---
title: "BMW Opens Fire on Tesla With New Olympic Ad Campaign"
description: "You could wait years for a Model 3...or pick up a plug-in hybrid 3 Series today."
date: "2016-08-09"
modified: "2016-08-09"
authors:
  - name: "Will Sabel Courtney"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/will-sabel-courtney"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/4766/bmw-opens-fire-on-tesla-with-new-olympic-ad-campaign"
categories:
  - "BMW News"
  - "Car Tech"
  - "Electric Vehicles"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
tags:
  - "Electric Vehicle"
  - "model 3"
  - "Tesla"
---

# BMW Opens Fire on Tesla With New Olympic Ad Campaign

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/080916-bmw-jab-tesla-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Shots fired on Electric Car Boulevard. With its [newest ad campaign, BMW is hitting Tesla](<https://www.autonews.com/article/20160808/RETAIL03/160809823/bmw-takes-on-tesla-in-new-ads>) right where it hurts: in the long wait for the mass-market Model 3.

In a series of new commercials that will air during the Summer Olympics in Rio this month, BMW not-so-subtly draws attention to the fact that while [buyers of the Model 3 will spend the next year or two pining](<https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/2881/tesla-likely-to-struggle-meeting-model-3-production-demands>) over a car that isn't in production yet, the Bavarian Motor Works has a midsized plug-in electric sedan of its very own that you can buy right now—the BMW 330e.

The ads don't mention Elon Musk's company or its upcoming $35,000 battery-powered sedan by name, but they do just about everything but. "You will do your taxes twice, maybe more," the announcer in the ad entitled "Waiting" intones, "all before [that electric car company's new model](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4032/tesla-wants-model-3-reservation-holders-to-take-a-model-s-instead>) ever even arrives." The other ad, called "Wait or Drive," is even more blunt about it; it depicts a woman pausing briefly in front of [a row of Superchargers](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/3763/tesla-model-3-buyers-may-have-to-pay-for-supercharging-elon-musk-says>) in an ominous parking garage before unplugging her 330e from a wall socket and speeding off.

"There is a much-hyped car out there but it's not out there," Jon Paley, chief creative officer of advertising agency The Vault, which created the ads, told *Automotive News*. "You can't buy it right now. You can't drive it right now, and BMW's answer is there is a terrific car—it happens to be a plug-in hybrid and it's now."

https://youtube.com/embed/Zf7KvtGNMbQ

https://youtube.com/embed/1v0QKtPXEFQ

Unlike the purely-electric Model 3, [the BMW 330e is a plug-in hybrid](<https://www.bmwusa.com>), linking together an 87-horsepower electric motor and a 180-horsepower turbocharged-four to create a combined maximum output of 248 hp. In electric-only mode, it can zoom down the highway at up to 75 mph, but runs out of battery power after 14 miles; let the computer decided when to switch between gas and electric engines, and it can go up to 373 miles, all while delivering up to 72 mpg-e.

Not quite Tesla numbers, sure. But the next-generation 3 Series should be better suited to take on Musk's Model 3. That car, expected in 2018 or so, is expected to offer an [EV version packing a 90-kWh battery](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/4411/next-bmw-3-series-will-add-a-tesla-model-3-fighter-to-the-lineup>).

## Author
Will is the former managing editor of *RIDES Magazine* and the former online editor for *0-60 Magazine*. He has worked for *Time Out New York* and *Rolling Stone*, and was the creator of *College Cars Online*, the first automotive blog specifically targeted at college students and young professionals.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/willsabelcourtney>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/willscourtney>)