National Drive Electric Week 2016 in Hilo
On September 17, 2016, our association held a 2-hour event at the WikiFresh in Hilo. This was our second of two Big Island events celebrating National Drive Electric Week. We had fine weather (sunny and breezy) and a good amount of shade. We had about 50 people attend the event. Some people arrived after the event had already ended.
We had participation from many of our members, representatives from several companies, and (importantly) people who were genuinely interested in electric car ownership, charging stations, and features and functions of various EVs. We even had the pleasure of meeting a Plug In America founder, Mike Kane! He was accompanied by Cathy Lam (a founder of Our1World.org, an international organization that promotes sustainability). Fun fact: They own the Toyota RAV4 EV that was featured in the ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’ movie.
After the event, a few of us had lunch at WikiFresh – they offered a special to event participants. WikiFresh is one of the most progressive restaurants in Hilo – great, fresh food in a very pleasant environment. The $9 ‘bowl and beer’ was a great deal (and a good excuse for beer for lunch). We look forward to making WikiFresh a future gathering place for our association. During our lunch, I was presented with the Peanut Butter, Jelly, and OJ Club award for running out of range on Saddle Road. (More on this in another post.)
We had a good showing of EVs at our event.
- 4 Nissan LEAFs
- 4 Chevy Volts, including a 2017
- 2 Tesla Model S
- 1 Tesla Model X (its falcon-wing doors got some exercise)
- 1 Kia Soul
- 1 electric motorcycle
Gary Miller demonstrated the emergency backup power kit that he installed in his Volt.
Among the companies that joined us:
- Kama’aina Nissan (a sales representative was on hand with a new LEAF and fielded questions about the car and future models)
- Aloha Kia (with a new Soul EV)
- Provision Solar
- Rising Sun Solar
- HELCO (Kenyan and Sue addressed questions about their charging stations and EV charging rates)
- 5th Dimension Designs, LLC
Here are images from our event. Most of these were taken by Gary Miller. (Thanks, Gary!)
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”3″ gal_title=”NDEW 2016 Hilo Event”]
Thanks to several of our officers and members who helped and participated in the event: Cody Osborne, Emily Ebert, Ed Gutierrez, Richard Castro, Stephanie Hall-Morin, Sean Morin, Gary Miller, Rico Reed, Terri Reed, Philip Tait, and Casey Humphries. Several new members were added during this event.
Thanks also go to Ian Whiteside and Peter Kubota of WikiFresh for the great lunch after our event, Lex Brodie’s for the venue, Nicole Gour of The Wave 92 and Sherry Bracken of LAVA 105.3 for our radio spots, Hawaii Tribune-Herald for publicity, Philip Zachary Hodges of Aloha Kia, Delvin Valentin and Grant Okamura of Nissan, and Kenyan Beals and Susan Lee of HELCO.
Special thanks to our national organizers: Plug In America, the Sierra Club and the Electric Auto Association, Nissan, our national sponsor, and Electric Car Insider for the informational brochures, magazines, event giveaways, and supporting materials.
Noel Morin