Monthly Archives: March 2015

EV related Blog Post

Formula E Miami Race Recap

If you thought electric cars couldn’t be race cars you’d be mistaken. These single seater, formula 1-like race cars have a top speed of 140 mph and sound like some kind of space ship or fighter jet! Several of us in the group made it down for this race and it was so much fun! We were even able to plug our cars in at the free charging stations at the hotel we stayed in. They had the whole part of Biscayne Blvd in front of the American Airlines Arena fenced off into a giant race area. The track was made up of the streets themselves that went around the arena and up and back down the boulevard. A portion of the track even went under the interstate I-95. Some people even tweeted that as they were driving over the track some one said, “oh look honey I think there’s a race going on down there.” There was a whole “e Village” part of the race area in the grassy park next to the bay with food trucks, bounce houses for the kids, and a nice set up by Florida Power & Light featuring a solar powered cell phone charging station and a green screen to get your picture taken next to a formula E race car. Later in the day an hour before the race the drivers were there to give out autographs. A few of us stood in line but they left to get ready for the race before we could get to them. The line was hundreds of people long in front of us and several hundred behind us! We think the total number of people that came to see the race was in the 25,000 range. Thanks, Formula E, for bringing racing back to Miami! We look forward to next season and will be watching all the races for the rest of this season with great interest. Next year they say instead of every team using the same car with the same motor and the same batteries, etc. they will be able to build their own. That should be VERY interesting to watch. Check out the official Formula E website for more information. You can watch the whole Miami race here on YouTube. Take a look at a few of the awesome photos and a video from the race day below.

-Josh Pritt

Here’s a video I took while watching them practice right next to the track. Listen to the noise they make!

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Local EV Event

March Monthly Meetup Recap

We had another great meetup on our first Sunday of the month meetup for March.  This time it was at the Big Mansion restaurant in Melbourne.  We had a record number of members show up causing us to run out of seats for our table and bring in more tables and chairs to hold us all.  I think our final count was 22 people.  And what a fun group to have lunch with!  We talked about everything EV including: the upcoming Formula E electric car race in Miami, the National Drive Electric Week event coming up in September, introduced ourselves to the new members (there were four!), and handed out business cards, buttons, and the new club member window decals to everyone.  By putting these decals in our windows we’ll know not to put a business card on each other’s EVs when we see them parked around town.  One of the ways we find other EV drivers is by putting our business card in the driver door window of EVs we see parked as we do our normal shopping and visiting all over Brevard County.  We hope to see even more members at the next monthly meetup on the first Sunday of April.

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Local EV Event

Formula E Miami

It’s here! After a long wait from the announcement that formula e was going to be coming to Miami, FL the weekend is upon us!

Formula e Beijing
Formula e Beijing

Months ago when we first heard that the race was going to be in two U.S. locations we were very excited to find out Miami was one of them. Being in central Florida, Miami is only a 3 hour drive south down 95.  Formula e logoThe Formula e race series brings racing back to Miami, something that depending on who you talk to has been missed for a few years. When the tickets were finally released for the Miami formula e race Josh and I were trying to figure out which seats we should get. Because it is an all day event, and the fact that despite living in Florida Josh and I rarely go out in the sun for more than an hour or two at a time we decided to go with the sky-box seats.  I convinced him using the argument that there would be shade and “free” food. Well 3 days ago we received an e-mail from formula e hospitality that the tickets we booked have been changed and are now going to be American Airlines Arena Suites tickets. ticketsTechnically it said “upgraded” but from the new map it looks like they did away with the original plan for the sky box and have really just switched the location. Either way it is an indoor/outdoor space that is catered and will have good views and shade. Hopefully it will be worth it because I had to trade in my yearly vacation for a 3 day 2 night trip to Miami to include these fancy tickets and an outrageously expensive hotel. Bye Bye dream summer in some foreign country! Plus gates open at 7 am so its not like I will be sleeping in either. For those of you who are going to make it down make sure to look for us! I will be the dork with the go-pro on a selfie stick trying to capture every moment in the sky box with all the fancy people! See you there!

-Brenna