In an effort to prove electric cars will work — are "normal" — even in the smaller cities of middle America, Mitsubishi Motors is flooding the city of Normal, Ill., with up to 1,000 of its coming "i" electric cars.

And the company has launched an ad campaign to tell the rest of us about the project.

It was an easy bet, however, that the folks in Normal, population about 50,000, will like the new Mitsubishis: The town's economy counts on having a giant Mitsubishi auto plant in town. The plant makes about half the vehicles that the Japanese maker sells in the U.S.

Mitsu doesn't mention its connection to the town in the ad campaign that started Monday. Normal is portrayed as quickly sprouting into the electric-car capital of the U.S. because of all the "i" cars showing up there.

To help foster the change and keep the folks of Normal moving, 30 high-speed electric-car chargers are being installed around town.

The promotion underscores the challenge that faces electric-car makers.

Electric cars are now being snapped up by all the people who can afford high-price electric cars and who are so devotedly green that they want to have one immediately.

But those "early adopter" ranks will quickly run thin. To make money on such vehicles in the long term, makers now need to persuade average drivers to buy electric cars as well.

The stereotype would be that electric-car makers would find such people almost entirely in crowded urban areas on the coasts where environmental consciousness also runs high — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle.

But Mitsubishi would like people to know that it could, at least, also be a place like Normal, which is in the center of Illinois, far from the coasts and a ways even from Chicago.

This ad campaign is a prelude to a nationwide test-drive campaign to get people to try out the "i." The car is due to begin rolling out this fall. and is a centerpiece in the company's effort to recast its image to become known for energy efficient vehicles.