Think that electric cars are the best bet for reducing pollution? The people at Zero Pollution Motors would argue that point. Zero Pollution Motors manufactures and sells what it calls a more environmentally-friendly solution – a car that runs on compressed air, called the AIRPod car. The compressed air drives the pistons in the engine and uses a propulsion principle rather than a combustion principle.
Selling for $10,000, the car has a top speed of 50 mph and maximum range of 111 miles before it needs to be refilled. The car can be refilled by transferring air from a compressor, similar to the ones that exist today at gas stations for filling up tires, but with larger capacity and pressure.
Zero Pollution Motors is the first U.S.-based licensee for MDI, a Luxembourg developer. Using a unique manufacturing model, the car is produced at turnkey, micro production factories in locally-based regions. Manufacturing 80% of the vehicle, and then selling it in the same location drastically reduces logistics and costs. The first U.S. cars are expected to be built and sold in Hawaii near the end of 2015.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Start the discussion on this product by showing the Shark Tank video: https://youtu.be/C5wXbm1nPPA
- Show the Zero Pollution Motor Web site: http://zeropollutionmotors.us/
- Discuss the various promotional tactics that can be used for launching a product.
- Have students come up with tactics and list all the tactics on the white board (ex: billboards, print, direct mail, etc.).
- Divide students into groups to work on this exercise.
- Have each team select three different tactics. For each tactic, explain why it was selected and how it will be used.
- Debrief by putting together the entire suggested lists on the white board. As a final step, have the entire class vote on the top three tactics to use.
Source: Manufacturing Business Technology
