His name is Bond, James Bond. His car is electric — hang on, no, it’s still a petrol engined version.
As much as I would like to say that I have been approached to play the next Bond, it would be a shockingly poor lie. I am, in so many ways different to the great secret agent. I don’t look great in a tuxedo, my license to kill seems to have been lost in the post (I’m British, I have a licence to tut loudly). However, the biggest difference is that our favourite secret agent is that he refuses to drive a modern electric car. And, may I please ask, how secret is he really? He tells everyone his name… But I digress.
There were stories in the press earlier in the year which sounded rather interesting. Namely, a statement that Daniel Craig would be behind the wheel of a rather flash, and, more importantly, 100% electric Aston Martin Rapide E.
The Rapide E is Aston Martin’s all electric production car. It’s ‘aerodynamically optimised’, their own words for sleek lines, and ‘makes me want to buy one’, styling. This is a truly amazing car with a top speed of 155 mph and a sub four seconds 0–60 mph time. More importantly this is a serious British vehicle which is taking electric motoring seriously.
Sadly, it is somewhat out of my limited budget touching a little over £250,000, however there will be a queue of drivers with deeper pockets who will be clamoring to get their hands one of these and enjoy top of the range electric motoring.
However, back to James Bond. When it comes to changing the nation to accept electric vehicles there would be no better ambassador for electric vehicles than everyone’s favourite gentleman spy. It would certainly encourage a number of people who would step out of the darkness of the cinema thinking, well if 007 can drive electric maybe, just maybe I should consider it myself!
I think the electric car industry has missed a major opportunity. We know that still most people would not consider buying an electric vehicle. The biggest reason is that electric cars are just not at the front of people’s consciousness when it comes to car purchase. We are still in a fossil fueled world where people are scared to take the leap of faith because they don;t have the right role models to follow.
Therefore, I will be starting my, electric cars in the best movies campaign. Let’s see Tom Cruise on an electric motorbike in the inevitable remake of Top Gun. I know that the Batmobile will look less effective without jet flames, however, even if Bruce Wayne is a millionaire the bit at the gas station must be crippling. You get the idea.
You see, I already know that driving electric is a good thing, however that was because I Had the opportunity to give it a go and fell in love with the better way of motoring. We need new ways to encourage people to get behind the wheel and fall in love with electric driving, more heroes to demonstrate that sexy, fast and eco-friendly do fit in the same sentence.
We just need more stars, in electric cars… Whose with me on this?
