[Aika Car Car Fun Talk Original]
Happy April Fool's Day! Although not designated as a legal holiday by any country in the world, April 1 is indeed the day with the lowest risk of being beaten after a prank. For car companies that have always been serious, this day is also a rare opportunity to show a sense of humor and not worry about legal risks. In this article, let's take a look at what classic cases of "whole work" left by various car companies on April Fool's Day in previous years.
Alpha Romeo – Filter window
The lack of epidemic prevention and control forced Italy to impose another national lockdown in March 2021, which was really unbearable for Italians who had been eager for a vacation for a long time, and on April 1 of that year, April 1, Alfa Romeo officially released the news that he had found a "great solution" to solve this problem: the Milan car manufacturer developed a window with filter function - Nuova Luce (Italian: New Light), which allows owners to choose through the program of the central control screen. The light tones of five of Italy's most famous landscapes are projected on the side windows, and this "technology" will be the first to be installed on the Stevio.
"Giving the side windows a filter tone effect of a well-known attraction can alleviate people's depressed mood of not being able to travel?" I have to say that Alfa Romeo not only makes cars with personality, but even the idea of "deceiving people" is so unconventional.
Alfa Romeo also took the lead in introducing the shades corresponding to the five landscapes, the "Roman" mode corresponds to the reddish and yellow sunset tones; the "Milan mode" presents the bright, holy light of the cathedral; the "Turin mode" is the peach red color of the sun on the ancient buildings; the "Como mode" is the turquoise blue of Lake Como at the foot of the Alps in northern Italy; and the last mode presents the high-contrast colors of the well-known resort of the Amalfi Coast.
As the saying goes, do the whole thing, and Alfa Romeo also has a picture of the P, showing that the new technology called "Nuova Luce" can provide Stelvio owners with five attraction options.
Alfa Romeo claimed that in order to develop the color-changing window, a special "ambient light" collection team was sent to spend three weeks at each of the five attractions, using "state-of-the-art" optical technology to ensure that the color of the color-changing windows was consistent with the color of the attraction.
Perhaps because the fake content is too conservative and rigorous, Alfa Romeo's "whole work" on April Fool's Day 2021 did not cause much questioning and discussion. To this day, a product press release about the "Filter Window" is displayed in the Media Center of the Stellantis official website, quietly waiting for the next unknown fool to spread it.
Caterham – Do you need to get on the car?
Many people may not know much about the Caterham brand, a former Lotus dealer whose mainly engaged in the development and manual manufacture of classical lightweight sports cars, and its Seven model based on the Lotus 7 has a history of 50 years.
To be honest, caterham's vintage light sports car really didn't think much about the question of "how to get on and off the bus for large occupants."
Such a niche car brand also engaged in "flower work" on April Fool's Day, and it was CEO Graham Mark Donald himself who "cheated": "Considering that the cockpit of our model is too narrow, in order to make it easier and smoother for customers to enter, we spent 17 months developing this lubricant product - Caterham Seven Lube, and you can easily get in and out of the vehicle before driving!" It costs just £7.77 (about 65 yuan)...
This "special lubricant for getting on and off" bottle, specially developed for Caterham owners, reads: Smoothly enter your 7... What a terrible advertising slogan.
If there is such a product, there must be far more practical use cases than the next Caterham...
Honestly speaking, after reading the CEO's introduction to this "lubricating oil", the picture that came to my mind really had nothing to do with the car. If this product does come out in the future, it is suggested that Caterham car owners can consider trying it out in other "specific scenarios".
Dacia – Cheap space program for cheap brands
Friends who know the Dacia brand should know that the Romanian car brand that has belonged to Renault has been positioned as a cheap car brand in Europe, and the biggest competitiveness of its models is that the price is cheap enough. Dacia is also well aware of his strengths, so he never shy away from this in the promotion of brands and products, and can even be said to be proud that his products are grounded enough.
In the 2021 April Fool's Day scheme, cheap is still the focus of the brand's publicity.
In fact, Dacia's April Fool's Day scheme is quite lofty, first on the eve of April Fools' Day, it was first announced, announcing that it would show the cheapest "space program" to the world on April 1.
Conquering Earth with cheap cars is not enough, Dacia's ambition is to "conquer the universe with cheap space projects"!
At 9 a.m. on April Fool's Day, Dacia "broadcast live" the "space event", and in this space project called "Dustar", Dacia "launched a cheap Duster ( Dacia's best-selling small SUV ) into space " , completing "another innovation in human history" (apparently inspired by spaceX's launch of the Tesla Roadster into space with the Falcon 9).
Dacia broadcast a Duster's "Ascension to Heaven in Place" on April 1, 2021.
You'd say that Dacia's "space project" idea didn't borrow from "SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Tesla Roadster into Space", I don't believe it.
In order to be able to fake the truth, Dacia also fictionalized a project leader, Noel Armstrong (the first person to spoof the moon landing, Neil Armstrong), and released his "statement for an interview with the media": Dacia has always been committed to providing great value for money products, on Earth our cars have achieved this, and our next plan is to achieve this in space!
Dacia "live-" the "Dustar Space Program" as for the live broadcast effect...
The exaggerated creativity makes Dacia's April Fool's Day planning difficult to believe, but whether it is from the perspective of the idea itself, the pre-preparation, and the specific implementation effect, I have to praise Dacia and go to my heart.
