Stickers

Saturday 13th September 2014

We all love stickers – they remind us of our childhood, from gold stars for good behaviour to the sheets of stickers that came free with the weekly comic, that brought with it the never ending problem of where to stick them. I love stickers – particularly flower ones!!!

Can stickers on a car really make a difference?

Now, I am only going by the cars we have had…

The 2010 Tesla Roadster needs no stickers it says all that it needs to say just by being what it is. Five years of ownership and it still gets looks and thumbs up and pictures taken wherever we go with it.

The 2010 MINI E stood out on its own; one, because it was a MINI and two, they gave the MINI E yellow door mirrors and some awesome plug stickers on the roof and bonnet, it seemed to make a big difference. Just have to say here – Such a super duper fun car to drive – but I digress  – I could talk about the MINI E forever!

The 2013 Ford Focus Electric, it looks exactly the same as its petrol version, apart from the front grille, but you would have to know that or, if you’re like me, you just don’t notice the difference. Yes, it has the word electric in a couple of places, but it is very unnoticeable.

The 2013 Mitsubishi i-MiEV is the same, it doesn’t say, “I’m Electric“, it says, “I’m different“, and it looks different enough that people notice it, but not a lot.

The 2012 BMW ActiveE was a boring, white, (yes, it is still white!!) factory converted 1 series. But, BMW added some striking circuit graphic stickers and that transformed the car. People would stop and stare at the car, unsure as to what it was. It looked like a regular 1 series but it had stickers, oh and a bump in the bonnet. The stickers really made it stand out from the crowd. It was always amusing listening to people talk about the stickers to their friends…

’What do these stickers mean?’

‘What do they do?’ – Nothing functional of course.

‘Are they solar?’ – Oh dear!

‘Is that how the electricity gets into the car?’ This has to go on record as one of the best.

‘Are they painted on? I’m not sure, I should just go ahead and touch them then!”

Next up, the 2014 BMW i3. While it looks very different and futuristic, and gets the odd look, it didn’t get lots of looks when we picked it up. But, then we added some of those lovely circuit graphic stickers from the old ActiveE and voila! The car is transformed. Where I would once drive along the road and hardly be noticed, the i3 transformation with stickers was instant. Now I’m getting people stare as I go by and actually follow the car until it is out of sight. This is the difference between stickers and no stickers. It’s quite a revelation! I am getting so many more comments when I park the car. From thumbs up from peds’ to ‘cool car!’ to one guy telling his friend to wait because he wanted to check out the cool electric car. I’ve had more interest in the car in one week with the stickers on than I’ve had in the whole 4 months we have had the car.

I actually would have liked to put some lovely flower stickers on the i3 but for some reason unbeknown to me my sidekick said no – now why would he say that?

On all of our electric cars we have our trademark green plugs, but I don’t think people really notice them, not when we are driving by, more when we are stopped. But the stickers – oh my gosh what a difference.