National Plug In Day experience(s)

[philipscoggins]

Hey, I hope everyone was as satisfied with their plug in day experience as I was with the Nashville get together! Ken did a great job with the booth and location (right next to a bank of chargers at Centennial Park & having Lots of info to give out along with lots of volunteers to tell the civilians about EVs. There was a large arts and crafts fair going on at the same time so there was a lot of people!

I saw my first Model S, very cool, but a little smaller than I'd expected & Focus EV, also cool. There is a guy building nice EV scooters in Nashville there to show off his work, electric assist bicycles available for test rides. Very fun.

When we all gathered for the parade around the park I was amazed at the number. At least 20 LEAFs, 3 Volts, a Tesla, a Focus EV, couple scooters & other cart vehicles. The most I've ever seen in one location by far. Here's Nashville's parade lineup.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvupZECZwPc[/youtube]

Anyway, lots of fun! Hope you all were able to participate this year too.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

The Pomfret CT event (NE corner of CT) drew 4 Tesla Model S (all 85's), 2 LEAFs, and 2 Volts.

It was piggybacked onto the Positively Pomfret celebration of the town's 300th anniversary, so there were a lot of people, and the interested got a good sampling of EV info. There was some fine music as well.

The owners of one Tesla changed their baby's diaper in the "frunk", always wondered what that was for.

 

[RegGuheert]

Copied from the other thread:

I don't have the official numbers, but my sons and I counted the following at the Herndon, VA, event:

Tesla Model S - 12
Chevy Volt - 12 (One modded to look like an Ampera!)
Nissan LEAF - 6
Tesla Roadster - 4
Fiskar Karma - 2
Ford C-Max Energi - 2
Audi A3 e-tron (Demonstration BEV) - 2

Overall, we had a great day. Nice weather, but not too much sun. We had a really nice time.

Tesla owned the event with the Model Ss and Roadsters combined. Chevrolet had a great showing of Volts. Frankly, I thought there was a real dearth of LEAFs at the event. There were three fewer there than registered, but I think all nine may have been there, but at different times.

Thanks to Andrew, Vladi and Jeffrey for organizing! Great Job! (Hopefully I didn't miss anyone!)
Thanks to Robert and Co. at Mom's for sponsoring, providing the venue and the burgers! They were great!
Thanks to Andrew and (the Volt owner whom I don't remember her name, sorry!) for holding the charging stations for us to use!
Thanks to Andrew for the ride in the Model S! Awesome! (The kids were a little woozy coming out of those jump seats!)
Thanks to Jeffrey for letting me use his ELM327 to read my battery capacity! (90.21% BTW)
Thanks to Audi for the test drive in the A3 Electric! (Decent car, but I prefer the LEAF. Sorry.)

I took a couple of photos with my phone. It must be getting old because the pictures are all washed out. Here are a few anyway:


Part of the gaggle of EVs.


Kids in the trunk of a Model S.


Chevy Volt with Ampera kit. Pretty cool! (Is it now a Chevy Watt?)

 

[mwalsh]

Understandable as to why, I guess, but it was bittersweet that the number of self-builds was well down on previous years. I quite enjoy seeing that level of engineering ingenuity.

 

[philipscoggins]

Wow! Virginia must be where all the high dollar EVs that leave the west cost end up!

In Tennessee, we are just flooded with LEAFs.

 

[ObjetDart]

I wasn't present for the entire 3 hours of the event, but in Portland, OR I counted 1 Models S, 3 smart electrics, 1 Honda Fit EV, and probably around 8-10 LEAFs.

The event was very informal and seemed lightly attended. Bad weather may have kept some folks away. I'm not even sure who the organizers were or if they were even there. There was one guy there giving away free OEVA T shirts. Ben & Jerry's gave out free ice cream and a local pizza chain gave out free slices and sodas.

Honestly for me the adventure of getting there in the LEAF (260 mile round trip in one day) wound up being far more interesting than the event itself!

 

[sparky]

I had limited time this weekend so I decide to forego the official events nearby and instead drove my EV over to a local classic car meet-up. Mostly hot-rods and sports cars from Ford flat-heads to Ferraris. They meet early; 6-8am!
It was fun.
Lots of interest and gear-head questions: (no tranny?, gear-reduction ratio? 1/4 mi time?) etc. No political remarks, just genuine interest from a different segment than I see at the Plug-in events.

