BMW Goes After Tesla Model 3 With “Wait or Drive” Ad
And now we wait for Elon Musk's response on Twitter.
BMW doesn’t want you to wait for a Tesla Model 3 anymore. The German automobile company released a pair of advertisements during the Olympics opening ceremony that touched on a sore spot for Tesla fanatics: the lengthy wait times before new models are delivered.
“You will do your taxes twice, maybe more,” a voiceover says in one of the ads for its new 330e electric hybrid. “You will ring in the New Year twice, maybe more. You will wait, and wait, and wait some more all before that electric car company’s new model ever arrives.”
To be fair, BMW doesn’t ever explicitly call out Tesla. There’s power in saying a name, and as Michelle Obama recently showed during her speech at the Democratic National Convention, sometimes simply alluding to a competitor is enough.
BMW’s allusion is clear.
“You can pay a deposit and wait,” the other BMW ad states. “You can put your name on a list and wait. You can get in line and wait.”
The “wait” refers to Tesla’s Model 3. It’s positioned to be the affordable electric car CEO Elon Musk promised the world when he joined the company in 2006. More than 370,000 people paid a $1,000 deposit to receive one, despite the fact that production likely won’t start until after July 1, 2017.
Tesla still has a long list of things it needs to do before that impossible start date, and it’s had a hard time focusing solely on the Model 3 what with the proposed SolarCity buyout, the first autonomous Tesla death, and the parting of long time autonomous development partner Mobileye.
BMW’s accusations aren’t entirely unfounded either. The Tesla Model X ran into some “hubris” during production and customers were left waiting for months longer than expected.
But Tesla’s fanbase isn’t easily swayed. Tesla defenders are out in full force against the ads on YouTube. There are the jokers:
The angry:
The really angry:
And the jaded:
Regardless of which side you are on, if you want a sustainable vehicle and you want it now, BMW wants you to try the 330e.
