Volkswagen uses wind turbines to help sell e-Golf – didn’t get Abbott’s memo

To Tony Abbott, they’re “visually awful.” To his Treasurer, they’re “utterly offensive.” So what on earth was Volkswagen thinking when it cast a bunch of offshore wind turbines to star in the advertising campaign for its new all electric VW e-Golf?

Perhaps they were working from the knowledge that the world’s growing need for clean, sustainable and distributed power sources was increasingly being met through wind power?

Perhaps they were inspired by a market whose astounding growth – led by China – was being driven by increasingly competitive electricity generation pricing?

Who knows? Perhaps they think wind turbines look alright – even visually appealing – to a new generation of car consumers who want a greener drive?

Whatever the thinking, VW has chosen to advertise the arrival of its new e-Golf via a series of images of the electric car driving along a coastal road, against a backdrop of offshore wind turbines. (see below)

Like other car makers before them – Peugeot, Mercedes Benz and Ford – VW quite probably thinks pairing its electric vehicle offering with renewable energy technology makes sense. Here the e-Golf is again, plugged into a solar re-charging station.

After all, the car maker has invested in various wind and solar energy projects around the world, including a 20-year wind farm power purchase agreement in Mexico in 2013, to power its manufacturing facilities in the country exclusively with wind energy.

More than just a pretty technology!