Jukka Kukkonen wrote an excellent piece for plugincars.com about the recent Electric Vehicle Experience at the 10th Annual Living Green ExpO at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. To learn more about Jukka’s work, you can visit www.pluginconnect.com.
Minnesota has not been known as a hotbed of EV activity in the past, but things are starting to move forward here. A fairly new and fast growing public/private partnership, Drive Electric Minnesota, has over 20 organizational/business members including Xcel Energy, GE, and Best Buy, and we are getting more membership requests every month. When it comes to nationwide EV availability, the Midwest is considered to be a second-tier market, but even if we won’t be the first ones to get the vehicles, we are working hard to move things in the right direction to make Minnesota “EV ready.”
Minnesota EV Expo
On May 6-8, my company, PlugInConnect, organized an EV Experience event—not related to GE’s events that share the same name—as part of the 10th Annual Living Green Expo at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. For the first time in Minnesota, everyone from key decision makers to the general public had an opportunity to see plug-in vehicles, charging infrastructure, and even a functioning solar charging system. The most exciting aspect was the chance to experience test rides in various EVs and plug-in hybrids. An invitation-only EV Experience Preview on Friday afternoon hosted by Drive Electric Minnesota kicked off the weekend, then the EV Experience continued on Saturday and Sunday for the general public.
It turned out to be a very successful event. We gave about 1,200 EV test rides throughout the weekend. Chevrolet provided four Volts and we even had one Volt owner bring his own car for display on Saturday and Sunday. The City of Saint Paul gave rides in their Ford Transit Connect Electric, which is one of the first electric Transit Connects in everyday use in the nation. The City of Saint Paul is planning to purchase two more this year and other cities and counties are buying a half dozen more. These vehicle purchases are subsidized by Xcel Energy, which is one of the lead clients for Azure Dynamics. Tesla Roadster rides were also in high demand. I personally had fun piloting a Roadster on Sunday when the owner—who very generously gave over 300 rides to people with his own Roadster—took a lunch break. With a Roadster Sport, it was pretty easy to demonstrate to everyone taking a ride why EVs rule.
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