 

[braineo]

Atlanta was a success, 105 cars registered, all available display slots were judiciously allocated between brands and it was a fantastic event due to the great fall weather and the organization. EV Club of the South members were all over the place enlightening all visitors. Pictures in our Facebook fan page and will be uploaded at our evclubsouth dot org site later this week.

 

[UBUYGAS]

North Jersey / Jersey City was a success as well with around 25 cars. The weather was perfect and the Liberty Science Center staff were very happy that we were there. They said that every visitor was talking about the Electric Vehicles as they walked into the main building.


I didn't take too many pics, here are a few:

 

[TomT]

We had 41 cars at the Northridge, California event today (Sunday) according to the sign-in sheet. I'd say at least 250 additional people visited us during the course of the event... Rides were given and much fun was had!

These pictures were taken in the morning during setup (there was an additional row that is not visible behind the camera)...

 

[Boomer23]

I had limited time this weekend so I decide to forego the official events nearby and instead drove my EV over to a local classic car meet-up. Mostly hot-rods and sports cars from Ford flat-heads to Ferraris. They meet early; 6-8am!
It was fun.
Lots of interest and gear-head questions: (no tranny?, gear-reduction ratio? 1/4 mi time?) etc. No political remarks, just genuine interest from a different segment than I see at the Plug-in events.

Which SoCal car meetup? Cars and Coffee in Irvine meets at that time on Saturdays, but they specifically exclude EVs, the last I knew.

 

[michapok]

Here's a grainy video of the EV 'parade' at the Capital Area (Albany, NY) EV group. There were about four Leafs there along with a total of twenty or so other EVs. I couldn't show mine off since the 95 mile drive up required a 3.5 hour charge at a nearby chargepoint. Still a beautiful day and lots of fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQtEoHQ7VNA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[JasonA]

Here's some more pics of the Northridge meetup... I have some of my own that I'll be posting here shortly...

I was surprised at the amount to Tesla's that turned up!!! Crazy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76360356@N06/sets/72157636032776785/

 

[sparky]

Which SoCal car meetup? Cars and Coffee in Irvine meets at that time on Saturdays, but they specifically exclude EVs, the last I knew.

The meet-up is at the UA theatre complex at the intersection of the 210 & 2 fwys.
I don't know if it has a name. My neighbor's been going for years. I hear his '32 Ford pipes roar to life every Saturday morning around 6am. He's invited me a couple of times so I don't think there's any rules about ICE only.

 

[reeler]

Denver had a roped-off vendor-only area. Nissan and Ford had give-aways with a test drive of their plug-ins. We had BYD, Tesla, scooters, RAV4, a hobbyist's Porsche 911, and a NEV of some sort. Drivers parked outside of the roped-off area. There were vendors selling EVSEs, solar panels and other green tech.

I wish these were a mix with both enthusiast and vendor sections. I get that vendors pay for the expenses, but I would like to talk to folks about their cars also.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

The event in West Palm Beach was well-attended but I wouldn't say mobbed. Tesla stole the show with their test drives, they brought three cars, including two gorgeous red P85+ models loaded with every option. Royal Palm Nissan and Schumaker Chevrolet were there with a couple cars. Of course lots of attendees with an assortment of Leafs, Volts, Teslas, and a couple Karmas thrown in for good measure. Probably about 100 EVs in total.

In the "that's ironic" department the event was held near the waterfront within a stone's throw of a dozen megayachts. I couldn't help but wonder if all the EVs in the state so far would offset even one of them.

For my part, regrettably I used 3 quarts of gas in the Volt to attend the event. They had some 120v outlets used for holiday lighting at some of the spots around the square, but they appeared to be in disrepair and only a few people were using them. I should suggest to the FPL organizers next year to get those upgraded to something usable instead of spending money on chachkis that just wind up in the trash.

 

[ksnogas2112]

I don't know what the Kansas City results were because I was on a Scout campout but the rain may have kept a lot of people at home since it rained until about 2pm.