Super Bowl EV Ads by GM are Saving Tesla Billions

The Super Bowl was a nail-biter, and despite the complaints about the defensive holding penalty that was issued at the last moment, what can be more fun than examining the commercials that tried too hard?

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In this case, it means paying attention to the electric-vehicle ads on Sunday. Most of them, frankly, don't seem to have hit the mark.

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Will Ferrell is coming back to General Motors (ticker: GM) as its new spokesperson. Those who watched the Super Bowl this year may remember Dr. Evil, an actor who played Austin Powers in the Austin Powers series, pitching the GM EV as well as Ferrell in an advertisement that lamented that Norway was catching up with the United States in terms of vehicle electrification.

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Ferrell is promoting GM's new partnership with Netflix NFLX -4.18% (NFLX) for the purpose of putting more EV vehicles in shows this year. As with last year's ads, this ad has the same problems as last year's ads with regard to the quality of the message. To begin with, there are no GM-branded cars on the market. Chevrolets, Cadillacs, and GMC trucks are some of the trucks available on the market. GM blew an opportunity to build awareness for a specific model, like the coming electric Chevy Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox that will go on sale in the near future.

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It is almost as if the GM ads act as a public awareness campaign for electric vehicles. As a result of this, not only does GM benefit from it but so do Ford Motor (F) and Tesla (TSLA). As a result of last year's Super Bowl ads, Tesla TSLA -5.03% received perhaps the biggest boost in its stock price. As a result of the Rams-Bengals game, Google searches for Teslas spiked after the results were announced.

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One of the Super Bowl ads that Stellaris (STLA) has this year is for Jeep and the other one is for Dodge Ram. There are many animals in the Jeep ad, which seems to be pushing the fact that electric vehicles are good for the environment. As a result, it suffers from the same problem as GM. A Jeep EV seems to have no clear advantage over a Jeep 4xe, despite the fact that the Jeep 4xe is a plug-in hybrid, which is a great feature, but it’s not immediately obvious in the advertisement. What would be the benefit of highlighting the mileage, power, or range of the hybrid model rather than the price? Even so, it's still a lot of fun to watch a goat dance.

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There is no doubt that the Dodge Ram EV ad from 2023 takes the cake for the best EV ad. In this piece, titled Premature Electrification, the author pokes fun at ads for male ED produced by drug companies. "Range anxiety" is the fear that an electric car will not be able to do all of the things a traditional car can do because of a lack of charging infrastructure. This is a major concern when thinking about converting to an electric car.

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Despite this, there is one aspect of the ad that falls short. It appears that no solution has been provided, other than the idea that Ram will take care of the issue.

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Another problem is that Ram's all-electric Rev pickup truck is scheduled to make its debut in 2024, which is five years away. There will be pickup trucks for sale after Ford, General Motors, Rivian Automotive RIVN –2.94% (RIVN), and Tesla all have pickup trucks on the market. Over the next few years, we will see a rise in the number of trucks competing for market share.

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For the time being, the market is still small, primarily dominated by Ford and Rivian. The second half of the year was a good time for Ford as it sold about 13,000 Lightning trucks. It is estimated that Rivian sold about 15,000 units. This year, the electric Silverado and Cybertruck are set to arrive on the market.

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The leading truck manufacturers in the United States are Ford and General Motors. Over 370,000 F-series trucks have been sold by Ford in the second half of 2022, and over 670,000 trucks have been sold in the entire year 2022. More than 520,000 Silverados and 240,000 GMC Sierra trucks have been sold by General Motors in the last year. The U.S. is one of the biggest markets for selling trucks in the world.

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The marketing budgets for Ford and General Motors in 2022 will be $2.2 billion and $4 billion, respectively. This equates to about 2% of the total combined sales of the company. In contrast to traditional advertising, Tesla does not spend any money on traditional advertising. Ads from traditional automaker commercials won't have to do so, as long as they act as PSAs for the entire EV industry, they won't have to do so.

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There has been a strong start to the year 2023 for most of the car stocks. In the first half of this year, Tesla's stock price increased by 60%. There is only a 2% increase in Rivian stock, though. It has been a great week for Ford, GM, and Stellantis STLA -2.09% shares, which have gained 9%, 23%, and 15%, respectively.

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Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 SPX +0.22%, and Nasdaq Composite are each up about 7%, 2%, and about 12%, respectively.