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: