• by Karl Greenberg , October 11, 2011

Mitsubishi is promoting its first electric car in the U.S. market -- the 2012 Mitsubishi i -- with a regional campaign that involves Normal, Ill., where the company has had a manufacturing facility -- its only U.S. assembly plant -- since 1985. The company and the town itself are hoping to turn Normal into a showcase for electric vehicles, or into "EVTown, USA."

A TV and digital campaign with a "Most Likable Car On The Planet" theme spotlights the   EVTown effort in Normal, detailing how the automaker brought some 1,000 of its MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) cars to the region and installed 30 EV charging stations. The long version of the TV ad airing this week, which is also on Mitsubishi's YouTube channel, offers different shots of Normal with interviews of residents, business leaders and people who work in the Mitsubishi plant there that started as a joint venture with Chrysler.

In the ad, Normal Mayor Chris Koos says, "If you put 1,000 electric cars on the streets of Los Angeles, nobody would notice. Put a thousand electric cars on the streets of Normal, now you've got a story to tell."

Besides the "EVTown" program, which also involved local business and government, the company is doing a West Coast regional marketing campaign for the new electric car.

Simultaneously, Mitsubishi is involved in a grass roots effort through November focused on Oregon, Washington and California. The road show, "Mitsubishi i 100% Electric Experience," which launched at Portland Fashion Week on Oct. 6, brings the Mitsubishi i to cities like Seattle; the Monterey region of California; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and San Diego. The tour involves ride-and-drive opportunities.

Mitsubishi is promoting the tour on i.MitsubishiCars.com/tour and "The Electric Experience" tab at facebook.com/iMitsubishi. Digital efforts tout the car, which starts around $21,600, as the most affordable electric in the U.S.

The U.S. sales arm of Mitsubishi, which had been all but MIA for several years, has posted 13 months of sales increases, with September sales up 17% to 5,803 units. The company says its year-to-date sales are nearly 60% higher than the first nine months of last year.

But electric cars are still a minuscule portion of the market. After a slow start this year, sales of Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf started to see some improvement in September, but still in small volumes. Chevrolet sold 723 Volts and Nissan 1,020 of its Leaf electric cars.