Monthly Archives: September 2015

Local EV Event

Turtle Coast Sierra Club Meeting

The Turtle Coast Sierra Club came out and set up a tent as an exhibitor at the National Drive Electric Week event we had in Satellite Beach on September 19.  They also invited us to bring a couple EVs to their monthly meeting on September 24th since the topic of the night was – electric vehicles!  We brought a good sample of cars for their members to take a look at in the parking lot before the sun went down: Chevy Volt, BMW i3, Tesla Roadster, Nissan Leaf, and Plug in Prius.  I gave the Space Coast EV Drivers overview slideshow that explained why we formed the club and how our mission is to educate the community on all the benefits of driving electric.  After that I showed the slideshow video and EV lineup video we made from the NDEW event with a few pictures of the Turtle Coast Sierra Club tent I helped them set up.  After those quick videos were over we had a long Q&A session where their members had some really good questions!

We agreed it was a very good event and are looking forward to the next public event.  Remember to always check our upcoming events page for all of the places and times where we’ll have our cars and tent set up next!

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Local EV Event, National Drive Electric Week

National Drive Electric Week 2015 Recap

Here’s a very nice recap of the National Drive Electric Week event we just had on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at the David R Schechter Community Center in Satellite Beach, Florida as written by one of our members, Ken Sherman:

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We’d been worried about the weather all week. Early forecasts showed 100% probability on rain on Saturday. As the days drew closer the forecast improved steadily and low and behold the mid September Florida day made itself known with blue skies and a few puffy clouds and temps in the low 80s. Perfect.
I decided to take my car, a ’93 Miata, rather than ride my bike. I needed a place to store a few things during the day and I was feeling a little lazy anyway. It would have been a bit of a ride anyway, about 15 miles and too many bridges.
I arrived to find a plethora of EVs with Tesla Model S being too many to count without walking around. There were EVs in the visitor’s parking lot. There was a 48 Volt E-bike. A gorgeous BMW i8 glided in so silently I didn’t noticed until I turned around. There were a small gaggle of i3s snuggled up in the SW corner of our display area and I am always impressed with these cars. It sounds as if about 50% are being ordered with the REX backup generator by the way.
Satellite Beach welcomed us with open arms. After a welcoming announcement that started right on time at 10 am, dozens of people wandered back to start working on getting that test drive they came to experience.
I was pleased and gratified to speak with people who were indeed shopping for an EV and looking for more info and feedback from an owner or two. All of the businesses who reserved showed up. The local ROTC prepared food was simple but good and helped with their finances I’m sure. I was pleased at the number of supporting businesses who came to talk to our visitors. I won’t attempt to list them all. I will mention that Nissan brought a car. Porsche brought Panamera plugin hybrid, BMW brought cars. I just started to list the auto manufacturers who didn’t show any support but the list was getting too long.
The weather finally changed a bit and a little shower passed through over 15 minutes or so. Wasn’t even enough to get you too wet. A few EVs left before we managed to snag a picture of the attending hoard, but it was impressive none the less.
I half jokingly declared the event a success early in the day as the weather was great, all the vendors etc. showed up and people had been streaming in to get a ride and see if these new cars were going to work for them. Everyone I spoke with was convinced. Electric is the future and there’s not reason to wait. I’ll say it with a little more conviction now. This event went very smoothly, with passionate people having a great time. I guess that’s a good description of a success. Let’s hope that more than a few of these amazing cars are sold as a direct results of our efforts.
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To learn more about National Drive Electric Week check out the main website here:  https://driveelectricweek.org

Here’s a video Josh and Brenna made from the lineup of EVs and their owners at the very end of the event:

Here’s a video Josh and Brenna made with a few photos taken from setup in the morning through the wrap up at the end of the event:

NDEW 2015 Drone Shot

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Local EV Event, National Drive Electric Week

National Drive Electric Week 2015 Kickoff

To kick off the official start of National Drive Electric Week here’s some updates for our upcoming event.

We finished the final touches on the flyer to advertise the event coming up on Saturday September 19th.  So keep a look out for it posted up in coffee shops, stores, and anywhere else we can think to put it.  If you have an idea of a great place to post one where lots of people will see it feel free to print a few out and post it up.  You can download the flyer PDF here: NDEW 2015 Flyer Letter Size

You can also email us if you know of a place where we should place one and we’ll add it to our list and make sure to get one there.

NDEW 2015 Flyer

We will also be handing out these really nice 2014 EV Buyers Guide from EV Insider Magazine:

2014 EV Buyers Guide

So make sure to drop by and pick one up!

If you want to sign up to attend the event go to our official event page here and click the Register to attend button.

We’ll also have refreshments like hot dogs and hamburgers with water and soda sold by the Air Force Junior ROTC Satellite Beach for those that come hungry!

We’ll also be giving out awards to EV owners for example:
1. Most total EV miles driven.
2. Oldest EV (by purchase date).
3. Newest EV (by purchase date).
and more.

And the Kennedy Space Center will be bringing NASA’s first electric vehicle… The Lunar Rover a.k.a. Moon Buggy!  Come see it up close and in person.  It’s not the actual one that went on the moon but it’s still very cool to see!

For music we’ll have a DJ playing great songs including the obvious ones for an electric car event:
The Electric Slide
Electric Avenue
Electric Car by They Might Be Giants

One of main ideas for the event is for you, the public, to come and ask all the questions you can about driving electric and the different makes/models available today.  You be getting your answers from average people that live and work right here in your community that have been driving electric every day for several years.  This way you’ll get real data like power bills, maintenance costs, and gasoline savings for the plug in hybrids that have gasoline generators under the hood for extending the range after the battery is empty.  There will also be a few dealerships on hand to go over the costs etc. for those interested in getting an EV for their next car.

And finally of course we’ll have several makes/models of  electric cars there for you to ride and drive!  This lets you experience the smooth, quiet, space-age like ride that’s only possible with the instant torque of an electric motor and the single fixed gear instead of a transmission that has to shift gears or CVT with extra moving parts.  Most people’s minds are completely changed for the better after taking a ride in an EV.  Come by and take a ride for yourself!

Here’s some numbers we have currently on our event page:

Registered Attendees

There are currently 81 attendees registered.

Expected Plug-In Vehicles

Vehicle Registered
Chevrolet Volt 6
Nissan LEAF 4
Tesla Model S 4
Ford Focus Electric 2
BMW i3 REx 1
Ford C-MAX Energi 1
Other Plug-In Vehicle 1
Tesla Roadster 1
Toyota Plug-in Prius 1
Toyota RAV4 EV (2012 and later) 1
10 Models 22

Registered attendees report 496,846 electric miles driven.