The day started out with some hope of clear weather – blue skies and little sign of inclement weather. This allowed us to quickly prepare for the event. The Home Depot blocked off a section of the parking lot and provided 3 large canopies, several tables and chairs. This allowed us to be set up in no time. Many thanks to Cody Osborne, Emily Ebert, Stephanie Hall-Morin, and Thomas Kraft, for helping with the early morning set-up. Cody was actually at the site to take inventory at 7:30am!
Our EV owners showed up early, and a quite a few trickled in throughout the event. Altogether, we had several models represented: many Nissan LEAFs, five Tesla Model S sedans, two Chevy Volts, a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, a Ford Focus Electric, a BMW i3, and the new Kia Soul EV. We were also fortunate to have the Waiakea High School Technology Learning Center join us with their Bronco EV conversion and their award-winning robot.
We kicked off our event with a quick introduction to the Big Island EV Association and its mission, and a series of guest speakers – Senator Russell Ruderman, Representative Joy San Buenaventura, and Marlena Castro Dixon (representative from Senator Brian Schatz’s office).
Senator Ruderman and Representative San Buenaventura, both Nissan LEAF drivers, gave inspiring speeches. They shared their experiences with EVs and the challenges related to the limited charging infrastructure, and their efforts to help address the gap with legislation. Senator Ruderman emphasized the need to put ‘teeth’ behind the legislation that requires commercial property owners to provide a charging station for properties with over 100 parking stalls. Representative San Buenaventura emphasized the importance of sustainable transport and enabling adoption with a more convenient charging infrastructure.
Marlena read Senator Schatz’s letter of recognition acknowledging National Drive Electric Week and our association’s efforts to increase the adoption of sustainable transportation.
Bill Wilson from Kama’aina Nissan brought along a 2014 LEAF and fielded a number of questions regarding the upcoming model and, importantly, the status of the service offering for the LEAF (full service will soon be available!). Bill brought bottled water and leis for the event. News about the 2016 LEAF with the 30kWH battery pack was a common topic raised by guests.
Philip Zachary Hodges of Aloha Kia was on hand to ‘talk story’ about the new Soul EV. His job was helped greatly by the presence of the island’s first Soul EV (purchased by Lorn Douglas, our East Hawaii Advisor). Doug was kind enough to allow his car to be displayed at our event. A number of people joined the event just to see this EV and they were pleased.
Derrick Kiyan the team from the Waiakea High School Technology Learning Center shared their experience with the EV conversion and showed off their creation. They also demonstrated a robot that has won national awards. It was inspiring to hear about Derrick’s afterschool program and how it enables our youth to learn about technology.
Amanda Lee from Hawaii Electric Light Company fielded questions about the EV charging rate options. Note that the current charging rates will expire at the end of this month and will be subject to change.
Cynthia Luke and Marvin Kharrazi from sunrun offered advice on PV installations.
Casey Humphries from Mina Hydro displayed an unusual hydroelectric generator that can be used to create electricity.
Throughout our event, Ed Coykendall of Natural Moments Hawaii, worked tirelessly. He took fabulous pictures of the event, many of which are in our event albums.
Overall, our Hilo event was a success – I estimate that we had about 150 guests and many had genuine interest in EV ownership. Despite the decent weather at the start of the day, warm Hilo rain periodically interrupted our event. Each downpour would result in hoods, doors and trunks being shut and a scramble for the canopies. After each deluge, hood, doors, and trunks would once again open and our ‘show and tell’ would resume. Owners and guests took it all in stride – we improvised and persevered, despite the weather. To those who made it to our event, thank you very much for your support.
Scenes from our event:
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”1″ gal_title=”NDEW 2015 Hilo Event”]