The 2020 Porsche Taycan will be the first widely available electric car designed around 800 volts—and in Porsche's newest advertisement, the company wants to make sure the power supply is ready.

The ad is a mind-bender, giving an up-close look at Nevada's Hoover Dam, which the National Park Service calls the "Greatest Dam in the World" for its capacity to reduce disastrous floods in the Southwest. The ad doesn't name the Taycan, specifically. Instead, three Porsches—they could be Cayenne e-Hybrids—race along a road in sight of it, in predawn darkness as well as the light of dawn. Huge high-tension lines glow and snarl, in an attempt to bring the visceral sense of power to a silent electric car.

"Hey, electricity, all that cold water making you numb?" the ad says. "Get ready to feel again, Love, Porsche."

Even if they're not Taycans, the all-electric Taycan is the car that Porsche is preparing for, and the car that will require the highest voltage and biggest electrical charge of anything on the market when it arrives. Even the ad's title says, "Hey Electriicty, Get ready for the Taycan."

Perhaps electricity doesn't care what it powers. Perhaps Porsche is trying to call attention to the need for cleaner, renewable power to charge its cleanest new vehicle. Perhaps it's all just about beautiful production values, and arresting visuals, associated with a cutting-edge car from a high-end brand. 

We're not sure if it's our favorite new ad for an EV, but it does feel exciting and get the point across that something new and powerful is on the way—even if Hoover Dam was built in 1931.

And as new electric cars arrive on the market, it's good to see them supported by attention-grabbing ads that associate EVs with iconic American institutions, groundbreaking engineering, and grand visions. We only wish more of them would be clearer about the benefits of electric cars.

In the end, it may take both: Slick ads like this one from Porsche and more direct pitches such as Audi's "Not for You" ad or the tongue-in-cheek ad by Arnold Schwarzenegger for Veloz. As such a wide variety of EV ads take to the airwaves, they start to look more like normal cars every day.

As always, your thoughts are much appreciated on how to figure out this ever-evolving world of EV ads. 

Updated: To clarify what unspecified cars may be shown in the ad.