In a previous post, I outlined the communications campaign that resulted in the first-ever retail sale of a hydrogen-powered vehicle in Canada (click here if you missed it). Here, we’ll look at the opportunities that emerged afterward.
When I had the chance to test drive this hydrogen-powered vehicle in Markham, Ontario, I didn’t hesitate.
A fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is a zero-emissions product that emits only pure water vapour as exhaust. It’s sometimes viewed as technology that competes against battery electric vehicles (BEV) for next-generation powertrain prominence, but the reality is the market potential for the hydrogen approach is more complex. There are some applications where a BEV makes more sense than a FCEV and vice-versa. It gets both more complicated and interesting when outside of the transportation sector.
After announcing that Canada’s first publicly available FCEV would be coming to Canada, and then delivering on that promise, my task evolved into managing the multitude of opportunities that arose from the announcement.
One of the key reasons I had that task was that FCEVs was in a contrary position to BEVs, which had been growing increasingly popular in the media and with the public. So, we took advantage of that position in the first of two main strategies.
Taking advantage of being different.
Journalists naturally gravitate toward opposing positions or viewpoints to present balance in their content. With the FCEV, we were providing just that: an alternative to a battery-powered car. We began engaging with authoritative media that could fully articulate the vehicle and its technology by providing extended test drives. This often resulted in coverage in traditional (Globe and Mail) and digital mediums (YouTube).
However, below the surface, we wanted to change the narrative coming out of policy decision makers. At the time, many national and subnational governments were implementing consumer-facing incentives encouraging a switch to zero emissions vehicles. Policies were being drafted that supported BEVs to the exclusion of everything else. By focusing on a particular technology, the government programs were announcing a chosen path (BEV technology) rather than encouraging a destination (zero-emissions mobility). That meant the market - and consumers - wouldn’t be able to decide what’s best for them.
To protect significant corporate R&D investment, a group of automakers was formed to educate government on FCEV technology. Its goal was to help ensure policies, decisions, and programs were technology agnostic.
Of course, there were media relations efforts targeting outlets that served government audiences (iPolitics), but more work was done to demonstrate FCEV technology shouldn’t be dismissed. We did that by showing up with the vehicles to show that they exist, they work, and they have potential.
By far, this was the most interesting docket on my plate and one that was equal parts challenging and rewarding.
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