Alfa Romeo/Caterham/Dacia
MG(1) – Great street painter
Compared with the first three, MG's 2019 April Fool's Day plan is quite "small and fresh": on the day of the festival, MG announced that it will equip its new car with a newly designed tire, which features a built-in water-soluble dye that allows the vehicle to paint colorful patterns on the road during driving, of course, these patterns will dissolve and disappear in the near future.
"Doodling on the street with wheels", it sounds less shocking, but full of childlike fun, MG's 2019 April Fool's Day plan is quite unique.
An executive in charge of vehicle color matching in MG (God knows if there is really such a person) revealed in an interview that if the customer is not satisfied with the color of the tire dye that is standard, he can also contact the relevant technical team to change the dye color for the tire.
The tires are drawn on the road, and there are many childlike ideas! And at least it doesn't sound too hard to achieve, but if this idea comes true, whether people will drive in a straight line on the road is definitely a question.
MG (2) – Alpacas give me strength!
Well, it must be admitted that MG's April Fool's Day program is not always so "fresh", such as this one in 2018, which is not only not fresh, but also very flavorful.
On April Fool's Day 2018, MG officially announced that it had found "a sustainable, renewable and environmentally friendly energy alternative" for its vehicles. MG also announced that it has reached a strategic cooperation agreement with an alpaca farm called Faerie Tale (translated as "fairy tale") in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England, where the two sides will jointly develop a new energy source based on alpaca manure, and mg's small SUV, the MG ZS, will be the first model to be refueled.
MG "Plans" to work with alpaca farms to produce renewable alpaca poop fuel, a very flavorful idea.
How much can you eat? How much can you pull? How much do you eat I pull as much...
Daniel Gregorious, head of sales and marketing at MG UK, vowed in an interview: MG has made a major decision that we will no longer sell diesel models, but use this alternative fuel (referring to alpaca poop), and this new fuel has been experimentally verified to be fully compliant with the standard, the only thing to worry about is that the emission taste of the vehicle after using this fuel will be a little strange...
Hyundai – a new car that falls from the sky
The rapid development of the drone industry has undoubtedly also stimulated the imagination of car companies, such as hyundai's brain hole solution for April Fool's Day in 2017, which is quite forward-looking, and even in the future, it is really possible to achieve.
Hyundai officially announced on April Fool's Day 2017 that it launched a new experimental project called "Click to Fly", which allows consumers to choose a model on Hyundai's online car shopping website "Click to Buy", and then they can leisurely wait at home for the car delivery service.
Welcome to the April Fool's Day performance brought by Hyundai Motors - Click to Fly, which translates to "a little fly".
What's new about this? Deliver the car to the door. Of course, it is not so simple, because it is not people who deliver the car to the door, but drones! According to modern officials, 2 hours after placing an order online with consumers, a drone powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology, Hy-drone, will come to your door with a huge box loaded with a new car.
In the modern woven "fairy tale", a Hy-drone drone has a load capacity of two tons, and the top speed can reach 351km/h, which can be accurately delivered to the customer's doorstep through MGPS.
In terms of the realism of promotional videos, modern times still have to beat Dacia
And to make this April Fool's Day scheme sound more believable, Hyundai has also designed different drone delivery schemes based on vehicle level. For example, an i10 positioning a small car only needs two drones to haul, while the Santa Fe (beijing Hyundai Shengda in China) that locates a medium-sized SUV requires four drones to haul.
Land Rover – Wilderness Charging Pile
Just like the strong off-road capabilities of its models, Land Rover's spoof planning for April Fools' Day 2019 seems to have no boundaries at all, and it seems quite bold. The British off-road vehicle brand claims to have installed a slow charging pile (you see, how rigorous) in isling is the isle of Skye, the most remote area in northwest Scotland, which is still 15 miles (24 km) away from the summit of Mount Quillin, sky island's highest peak.
"Installing" charging piles to a picturesque place like The Isle of Skye is Land Rover's "great environmental vision".
Land Rover claims that the pile is specially prepared for the owners of the Range Rover/Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid model, and the owner can drive the car to fully charge the charging pile, then successfully drive to the top of Quirin Mountain, and then return to the charging pile to charge, the whole process is completely zero emissions, after all, the pure electric endurance of both cars is about 30 miles (51 kilometers), just one round trip.
I believe that even if there are honest people who are really deceived, they will not be embarrassed to talk to others about this glorious experience.
There are no follow-up reports of any honest man actually driving to find the charging pile. Of course, I believe that even if someone really goes, it is likely that they will choose not to disclose this matter because of their face.
Conclusion: After reading it, please do not send out a similar "Why do domestic car companies rarely do things on April Fool's Day?" in the comment area? After all, April Fool's Day, it seems that entertaining others is very simple, but it requires an environment with a sufficient sense of humor, which is really difficult. After all, the car company has spent money, but it is likely to be due to the words of a righteous and indignant defender, "Chinese but foreign festivals, defraud consumers and lose money!" ", just smash the whole festival atmosphere to pieces, which car company dares to come out and twist the tiger's whiskers? So as a domestic consumer, you have to look at it. If you are not a fool, how can you celebrate April Fool's Day?
The April Fool's Day plans of these car companies listed above, I don't know if there is a laugh that can poke you, in fact, whether it is funny or boring, it is already a thing of the past. And just when you see this article, I believe that the world's major car companies for this year's April Fool's Day to come up with the planning has also been on the scene, if you are interested, hurry to brush the news to taste it.
Highlights review:
The top brass confirmed that Alfa Romeo will launch a larger model
Sold 9.98-122,800 yuan MG ONE β version was officially listed
Target annual sales of 1.87 million Hyundai electrification plans are exposed
MG/Hyundai/Land Rover