting its own cause.