We had hot (successful) and hot (scorching) event at the Shops! Thanks to all who helped and joined. This is a detailed report of our September 19 National Drive Electric Week event at the Shops at Mauna Lani. It, hopefully, offers those who were not able to join a sense for how the event played out.

Event Set-up and Volunteers

Stephanie Hall-Morin, Sean Morin, and I arrived at around 8:30 to set-up. We found our area very much ready to go – Justin from Michael Ho’s team (management at the Shops at Mauna Lani) had already set up 6 tents, tables draped with fancy cloth, and chairs. The tents and vehicle display area were at the main entrance of the complex so our event area was very visible. It helped to have a coffee shop, snack bar, and grocery store in the vicinity of the event venue.

We were shortly joined by Emily Ebert (association Treasurer), Eila Algood, Holly Algood, Richard Castro (association Vice President), John Pierce, and Eric Hayden (West Hawaii Advisor). They all helped out with the set-up of the event spaces. Stephanie, Emily, Eila, Holly, and Sean manned our association’s booth.

Jon Hayes (webmaster) and family eventually showed up as well.

Our EVs

We had a total of 9 EVs, an electric bicycle, and a solar and pedal powered 3-wheeler. Models represented were the Volkswagen e-Golf, Nissan LEAF (at total of 6), Tesla Model S, BMW i3, Specialized Turbo e-Bike, and the 3-wheeled ELF).

Eila and Holly came with a bright red ELF. John came with this e-Golf, and Eric came with his LEAF (windows plastered with our event banners). Casey actually drove all the way from Mountain View in his Nissan LEAF! An hour into the event, Rick drove down to Kona to swap cars with Boris (manager at BMW Kona). Boris’ BMW i3 joined our EV collection by around noon. Doug and Chris from Kona Nissan arrived at around 11:00 with 2 LEAFs.

Bike Works left their e-Bike in our booth, along with a video player. It’s too bad that they were not around to discuss their cool electric bike. Richard indicated that it was ‘fast’, after taking it for a short ride – test rides would have been great. We handed out quite a few of their fliers so I hope we see some of these bike on the road.

Booths

We had other informational booths set-up around the event space. Richard had a booth for Islandwide Solar. Kim and Emily from ProVision had one. Doug had a booth for Kona Nissan. David from Berkey Water Hawaii had a booth displaying portable solar lanterns and water filtration systems. Casey from Minahydro demonstrated his hydroelectric generator. Tony Prietto, from HELCO joined by mid-event.

The Event

Did I say it was hot?! One of the great things provided by the Shops was a water dispenser with ice water and lemon. That dispenser ran out in no time. 😉

Between 125-150 guests joined the event. They started to show up even before we officially started and some continued to show up even after the event ended. Many guests had genuine interest in owning an EV and had questions regarding maintenance, service, cost, range, and charging infrastructure. We had several guests who came all the way from Hilo and Puna.

Guests scooped up our handouts, browsed through the information and asked questions about various EV models. Many lingered for a long while and kept our EV owners busy with questions. Several people were interested in a test drive of the Tesla Model S. We were literally on our feet for 5 hours, in the hot Kohala sun. That said, it was fun and the time flew by quickly.

Fortunately, Nissan was on hand to provide test drives – they had about 25 throughout the event and guests were happy about the opportunity.

It was an exhausting event but definitely worth the effort. Gauging from the questions raised, the material that we handed out, and the test drives, I know that we’ve convinced some of our guests to consider making their next vehicle and EV.

John, Eric, Rick, Stephanie, and Eila – thank you for showing off our EVs and answering the countless questions asked during the event. Holly, Emily, Stephanie, and Sean – thanks for your help in the booth and for obtaining the guest information. We got quite a few new members as a result of your efforts.

Random scenes from our event: