Sustainable Marketing and Electric Vehicles

The provided document is a collection of research papers and articles focusing on the intersection of sustainable marketing and the adoption of electric vehicles. It delves into consumer perceptions, environmental impacts, technological advancements in EV propulsion, and the role of green initiatives within the automobile industry. The assignment encourages critical analysis of these diverse perspectives on sustainable transportation.

Running Head: Sustainable Marketing
Tesla
Sustainable Marketing

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Table of Content
Brief Background...................................................................................................................................2
Sustainable Marketing-Need of the Hour..............................................................................................3
Environmental factors- Need for creation of sustainable marketing.....................................................4
 Air acidification..........................................................................................................................4
 Carbon Footprint.......................................................................................................................4
 Total energy consumed.............................................................................................................4
 Water Eutrophication................................................................................................................4
 Toxic emissions from the engines..............................................................................................4
 End of life vehicles.....................................................................................................................5
Impact of Sustainability issues on Tesla.................................................................................................5
Tesla-Managing sustainability in the business.......................................................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................11

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Brief Background
Tesla Incorporation which was previously named Tesla Motors is a public listed company and was
formed in the year 2003 by a bunch of Engineers. The inspiration behind formulation of the company
was to change the mind-set of the people who assumed that electric cars lack in speed, style and
class, Tesla wanted to change the perception of people and disrupt the automobile market (Nykvist
& Nilsson, 2015). Tesla proved to the world that Electric cars can be bigger, better, quicker and more
fun to drive than fuel cars. Tesla has a noble mission; it wanted to accelerate the world’s transition
towards sustainable energy. Tesla operates in Automotive and Energy sector, it employees more
than 30,000 people who are on a mission to reduce the use of fossil fuel as the source of Energy. The
headquarters of the company are located at Palo Alto, California and all its vehicles are produced at
its Fremont factory in California. Tesla serves across the globe and it also has set up a forward
looking mission for itself; Produce 500,000 cars by 2018(Doucette & McCulloch, 2011)
Tesla was focussed on providing sustainable energy to the world and hence it did not limit itself to
the production of electric cars, it took it a notch higher and designed unique set of energy solutions
to cover the entire sustainable energy ecosystem, Powerwall, Powerpack & Solar roof are some of its
solution which facilitates generation, consumption and storage of renewable energy. Since the
inception Tesla has been in the news for its breakthrough technology and its mission for providing
sustainable energy, its CEO Elon Musk is seen as one of the most profound Thought leaders across
the world (Rajashekara, 2013)
Tesla wants to build world’s most affordable electric car and make its products accessible and
affordable to a large number of people, accelerating the advent of clean transport and clean energy

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production. The report is aimed at identifying the environmental factors which are creating a need
for the sustainable marketing and to assess the potential impact of the issues on Tesla in the future.
It will also be interesting to see how Tesla is ensuring and managing sustainability in the organization
(Mangram, 2012)
Sustainable Marketing-Need of the Hour
It can be understood as the component of sustainable development which meets the needs of the
current world without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. It
is a new age concept in marketing but it is picking up on the popularity charts and companies around
the world are using this concept as a game changer in their respective industries and also with a
rooted mission to make the world a better place(Martin & Schouten,2011)
Meeting the needs of consumer’s while preserving the ability of the future generation to meet their
needs is the underlying concept of sustainable marketing (Emery, 2012)

Needs for
Customers
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Marketing
Concept
Strategic
Planning
COncept
SOcieital
Marketing
concept
Sustainable
Marketing
concept
Now
Future
Now Future

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Environmental factors- Need for creation of sustainable marketing
There are no two thoughts on the point that issue with the environment is a major influence on the
car industry, the legislation related to the environment affects design, performance and the ways in
which the vehicles are manufactured. Some of the Environmental impact factors are:
 Air acidification-Fossil fuels burning results in the production of various sulphur and
nitrous oxides which are acidic in nature. These harmful acidic gases increase the acidity in
the water and make difficult for the aquatic creatures, at the same time it also makes lands
toxic. It also results in acid rain which has the potential to dissolve man made
buildings(Vogel, 2007)
 Carbon Footprint-One of the biggest threats posed by the environment resulting from
the burning of fossil fuels leading to creation of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases
which in turn increases the temperature of the earth. Loss of water bodies like glaciers,
melting of icebergs, and depletion of coastal lines is due to the increased carbon footprints
which lead to global warming(Hungria & Vargas, 2000)
 Total energy consumed-This can be understood as the measure of the total energy
released on burning of renewable and non- renewable sources of energy, it also considers
the process of production of the fuels while calculating the total energy
consumed(Kuzyakov, 2002)
 Water Eutrophication- Eutrophication occurs when more nutrients are added in the
water bodies which lead to killing of the plants and aquatic life. It results in increase in the
Needs for Business

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production of algae which consumes the oxygen of water causing death of the water
life(Weil & Brady, 2016)
 Toxic emissions from the engines- It is a known fact that the emission from
engine is burning of lead which leads to increase in the carbon dioxide production which is
extremely harmful for the environment. It not only affects the aquatic life and water bodies
but is one of the major causes of air pollution leading to serious damages to people’s health.
Toxic emissions are the second largest reason for harmful gas pollution and due to the
incremental effect of the car production its impact just intensifies(Richardson, 2005)
 End of life vehicles-Automobile industry is the single largest manufacturing industry in
the world which constitutes 16% of global steel, 30% aluminium, 5% plastic, 85% of
Magnesium dies casting and other materials like rubber and copper. All these materials have
the potential to be recycled but in reality it is not done, and hence there comes a problem
with disposing them, which hurts the environment badly. At times the used material result in
new products of degraded quality which further impacts the environment adversely.
All the factors mentioned above create a pressure on the industries to come up with the products
which have sustainability towards the future, products should be designed which have bare
minimum impact on the environment and hence the environment could be preserved for the future
generation.
Tesla was one of the earliest players to realize the impact that the burning of fossil fuels is causing
on the environment and quickly converged all the efforts of Tesla towards sustainability of the
environment. Tesla actually uses clean, green and renewable source to drive its vehicles and is
constantly upping up the envelope of technological innovation to come up with better sustainable
products in the future (Rusinko, 2007)
Impact of Sustainability issues on Tesla
Majority of the people know Tesla as a company which produces automobile and makes batteries,
but in actual it is a company making batteries which is also in the production of electric cars. The
company’s mission here is to show the world that it is not dependent on fossil fuels for energy.
There seemed to be a popular myth about the electric cars, they were not practical and hence
people were not willing to buy electric cars, Tesla came, conquered and changed the perception

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about electric cars, as the Tesla cars were practical, fast, great designing and compact in
existence(Armand & Tarascon,2008)
Tesla’s cars are considered absolutely green, in the sense that they don’t burn gases, with no engine,
no gas tank and practically no exhaust they are considered to be practically zero emission vehicles.
One practical problem with the Tesla’s electric cars is that it runs on electricity, which in turn is a
product of one of the dirtiest fossil fuels which is coal. Tesla understands the criticism and
acknowledges the concern of the expert, at the same time it has showed that it is far cleaner than
any of its competitors and its battery operated cars are more efficient in converting and storing the
energy than any of the other cars in the market (Greenblatt & Shaheen, 2015)
Another impact of sustainability on Tesla is that electric vehicles are too much environmentally
destructive to manufacture starting with the first step of producing the energy requirement to
produce the lithium ion batteries. The batteries which are packed in the present world are heavy and
expensive and require some of the rarest materials on earth to produce, which certainly has a cost
implication. Thus this impact can cause the cars to cost higher in the future, if Tesla has to provide
start to end green environment for the world (Helmers & Marx, 2012)
Despite the fact that Tesla is using electricity to drive its vehicles which is made from fossil fuel it is
not entirely written down by scientists and the experts, and they look up to Elon Musk to drive a car
with Solar and water in the future. It is assessed that the present is short but the future is a long
terms vision, with the changing environmental trade-offs, the majority is in the favour of electric cars
for the sustainability in the environment. And also, with Tesla investing in R&D towards the use of
solar energy for its cars, it is just a matter of years that cars with solar power will be driven on the
ground, reducing the impact on the environment considerably (Egbue & Long, 2012)
Another astonishing fact which makes Tesla a unique company when it comes to impacting
sustainability is that no company in the past or present has moved forward in the direction of
promoting the development of commercially viable electric cars with a single aim of bringing them
to the mass market and ensuring environmental sustainability. Tesla has recently acquired Solar city,
it is a solar panel company, and Elon Musk is looking forward to develop batteries for storing solar
generated power and then use it for driving the vehicle-A technology which many people in the past
have tried but its only Tesla which is focussed to deliver solar powered batteries to its cars. Tesla has
ensured the world that in a span of few years, most of its cars will be affordable, efficient and
greener than their current versions (Ottman, 2011)

