Because the Vulcan salute and the Volkswagen logo have so much in common, it's been decided that Mr Spock and James T. Kirk are the perfect people to spread Volkswagen's message from the future. The German carmaker's very first electric car, the e-Golf, is about to hit American showrooms, and two legendary Star Trek actors are going to star in its marketing campaign.
The commercials aren't quite ready to air yet, but we're the two actors seem to be very impressed with the electric hatchback, which is always a good sign. Starting at $35,445 plus destination, the e-Golf is going to be a tough sale to make for VW dealers. However, this Nissan Leaf rival has the right badge and plenty of standard equipment to make up for its hefty price.
Last time we saw Leonard Nimoy, he played a very dignified future version of Mr. Spock in the reboot of Star Trek as a Hollywood blockbuster. As for William Shatner, well he hasn't aged as well, but since he's 83 and a big car fan, we'll let that slide.
Not that this has any relevance to our story about electric Golfs, but we thought you Trekkies (that's what Star Trek fans are called) might want to know that Nimoy based the Vulcan salute on a Jewish blessing sign made with two hands in the same position as a symbol of the Hebrew letter Shin, meaning "Almighty" (God). It's kind of funny how a religious symbol ties in with the Hippie generation, their VW Buses in the 60s and 70s and now an electric vehicle from the same company.
So here's a question for you: can you do the Star Trek salute?
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News