Solar powered vehicles, the way to move forward?

In the spring of 2008 Techmace accepted the challenge to develop a strategy to market and sell solar powered vehicles in Asia from the small but innovative company SOIOS. At that time SOIOS was primarily focussing on the dutch market and neighbouring countries. Dealing with interested people from this part of the world was just one step too much. Furthermore, developing a communication strategy around such a innovative transportation concept was not part of their day to day business, so support in this field was very welcome.

Columbus's egg
At first glance, the idea of developing solar powered vehicles looks like Columbus's egg. Free energy from the sun powers your car, while driving without any pollution at all. Who wouldn't want to have a car like that?
This is all true, but in reality there are some constraints that determine where and how solar powered vehicles can be used successfully from an economic and technical point of view.
At Techmace we realized the potential of the product, but also the challenge that lay ahead to communicate the benefits of it to the rest of the world.

Environment friendly image
From market research carried out at some golf clubs in Thailand it became clear that a major reason for investing in solar powered golf cars was the environment friendly image it would project on the clients business, e.g. a golf club. But there was also mistrust about the technical performance of a solar powered golf car. How long can it run without recharging on a typical golfing day?
It quickly became clear that a simple product description on a website would not do the trick. A lot of extra data about aspects such as the economics, technical performance and maintenance aspects was needed to be able to create an effective set of communication tools for marketing and sales.

Spring 2009, electric cars are hot, the results so far
As we know now, SOIOS was way ahead of time when they decided to start developing solar powered electric vehicles some 8 years ago. Developing electric cars seems to be the only way forward for companies like General Motors. Since SOIOS' vehicles cannot be compared with ordinary cars the need to communicate what it can do and what it can't do becomes even more urgent.

So what are the results so far:

• Come up with a catchy domain name and logo
• A new website for asean market: www.solar2move.com;
• Tests with retrofitted golf car in Hua Hin Thailand;
• Talks with potential partners for cooperation in Thailand;
• Opening of a sales office in Chonburi Thailand.

What is next?
While the financial and economic crisis has touched virtually everyone, this has not stopped us at Techmace to continue working on our strategy. Sustainable energy and new, environmentally friendly ways of transportation are more in the news than ever before.

Next steps will include:

• To generate more traffic to our new website, monitoring with Google Analytics;
• Improve website navigation and information based on different "personas";
• Improve visual experience using video and 3D images or animations;
• Establishing partnerships with companies in Asia that can offer added value.