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It was in 2016 when Tesla launched its Model S electric car, it was absolutely terrific in design, rightly
priced and within the hours of release it has received more than 180,000 pre orders filling the
pockets of the company in advance by $180 million in one single day. Sustainability derives in the
mind of Tesla, but it is quite fanatical about its design as well. Tesla first designs the car in the most
beautiful stylish way possible and then sits back about how they will manufacture it. Thus achieving
best of world, a great design and a resolute mind to manufacture the car, this is one of the strongest
impacts of sustainability on Tesla. Tesla in a way operates like Apple; the way Apple created a cluster
of products like icloud, app store, devices, ipods, earpods etc. for the users, Tesla is exactly doing the
same by creating a web of products, retail spaces, charging station, in home batteries and many
more in its bucket list. Hence, it can be said that it is encapsulating the electric cars with everything
that is required along with the car, a great example of futuristic thinking by Tesla (Cervellon &
Shammas, 2013)

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The reason behind Tesla being one of the most promising automobile companies in the world which
is focussed on the mission of ensuring sustainability in the environment and the society is it being
highly focussed in its approach and its ability to not deflect and deviate from its core mission-
Transition to sustainability. Other impacts of sustainability on Tesla can be:
 Tesla designing electric vehicles for mass appeal: Electric cars have been in existence since
long, some of the examples being GM’s EV1, Nissan leaf and many more; it was Model 3 of
Tesla which got in the first electric car which people were excited about. The reason behind
it was, earlier car manufactures made the car for a demographic which was niche, and
people who actually cared about the environment or tree hugging people, Tesla had a
different vision, he realized people would drive electric car only if it would have superior
design, high power and exceptional performance and to top it with zero emission in the
environment. This was the impact of sustainability in the future on Tesla(Kamga &
Yazici,2014)
 Tesla working hard on the fossil fuel industry: Some countries are banning Tesla to protect
their own energy industries and they are scared that Tesla would really kick in the market
and bring a sustainable change in the way automobile industry operates and cars are driven.
 Tesla’s future vision engages the workforce: Elon Musk is one of the most popular thought
leaders of the present world and the top management and employees see him as the biggest
asset to Tesla. It has been seen that the employees of Tesla are zealots who are on a mission
to transform the world and bring forward the use of clean and green energy(Kushwaha &
Sharma, 2016)
Tesla-Managing sustainability in the business
One of the USP of Tesla’s communication strategies is it being consistent across all medium and to all
its stakeholders. The company has been vocal in all its press releases and its endorsements as to
what it wants to achieve for the community, society and the world and has maintained that it wants
to create a world which is clean and green and will ensure the transition to sustainability will be
smooth.
The company announced launch of a new business Tesla energy which would provide lithium ion
batteries to homes and businesses. This was done with the single aim of creating a world where the
batteries will be charged with renewable energy. Buying of solar companies to charge the batteries

