National Drive Electric Day at Huntington Beach, CA

[EVA]

Wow Unplugged - what an incredible event. Completely over the top.

We will think of you in Chicago and Naperville, and we will be envious.

 

[jmueller065]

Wow! Makes me want to hop on a plane.

 

[hybridbear]

Wow! Makes me want to hop on a plane.

Me too!

Great work unplugged! I'll also be envious while at our event in St Paul. Please take lots of pictures to share.

 

[unplugged]

Wow! Makes me want to hop on a plane.

Please take lots of pictures to share.

We have a drone scheduled to take stills and video. And, of course, we will have plenty of photos from the ground.

I just wish I could actually enjoy the event. As a City Captain, I have this feeling I won't be doing much except putting out fires from our 50+ volunteers. (We have adopted the Edison High School 'Chargers' as a source of volunteers for school credits. And we have UCI students also, so hopefully, we will have even more for this event.)

 

[TorkliftCentral]

It looks as if the Huntington Beach event will set records as the largest EV event in the nation. Ever. Right now, we have over 540 attendees pre-registered and 144 plug-in cars expected.

Between you and me, it looks like we finally have Ford corporate on board. That has been an exercise in frustration, believe me. We can’t officially announce this until Ford provides us the check, but let's just say they are coming here in a big way.

Fords is the final manufacturer to confirm attendance. Believe it or not, Toyota is coming with their PiP. And Mercedes just confirmed attendance. This brings us to the list of factory teams providing Ride N Drives. Along with Ford’s three models, we have Nissan, BMW, Chevrolet, Smart, Toyota and Kia. Also factory sponsored, but not yet confirmed for Ride N Drive, we have Mercedes, Cadillac, Tesla, and BYD. Dealers attending are Porsche, McLaren, and Fiat.

The BIG announcements are still pending, but we have three really cool displays. On the boat from Japan, as this is written, Nissan is bringing the Bladeglider concept car. This thing is amazing, and we can’t believe that Nissan is bringing it to our event. Tesla is bringing its one-of-a-kind Model X prototype. It won’t be behind ropes this time. Attendees are welcome to “crawl all over it.” A great display of cars will include the Porsche Panamera, Porsche 918, McLaren P1 and the Kepler. Also, A 1916 Detroit Model 62 Cabriolet Electric will be displayed. And it is beautifully restored.

We have over 40 exhibitors from Musk's Solar City to electric skateboards and (of course) electric surfboards. We have Zero motorcycles providing test drives and NRG with the eVgo charging stations. I'm happy to announce that the Eco Hitch will be displayed on my FFE with my tandem bicycle and historic Kestral bike on a lightweight trailer in tow. We have EV West exhibiting a very impressive BMW 3 series conversion. There are electric speedboats and bicycles. Brammo motorbikes are also here. Check out most of the vendors here: https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=153 You can register on this page also.

The fun will be watching our local University of California, Irvine racecars running a full autocross course. Kids will have a bounce house, scavenger hunt, and other fun things to do. And, of course, having the opportunity to test drive all the plug-ins will be great fun. But don’t forget, this event is ON THE BEACH. You can’t get any closer without getting wet.

So if you are in SoCal, this is one EV event you can’t miss. The largest EV event, EVER.

It is great to hear this event is gaining so much interest in the electric vehicle community! We are excited that you will be using your EcoHitch for a very unique towing setup. We can't wait to see pictures! Have fun!

 

[cpwl]

... Nissan is bringing the Bladeglider concept car. This thing is amazing, and we can’t believe that Nissan is bringing it to our event. ...

You are certainly right that the Bladeglider is an incredible concept. Is Nissan still claiming that it will go to production in a form very similar to the concept – haven’t heard a peep since the initial furor died out early this spring. There are many aspects of this concept car with which I am completely enamoured but as usual there just isn’t enough information about it and how it would translate into a production vehicle. I love the overall shape and the idea of independently controlled motors although I’m not sold on the “in-wheel” concept, just too much unsprung mass unless they have other compelling reasons for this. Inboard motors would do the same job and help keep unsprung mass to a minimum. The cockpit layout is great and given the Deltawing’s race experience the chassis should be exceptionally competent as well. Just make sure it is sold with a hard top and as much as I bleed Ford Blue when cut I’d line up for a production variant of the Bladeglider.

More and more this is sounding like a “don’t miss” great event. Alas it is just too far away so hopefully there will be good coverage and photos to be posted, both here and on photo/video posting sites with links form this thread.

Thanks and Cheers

Carl