Electric vehicles used to be, well, let’s just say they weren’t cool. The first EV you were aware of was probably a milk float. Not exactly a cutting-edge ride.
In the 80s they got arguably even less cool, thanks to vehicular duds like the C5, brainchild of British electronics pioneer Clive Sinclair and one of the biggest embarrassments in contemporary tech. Intended to be a one-person car, it was basically an electric-assisted pedal tricycle that failed to capture the public imagination. Just 5,000 of the 14,000 made were sold â Sinclair lost £7m of his own money.
Other similar ideas bombed in the 1990s (Chrysler’s TEVan, anyone?), hampered by a lack of range and speed. By the turn of the millennium, electric cars still carried such an unfashionable aura of quirk that even celebrity endorsement â usually a rubber stamp of cool â failed to make sales soar.
Indeed, stars who did choose electric were even derided. USA Today described Mel Gibson’s love for his EV as “a wee bit unhinged”. The Daily Mail called Tom Hanks’ Scion XB an “ugly, teal green monstrosity”, while Jeremy Clarkson said Kristin-Scott Thomas’ beloved G-Wiz was “like walking, only less comfortable”.
The turning point came with the arrival of Toyota’s hybrid Prius, and then Tesla, of course. A-Listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Will Smith, Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman were all among the first to jump on Elon Musk’s bandwagon. In 2014 Beyoncé shared a picture of hubby Jay-Z’s “murdered out” model S (with black tinted windows and hubcaps) while Joe Rogan called his own black 2017 Model S P100D “preposterous… like driving a roller coaster”.
Fast-forward to 2022 and you’ve got bushels of celebrities wholeheartedly embracing electric. At his son Brooklyn’s wedding to socialite Nicola Peltz this May, David Beckham turned up in a $500,000 vintage, powder-blue Jaguar converted to full electric, which he then gave to the (presumably now very) happy couple.
Becks followed in the wake of other generous sleb parents such as Kate Moss, who gave daughter Lila her old petrol Mini, which she swapped for a fully electric version. And last Christmas Kris Jenner bought six fully electric Mokes â one for each of her children. Kylie’s is presumably parked up in her garage next to her hybrid supercar, the Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta.
If the Kardashian mark of approval does the same for EVs as for fashion brands, some of which have seen as high as a 95 per cent rise in sales during paid social media partnerships with one or other sister, no doubt we will all be driving one before too long.
To find out more about the ES campaign for electric cars visit standard.co.uk/plugitin
