National Drive Electric Week 2019

[SMAlset]

If you are looking for an EV and want more hands on info from owners or maybe you want to share your experience with your own EV with others who are new to EVs, the National Drive Electric Week will be held this year from September 14-22. In 2017 shortly after getting our Model S, we participated and displayed our car and it was a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of interested potential EV owners. The general public is more and more curious what an EV and BEV are all about and they have questions on charging and range anxiety also, so by displaying your car and being there to talk to people is a great way to help further the cause. When we attended we even met some TMC members in person and enjoyed talking to other owners who brought their car to display. Lots to see just walking around the event checking out the booths.

Some people will also be there to give rides or test rides. So if you have a neighbor or co-worker who has been thinking about going EV, mention this event to them. This is a great way for non-EV people to see what's out there and not feel pressured into any sales pitch from any of the manufacturers/dealerships. Also to get honest feedback from the cars' owners, see different year models in case they are thinking of going the used car route, and what people have done to accessorize their cars.

For a map of where the event will be held in your area, just enter your zip code at the top. National Drive Electric Week 2019 - Event Map Click on the location for specifics. The event is free although they do ask you to register if you plan to attend. It's interesting to see the number count and types of EVs that will be there and see the list grow in count as we get closer to the event date.

Here's a map view currently of the California/Southwestern US locations although more may be added in the coming weeks.

 

[SMAlset]

I contacted the event people at the Cupertino location asking if they had a flyer created for the event, which they did. They emailed me a .pfd for one for this location. Plan to ask some local businesses in my area (like Starbucks, Mod Pizza, etc) if they would mind if I posted it on their community bulletin board in the store. If you are interested in promoting the Event, reach out to your local people for one. A small way to help raise awareness whether or not you can attend and/or participate.

 

[SpiceWare]

I've created handouts that I keep in my 3 to give away when people ask about it. There are 2 version each for the S, 3, and X. Feel free to download and revise them for your own use.

They were created using Apple Pages, but can be downloaded in a variety of formats. Download links in this twitter chain.
Darrell Spice Jr. on Twitter

Following images are for reference, use link above to download originals. Letter size handout:


Legal size handout, includes example road trip I took in my 3:

 

[bmah]

If you haven't done one of these events before, I recommend it. It's great fun if you like talking about your car. Also a good way to meet other Tesla owners and/or TMC members, and check out other EVs. As @SMAlset wrote, a long history of Tesla/EV ownership is not required.

I'll be at the event in Berkeley this Saturday, 14 Sept. Stop by and say hello!

National Drive Electric Week - Berkeley

Bruce.

 

[Blu Zap]

I'll be at the Napa NDE event on Sunday, 9/22. Hope to see many of you there. Participate at any of the events near you!
National Drive Electric Week - Napa

 

[hmbprius]

Well that was disappointing. Was excited about attending the event, registered. was excited to be one of 2 Tesla Roadsters at the event. Drove over. Went to sign in and Ariene the organizer for the event (which is a oxymoron evidently) said (even though the event was advertising the roadsters) that she had sent an email out (she hadn't...absolutely none in in box) that they didn't have room. Some else shared evidently the bias of the organizers was only cars "currently available". They should have told the gaggle of kids who came up to my car at the event "ooooh mom its here this is the car I was looking for".
Couldn't even give me an event stick "ask me about my EV" nor a placard for car "event car" . Even though wasn't "officially" there had some fun answering questions from a lot of folks who clearly were fascinated (and other than one guy who had ridden in one of the original prototypes) didn't seem any had seen a roadster. Lots of cool car comments though, and somehow the event photographer didn't mind photographing. Other Roadster wasn't there when I was there, not surprising if they got a similar blow off.

Missed opportunity for the organization to show what electric cars can do, and preview for the next generation how we got were hopefully we will be going.

 

[SMAlset]

Well that was disappointing. Was excited about attending the event, registered. was excited to be one of 2 Tesla Roadsters at the event. Drove over. Went to sign in and Ariene the organizer for the event (which is a oxymoron evidently) said (even though the event was advertising the roadsters) that she had sent an email out (she hadn't...absolutely none in in box) that they didn't have room. Some else shared evidently the bias of the organizers was only cars "currently available". They should have told the gaggle of kids who came up to my car at the event "ooooh mom its here this is the car I was looking for".
Couldn't even give me an event stick "ask me about my EV" nor a placard for car "event car" . Even though wasn't "officially" there had some fun answering questions from a lot of folks who clearly were fascinated (and other than one guy who had ridden in one of the original prototypes) didn't seem any had seen a roadster. Lots of cool car comments though, and somehow the event photographer didn't mind photographing. Other Roadster wasn't there when I was there, not surprising if they got a similar blow off.

Missed opportunity for the organization to show what electric cars can do, and preview for the next generation how we got were hopefully we will be going.

Wow really sorry that happened to you. And don't these people know that you can still buy these cars. We were at the Cupertino location last week and enjoyed talking to both of the Roadster owners that came to display there and Michael there with the really cool orange model said he just bought his like a year ago. Used not new of course but so what. People are still very much interested in it and I'll bet there were models of EVs there that weren't being produced any longer. These EV events also promote to people buying used EVs as their first forray into the EV world if it meets their range needs and budget. Not everyone can afford a new EV. That's just wrong what the event organizers did to you at that location and if it were me I would at least send an email to the people in charge stating some of the points I made assuming you agree with them.

Glad to hear that you made some people happy while there and that they appreciated you and the fact that you brought your car. Have any photos of your car at the "non-event"? Love the color in your Avatar.

 

[Blu Zap]

A successful National Drive Electric Week at Napa, CA. today. Not a huge event, but in light of the community size, we had a great turnout. Great to get the EV word out to the North Bay Area. @ChrisJ joined me in representing TMC. Always glad to talk about the EV advantages to those considering making the change from ICE to EV.

 

[bmah]

I was at the Berkeley event on 14 September. It started rather oddly because they didn't have the street where the event was blocked off like the year before. Worse, the organizers originally wanted all the EV owners behind a table (nowhere near where the cars were parked). I made a PITA of myself (on behalf of the other EV drivers) by insisting as politely as I could that this wasn't going to work, because people really wanted to see the cars, and we as owners really needed to be next to our cars in order to talk about them effectively. After a couple rounds of back-and-forth, I finally got my way and we were all dispatched back to our cars. It was hard finding enough space to park everyone, and we were all parallel-parked along the curb, so people (including owners) had a hard time seeing each other. This was all highly puzzling, since this is the third year that Berkeley has done this event, so I would have expected that they would have realized what worked well and what needed to be fixed (my feedback after last year was, "keep everything the same, except have us angle-park or perpendicular-park at the curb").

Anyway, once we got the logistics squared away, it was a lot of fun. I tried to get around to the non-Tesla EV owners to learn about their cars. Quite a few attendees asked about road-tripping a Tesla to LA, which was easy to talk about since I'd just done that trip a couple weekends before. My favorite question of the day was, "Do you Tesla guys have a special wave you do each other, like Corvette owners do?" ("Well, I used to wave to other Tesla owners, but there are so many on the road I'd just be waving non-stop nowadays.")

Bruce.