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and come up with the solution of making cars which will be driven by solar energy in the future is
one of the strongest examples of how strongly Tesla thinks about sustainability in its business.
Construction of Tesla’s Gigafactory, one of the largest manufacturing plant on earth is half way
complete, the plant is Tesla vision into the future to maintain sustainability. The construction of the
plant started way back in 2014 and is a hugely anticipated project by any company on Earth. As
mentioned earlier, Tesla is looking the cover the entire ecosystem of the services which will be
required by the electric cars. The plant is certainly a step into managing sustainability by producing
charging station, batteries and cars being operated on solar energy, and in some case even water is
being considered for driving the vehicles.
While Tesla’s single most vision was to go green and safe the environment, currently it seems to be
at loggerheads between tow concepts; Going green and driver less cars. It is looking forward to
strike a balance between the two and ace in both the platforms. Tesla has recently been welcomed
by Anand Mahindra of Mahindra group to come to India and set up a manufacturing plant especially
for the electric car consumption in India. Tesla had been eying India since long and has also vested
interest in poor places like Africa and big markets like China to spread the prevalence of electric cars.
This can definitely be seen as one of the biggest steps the company has taken to ensure
sustainability in its business by expanding to countries with maximum impact.
A shocking revelation about the depth of Elon Musk vision for ensuring sustainability is that until
now Tesla has not spent a single dollar towards advertising, at the time when companies are
spending millions on advertising, Tesla is spending every single dollar on the research and
development of its electric cars and how effectively it can use the renewable sources of energy to
drive cars. He believes in disruptive marketing trick, where he will create a product which will be
absolutely loved by the customers and experts and will be sold on Word of Mouth and organic
marketing.
At present there are more than 70,000 Tesla owners worldwide who enjoy the benefits of 100%
electric cars. Tesla takes care of its customers and ensures sustainability in the business spectrum by
providing more than 400 charging stations across North America, which allows users to have access
to high speed charging and refilling the batteries of the vehicle in less than 20 minutes, reducing the
emission of harmful gases in the environment(Eisler, 2016)

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Tesla reinvented the wheel by providing the Tesla retail experience, it was the third largest luxury
vehicle manufactures after Mercedes Benz and BMW. Tesla’s retail experience believes in creating
an environment which allows people to advance the knowledge of electric vehicles in a convenient,
accessible and a no pressure environment. Tesla’s showrooms are not located at highways but in
shopping malls to have more number of eye balls on its cars, technology and the designing. Through
its retail experience model they want to make the people aware of the benefits of clean and green
fuel and its benefits towards ensuring sustainability in the environment.
Another smart activity done by Tesla is marketing its inventor and innovator, Elon Musk, who is also
known as the Iron man of the 21st century and is seen as the biggest innovator of the recent times.
He is credited with space travel, solar energy and sustainable transport. He is at the forefront of the
forums and magazines focussing on sustainability, electric and hybrid cars and thought leaders who
are moving forward with a mission to change the world and make it a better place. This marketing
strategy used by Tesla has been working in favour of Tesla as it is creating a good buzzword and it
covers all the benefits Tesla’s electric cars will do to the environment while ensuring sustainability
and providing sustainable energy to drive cars and help in creating a cleaner and greener
environment.

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Conclusion
Elon Musk proclaimed a year back that Tesla will reach Apple’s market cap of $ 700 Billion by 2025, it
was most certainly a very bold statement to make, but with the dedication and the sincerity Tesla is
marching forward, it certainly does not seem to be just another Faux-pas. The company is expanding
to highly populated markets of India, China and Africa, not only with the sole aim of earning
revenue, but it wants to have a wider adoption of electric cars as they are one of the best solution
towards sustainable marketing. There are no two doubts on the fact that Tesla has disrupted the
automobile market and in couple of years it will be leading the market with flair and grace, with
added star of providing sustainability to the environment. Most definitely Tesla has accelerated the
world into sustainable personalized transportation faster than any one could ever though, and now
it’s just a matter of couple of years when the world transits into a cleaner and greener environment.
References

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Egbue, O. and Long, S., 2012. Barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles: An analysis of
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Eisler, M.N., 2016. A Tesla in every garage?. IEEE Spectrum, 53(2), pp.34-55.
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