National Plug In Day 2013: Sept 28/29

[ChadS]

59 cities have signed up so far. Check out the map HERE and see if a city near you is on the map. If so, please register to attend on the web site (the site stores your email address until a week after the event so organizers can contact you with details, but organizers do not get your email address).

If there is no site near you...can you find a parking lot and a few EV-driving friends? If so, register your city on the site! It is easy to do and this work is all done by volunteers. New cities can sign up until September 12.

I'm organizing the Seattle-area event. We will have a gathering on Saturday afternoon on the roof of the largest Leaf dealer in the nation in Bellevue. We'll have rides downstairs, accessory vendors, a BBQ, cars on display, and give out a few awards. The Leaf dealer is great - they know this is an owner event rather than a sales event, and they are happy to have all makes attend.

(There is a possibility of a second Seattle-area event at a Tesla facility on Sunday, but it depends on construction work).

Discussion of NPID 2012 was in THIS thread.

 

[Clprenz]

I might be organizing the Normal IL / EVTown event. I'll see if I can have some of the reps come down to us.

 

[dhrivnak]

Does anyone have any contacts inside Tesla about bringing any Model S's to plug-in day? I am coordinating Kingsport TN for the the third time. We are unfortunately many hundreds of miles from any showroom. So far my e-mails and reqests have fallen on quiet ears.

 

[adiggs]

I plan to attend the Portland, OR event with my Roadster. Any tips for somebody who's done plenty of Tesla Time, but hasn't done an event before?

Easy enough to show up, hopefully with a clean car, and then stand around for several hours and talk about the car Suggestions for what else?

 

[tomsax]

We're up to 87 events across the US plus one each in Mexico and The Netherlands. The events will bring EV owners together to meet, share stories, and hopefully reach out to people who haven't yet discovered the many advantages of driving electric.

Check out the event map to find the one nearest you.

If you plan to attend, please register from your local event page, it helps the organizers plan. If you'd like to help organize or just help out on the day of, use the Volunteer button to sign up.

 

[dm33]

Plugin America Event scheduled for Raleigh, Saturday 28th via the RTP EV meetup group.

 

[sublimaze1]

I went ahead and signed up for DFW - looks like around a dozen S will be there, along with others. Perhaps I will see some of you. Blue 19 with Pano and Third.

WJ

 

[vfx]

NIPD is up to 95 cities now!!

 

[eMileage]

In the GTHA in Ontario, Canada, EVFest 2013 took place last weekend, and also as NPID Hamilton is now listed on the National Plug-in Day site! Sunday Sept 29th, at the North Wentworth Arena/Community Centre. Hope to see some of you there!

 

[nanimac]

NIPD is up to 95 cities now!!

96 cities! I was too late to add the Honolulu meet-up event on the website, but we'll be meeting and taking a drive on Sunday

 

[roblab]

In Napa Valley, we are doing an auto show, and I am the only EV for NPID. I make a tri fold hand out that seems to be well accepted, although I don't put in all the data points. I find, after years of teaching high school, that average people have about a 15 second attention span (note TV commercials), so these are just sound bites.

I have enclosed a scan of my page, front and back. Picture it folded in thirds, Tesla logo on top. Something like this is easy to make for handouts.

 

[ToddRLockwood]

We had quite a turnout in Burlington, Vermont yesterday. All the usual plugin suspects were there, including 3 Model S and 1 Roadster. I had my pearl P85 on display. The event was held on the Church Street Marketplace mall, which is always busy on sunny fall weekends. At least 100 people sat behind the wheel of my car, and I handed out several hundred Model S info cards. Conservatively, I'd say that I sold 5 cars.

I was a little nervous about so many people getting in and out of my car, and indeed both black leather front seats got a bit scuffed. Today, I was relieved to discover that the scuffs completely disappeared after applying some Mothers Leather Conditioner. All in all, it was a lot of fun—particularly watching people walk around and around the Model S, trying to find the engine.

Of course, the girls were more interested in the Roadster parked next to my Model S!

 

[ChadS]

We had a nice time in Seattle, despite the weather. We had 125 cars registered, but I think about 25 of them chickened out. Here we are trying to set up a tent (with my Teslas in the background):

This was on the roof of a private parking garage (owned by a local Nissan dealer), so there were no random passers-by. Everybody there came on purpose, and I was really pleased by how many non-owners came (they had to try to find parking elsewhere in the neighborhood, and walk through the rain to the event) to talk to owners about their experience with the cars.

The Nissan dealer did not send any sales people up. In fact, a couple of the people asking questions had been sent up by salespeople downstairs! This dealership has sold more LEAFs than any other, and it's because they realize that owners do the selling and the work with the local owner community.

 

[efusco]

Had a nice time at the Springfield Event today. JDCleary (Jack) and his lovely wife Lila drove up from Bella Vista, AR to attend. Several car dealerships brought cars and several locals brought their Volts and Leafs. Unfortunately the organization of the event wasn't great so the public wasn't very aware but I think next year will be a much bigger event.

National Plugin Day 2013 002 by efusco, on Flickr

National Plugin Day 2013 004 by efusco, on Flickr

 

[NigelM]

Great EVent in Sarasota, FL.

We had ~550 visitors and 45 cars, big number fo test drives that we can only guess. Tesla Model S was the dominant car in terms of numbers but we had everything 20 year old electric pick-up trucks to conversions to the whole range of modern production cars.

Photo gallery here: http://galleries.heraldtribune.com/default.aspx?id=365148#/0

Lots of press and TV (SNN, ABC7, CBS) plus newspapers and proclamations from the County and City governments.

Some pics in the Florida section:

Feedback: the auto dealers had issues with staffing. We had Chevrolet, Nissan, Ford there with EV's but they couldn't get staff to come as it was the last Sunday in the quarter and the day where all the sales guys make their final numbers, so they all wanted to stay in the showroom.

 

[NigelM]

Others may be already doing this but here's a tip to help with publicity: Last year we managed to get both the City and County Commissions to issue proclamations and this year they did so again. There is a local TV channel that shows the proceedings live (like a local C-Span) so that got us on TV last week and having both the City Mayor and Chair of the Co9unty Commission attend the event assured us major station TV coverage and plenty of press both before and after the event.

 

[lorih]

What's the naked sexy male silouette have to do with National Plug-in Day?..eh hm...I mean, what does the Statue of David have to with National Plug-in Day?

 

[vfx]

Los Angeles went great! 20 plus EVs filled in a very large parking nicely situated next to the water in Long Beach. Speakers were local politicians Ed Begley and Chris Pain via a reading, tents with EV bikes and solar sales. Sign up lists for people getting rides or drives. Chevy, Nissan, Fiat, and Bikes were busy all day. Teslas were pretty well represented (Thank you TesLA club!)

A nice touch to include in all future all National Drive Electric Days (better name) There was also a ribbon cutting of a new Adopt-a-charger at the site of the Event.

 

[NigelM]

What's the naked sexy male silouette have to do with National Plug-in Day?..eh hm...I mean, what does the Statue of David have to with National Plug-in Day?

Famous (well...pretty well known around here in any case) replica of the Statue of David outside the Ringling Museum of Art (est. 1927) in Sarasota. The silhouette appears on City documents.

Photo credit: Rob Tilley.

 

[lorih]

That's so cool! Thanks for explaining. Stanford has a Rodin Sculpture garden outside their museum, would be cool if they had one of his statues on city documents. (Would Palo Alto be "The Kiss" "The Thinker" or "The Gates of Hell"?)