The town of Normal, Illinois is no stranger to electric cars. Home to one of Mitsubishi’s factories, the town became home to a 1,000 strong electric vehicle test fleet earlier this year. Then in July, town officials announced residents would get an additional purchase incentive worth an average of $300 for every new electric car purchased there.

Now Mitsubishi is using its experience in Normal as the basis for a new digital advertising campaign that casts the 2012 Mitsubishi as the “Most Likable Car On The Planet”.

The advertising campaign will detail how Normal became what Mitsubishi says is the best place in the U.S. to drive an electric vehicle, covering everything from introducing the Mitsubishi i to Normal's residents through to the  30-strong network of rapid DC charging stations it installed to ensure they never had problems finding somewhere to plug in. 

In other words, detailing how Mitsubishi brought electric cars to the a rural, run-of-the-mill town and made them normal.

The message is beautifully clear: if an everyday, normal U.S. town like Normal can adopt electric cars with open arms, then your town can become normal and adopt electric cars too.

To coincide with the ad campaign, Mitsubishi will be taking its 2012 i on what it calls the Electric Experience Tour. Calling in at major cities along the pacific coast from Seattle to San Diego, the tour will give consumers a chance to test-drive the Mitsubishi i as well as ask the roadshow team all of the usual questions about owning an electric car. 

Sadly though, Mitsubishi hasn’t yet said when it will tour the 2012 Mitsubishi i in the very areas that could benefit the most from its Normal EVTown ad campaign -- middle America. 

Let’s hope it details plans to bring normality everywhere soon, but in the meantime everyone else will have to be content with its online Facebook campaign instead.


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