EV Week 2017
EV Week 2017, the annual event hosted by our client, Charge Across Town, is almost here. Now in its sixth year, it is exciting to look back and see how far the electric car market has come since we started. At our first EV Week in 2012 (see video here), folks could walk out to the curb at Justin Herman Plaza in downtown San Francisco and get into the driver’s seat of an all-electric BMW Active-e model, and take it for a spin down the Embarcadero. It was the first time I had ever driven an electric car, and it was an eye-opener. The torque was amazing, and immediately dispelled ideas of electric cars being feeble and not powerful enough to make it up San Francisco’s many hills.
Now consumers have a wide range options and they keep coming. This year, the new Nissan Leaf will be released, the first redesign of the most popular electric car ever. Chevrolet has released its Bolt, a mass-produced car with a range of over 200 miles and a price tag of $36,000 which will give Tesla’s Model 3 some real competition. Many auto makers are indicating that they are moving to electrify their whole fleet in coming years. And just this week we heard that California is mulling an eventual ban on sales of cars with gasoline and diesel engines, not to be outdone by China who already made this declaration.
All this news makes it feel like the tipping point is finally approaching – the point where the percentage of fossil fuel based vehicles will be eclipsed by zero-emission electric vehicles. There is a long way to go, but it has been fun and exciting to have a client that has been on the forefront of this movement. This year’s event will be held again at Pier 27 during Fleet Week. While it is hard to find a connection between the roaring, fossil-fuel guzzling jets of Fleet Week, and the zero-emission cars of EV Week, it is fantastic to be in the middle of the thousands of spectators heading down the Embarcadero to watch the jets and see the ships in port. It is even better to watch them delight in discovering that they can pause to hop in the latest electric cars and take them for a spin – and get a free taco in the process!
EV Week 2017 – Change the Future!
October 7 – 8, 2017
San Francisco · PIER 27 on the Embarcadero
Saturday and Sunday
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
(During Fleet Week SF)