Can YOU help me spread the word about how awesome electric cars are? Click ? https://EVNe.ws/patreon   Read today’s show notes on https://www.evnewsdaily.com   Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Tuesday 14th August edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the 56 patrons of this podcast whose generosity means I get to produce this show for free, to thousands of listeners every day.   FLINTSTONES-JETSONS SONG MASHUP POWERS NEW ELECTRIC VEHICLE AWARENESS AD Keep an eye ono TV, Radio and Digital because there's a new ad coming your way to promote electric cars. "The Jetsons and Flintstones are getting back together again—or at least their theme songs are. The soundtracks of the two classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons are featured in a new ad seeking to raise awareness of electric vehicles." according to Ad Age: "The spot, by Deutsch, is part of the first national campaign by Electrify America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America. The group, created in 2016, is overseeing a 10-year, $2 billion investment on zero emissions vehicle technology and awareness. The investment was mandated as part of the automaker's legal settlement with government regulators in the wake of VW's diesel scandal in which it admitted to installing devices on cars to cheat on emissions tests." "The first ad portrays an environmentally conscious man driving a gas-powered car. Cue the Flintstones music, which suggests he is behind the times. Then, as the Jetsons song comes on, his alter ego pulls up in an electric car, prompting jealousy from his backwards-thinking self. The spot ends by showing a range of currently available electric cars speeding down the highway." There's a new website to go with it as well, plugintothepresent.com "It includes a link to an external site in which people can search for government-backed incentives available to electric vehicle buyers, like tax credits. There is also a link to a map where people can search for their closest charging stations and another site where people can comparison shop among electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles." The ad is brand agnostic, but those seen in the commercial are Chevrolet, Honda Clarity, Nissan LEAF, BMW i3, Hyundai IONIQ, and VWs e-GOlf. None of those brands paid to be in the ad. The voiceover says: ""With instant acceleration, electric cars are more fun to drive and more affordable than ever. Electric cars are here." Richard Steinberg, Electrify America's senior director of green cities, marketing and communications, told Reuters: "We're trying to say with this campaign that electric vehicles are fun to drive, the range is great and charging is more widely available than people know. Electric cars are not something of the future, they are here now and more accessible than many people know. The JetStones campaign is just the beginning of our work to educate and demonstrate that electric vehicles offer a full array of features that customers expect, and they are totally fun to drive."   http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/flintstones-jetsons-powers-electric-vehicle-awareness-ad/314567/   https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/13/volkswagen-ev-awareness-campaign/     ELON BLOGS ABOUT TAKING TESLA PRIVATE A new blog post from Elon Musk finally gives more detail about the plan to take Tesla private. Elon Musk confirms Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund is the source of funding, or the PIF (Public Investment Fund) It had approached him multiple times He last met with them in July and established the $420 price was good to go Fair to say this isn't a 'whim' as many critics and commentators thought He says it the deal would be done with equity and not debt He expect two thirds of the existing investments would follow the plan to be private, so nobody would have over