Selling cheap gas to promote electric cars?
Let's see. You're a gas station owner who wants to get out of the petrol business and into something a little more eco-friendly. Electric cars, say. How do you mark the transition? For Milton Grin, owner of a Valero in Kansas City, Missouri, the answer was to attract attention to his new venture by selling his current product at discount prices - like $1.99 for a gallon of gas (diesel prices remained high). To take advantage of the media and customer attention his sale generated, Grin had three EVs on display at the pumps. To me, this is a pretty good way to highlight the difference between fueling at a pump and charging from a plug. You need gas? You gotta drive somewhere and wait in line. You need electricity, just plug it in. The gimmick worked, and the response was so huge that Grin had to stop the sale in the early evening because of the traffic swarm.
See news stories of the cheap gas sale here, here and here. Tipster Andrew (whose last name is also Grin, according to his Flickr profile) has also posted a collection of photos of the event over on Flickr. Thanks, Andrew.
[Source: KCTV5]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luke 6:24PM (8/17/2008)
"To me, this is a pretty good way to highlight the difference between fueling at a pump and charging from a plug. You need gas? You gotta drive somewhere and wait in line. You need electricity, just plug it in. The gimmick worked, and the response was so huge that Grin had to stop the sale in the early evening because of the traffic swarm."
So the point was to cause a swarm, but he stopped making the point because it caused a swarm?
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Andrew 6:31PM (8/17/2008)
Luke, although we didn't think about that point, ("You need gas? You gotta drive somewhere and wait in line. You need electricity, just plug it in.") which is a good one, the police actually shut it down after about 4 hours because they were exhausted and it was rush hour so it was getting crazy. The tanks were almost empty anyway though. Check the news stories videos for more detail.
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Luke 7:35PM (8/17/2008)
Thanks for the correction, Andrew.
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BlackbirdHighway 6:41AM (8/18/2008)
"Grin had three EVs".
Any details?
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director 6:41PM (8/18/2008)
"You need gas? You gotta drive somewhere and wait in line. You need electricity, just plug it in."
I drive somewhere and get fully "charged" in five minutes (without waiting in lines, btw), as opposed to plugging in and waiting hours.
In truth, I don't drive somewhere just to get gas, I stop on the way somewhere. Try doing that with an empty battery. Better hope you can get all the way home.
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Andrew 8:51PM (8/18/2008)
BlackbirdHighway, There were actually 2 there. The Miles ZX40S and ZX40ST. We are authorized dealers of the low-speed Miles Electric Vehicles and we expect to be selling the XS500 when it comes out at the end of next year. Here is our website www.gasfree.com
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