Electric vehicles get plugged in Super Bowl ads

In between the football and beer commercials, ads for electric vehicles were a common theme throughout Sunday night’s Super Bowl LVII.

The trend of automakers promoting their climate-friendly vehicles during the most-watched program of the year that draws tens of millions of viewers has become increasingly popular.

Three commercials featured EVs this year, including for the Dodge Ram 1500 REV, JEEP’s 4xe hybrid lineup and General Motors’ EV lineup. With 30-second ad spots going for around $7 million, the three one-minute spots collectively cost roughly $42 million.

Ram’s commercial, dubbed “Premature Electrification,” or “PE,” featured a rift on rival EV trucks and male sexual-enhancement drug commercials.

“Are you excited about buying an electric vehicle but worry that it could leave you … unsatisfied?” says the ad’s narrator, comedian Jason Jones.

Premature Electrification is worth talking about. See if the Ram 1500 REV is right for you at https://t.co/Hi6e9xGgcm#RamREV #BigGame

Preproduction model shown. Actual production model may vary. Coming late 2024. pic.twitter.com/d3t9ajUCkr

— Ram Trucks (@RamTrucks) February 12, 2023

This year’s trio of EV spots actually marked a slight decline from 2022 but was largely on pace with past Super Bowls.

There were five EV Super Bowl ads in 2022 costing roughly $58 million, including for the BMW IX, the electric Chevy Silverado, GM’s EV line-up, the KIA EV6 and Polestar.

There were just two ads for 2021’s Super Bowl, costing about $16 million for the Cadillac Lyriq and GM’s EV line-up.

The Super Bowl in 2020 also featured two EV ads worth about $11 million for the Hummer EV and Audi’s e-tron line-up.

But the consistent EV promotion has appeared to have saved Tesla tens of millions of dollars in advertising costs because of interest and stock value spiking for the EV company in the wake of each year’s Super Bowl ads.