Let’s all play the song in our heads now.
“Bill Nye the Science Guy!”
*Proto House beat starts*
“Inertia is a property of Porsches.”
“Bill! Bill! Bi…wait, what?”
Yup. In a move surely calculated to appeal to the elementary-school hearts of millions of millennials now old enough to learn about how to finance a six-figure purchase, Stuttgart’s sports car maker has enlisted Bill Nye the Science Guy to market its first electric car, the 2021 Porsche Taycan.
In a series of short videos, Nye explains the car’s features as if teaching a classroom full of students again. He explains how the Taycan’s 2-speed gearbox keeps its performance from degrading as the battery drains like a battery-powered toothbrush does. Nye builds a physics-teacher-style piping experiment to explain how the Taycan’s 800-volt battery charges faster than the 400-volt batteries of some rivals. He also helps teach people how to pronounce the car’s name (it’s “tie-con”).
He keeps the bowtie and enthusiasm you remember, but ditches the theme song, sadly.
It may seem like an odd pairing, but Nye has been an enthusiastic supporter of electric cars since he owned (well, leased, as it was the only option) GM’s original EV1 back in the days when his show aired on PBS. These days, he’s become a crusader for clean energy options to fight climate change. So perhaps Porsche attracted him with its pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030.
Other children’s television stars have generally stayed out of car marketing, though we understand that Mr. Snuffleupagus has a jaw-dropping collection of classic Ford Broncos, and is just a phone call away if Ford marketing is reading this. You know his address. Roughly.
The 2021 Taycan would seem to be out of reach of many educators. Its MSRP ranges from $79,900 to $185,000 for the flagship Taycan Turbo S, not including the $1,350 delivery. But, in its press release announcing the Porsche-PBS-star-tie-in, the company notes, “The Taycan is also available for short-term subscription or rental through Porsche Drive and 90-minute driving experiences at the Porsche Experience Center in Los Angeles and Atlanta.”
