Have you heard the story of the driver who was ‘kidnapped’ by his electric car?
The gripping tale of the runaway car that ran red lights and roundabouts before being rammed by a police van has been everywhere.
It has featured in national newspapers, websites and radio programmes.
And it offers some media training lessons.
Brian Morrison, from Glasgow, was travelling home from work when his new MG ZS EV became stuck at 30mph.
In what sounds like a low-budget remake of the Speed movie, the helpless driver tried to negotiate traffic.
At one point, he phoned his wife and asked her to warn vehicles in front he could not stop. And when he phoned 999, engineers were put on the line to try to fix the issue remotely.
The car with an apparent mind of its own was eventually brought to a halt by a police van.
Electric Vehicles (EVs) have endured a bit of a bashing lately. But did any of us have them ‘kidnapping’ their drivers on our 2023 bingo cards?
It is a story that contains all of the elements of the TRUTH acronym we use during our media training courses to explain what makes something newsworthy – it stands for Topical, Relevant, Unusual, Trouble and Human.
With a lot of media attention on EVs, it is certainly topical and timely. And because many people now have EVs – or know someone who has – it is relevant.
A driver being captured by his car is, thankfully, unusual, and is laced with trouble. And there is a terrified human at the centre of the story.
Here’s a taste of the headlines it generated:
'I was kidnapped by my runaway electric car' BBC News
Man ‘forced to drive electric car into police van’ in Scotland after brakes fail The Guardian
RUNAWAY EV TERROR Driver says ‘car had mind of its own’ after £30k electric MG’s brakes malfunctioned and took him on terror ride The Scottish Sun
Driver claims he was ‘kidnapped’ by his runaway electric car Independent
Driver trapped inside electric car as it drove itself during ‘terrifying’ malfunction Telegraph
But no matter how good the story, it still needs someone who can tell it well.
And what I love about this story, and one of the main reasons it features in our media training blog, is the driver’s storytelling.
He gave the media a detailed account of what happened, and his quotes paint a vivid picture.
You can see him sat in this car he cannot stop. You can sense his fear, panic and helplessness.
"It might not sound like it is very fast, but when you have no control over the speed and you're completely stuck inside, it's terrifying," he said.
Recounting the moment a police van pulled up alongside him, he said: "I was 100 per cent concentrating on my steering, so when a police van pulled up besides me and asked if I was Brian and if I was okay, I just yelled 'no I'm not, I can't stop'."
Talking about when roadside recovery eventually reached him, he said: “But when the RAC got to me about three hours later, he plugged in the car to do a diagnostic check, and there were pages of faults.
"He said he had never seen anything like it and decided he was not willing to turn the engine on to see what was wrong."
As we stress during our media training courses, storytelling makes interviews more impactful and memorable.
It builds connections and draws people into what is being discussed.
But what if you haven’t got a journey in a runaway car to describe?
Here are some top storytelling tips from our media training.
- Prepare – as part of your media interview preparation, spokespeople should consider what stories they could use that support the message they want to get across.
- Personal – people want stories about other people, not policy and procedure. They draw the audience into what spokespeople have to say and make it relevant. Often, the best stories are those that are personal to the spokesperson.
- Concise – one criticism of Mr Morrison’s account is that it is long. It is unlikely he would be allowed to tell that story in such detail during a broadcast interview where you may have just a couple of minutes on air. Try to keep stories to the point.
- Vivid – use emotive language and description so people reading, watching and listening can picture the story.
- Imagine – this is a great word to start stories. It grabs attention.
- Bank – build a bank of stories you could use in your media interviews. It could help reduce preparation time or if you have an interview at short notice. And you may also be able to use the stories in presentations and speeches.
The story also created plenty of newsjacking opportunities – something we explored during our latest masterclass for members of the Media Team Academy – you can catch up with what was discussed in this blog.
When a story is in the news, journalists often look for experts to help them develop it, create new angles and provide their audience with fresh insight.
The Daily Mail ran a follow-up story exploring whether ‘your EV could kidnap you’, that included quotes from experts at the University of York, Anglia Ruskin University and a software company.
And Gunwant Dhadyalla, a director of Automotive Electronics Systems Innovation Network, a trade body that works on electronics in the car industry, appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme and informed listeners the car could have up to 100 million lines of software code.
But what of MG?
A story where your product takes the role of the villain, being covered extensively in the media, is not a good look for the brand.
Despite this, it hasn’t said a lot.
A spokesperson has been quoted as saying: "MG Motor UK has been urgently trying to make contact with Mr Morrison so that his vehicle can be fully inspected by our engineering team.
"We take this matter very seriously and now that contact has been made, we are making every effort to resolve matters quickly and comprehensively for him."
It is a pretty dry statement, which does not show any concern or compassion for the driver. But it does, at least, suggest the company is taking the incident seriously. And taking action to understand what has gone wrong.
But coming so soon after the Government pushed back the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars to 2035, it is a story the company and the industry could do without – no matter how well it has been told.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our media training.
Subscribe here to be among the first to receive our blogs.
