Plug In America’s Inaugural Parade – A Huge Success! Sunny skies and the sound of electricity filled the air on Saturday, Januarary, 17th in Santa Monica, CA.
With 100-percent participation, Plug In America pronounced its inaugural plug-in parade a total success, confident that President-Elect Obama himself will hear the message the event’s participants sent: America needs one million plug-in vehicles by 2010 and 10 million by 2016.
All 74 freeway-capable vehicles that signed up for the 2-mile parade through downtown Santa Monica showed up for “Inaugural Parade West, Plug In, America!” Electric Vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) participated in the Jan. 17 event. See the full list below, followed by speaker line up. More coverage here: http://arcwire.org/content/view/102/1/
“It was astounding, even for us in the movement , to see ‘old-time’ RAV4 EVs—one of which had some 160,000 miles on it—parading beside prototypes from Ford and Mitsubishi, beside four Tesla Roadsters, beside a 50-ton truck and a PHEV school bus,” said Plug In America spokeswoman Zan Dubin Scott. “We even had an all-electric Hummer H2. The moral of this story is that EVs can meet any need.”
Roughly 250 drivers, spectators and supporters attended the parade, preceded by a press conference next to the City of Santa Monica’s 40-kW solar carport equipped with EV chargers. Edward Kjaer, director of electric transportation for Southern California Edison, said that nobody should think that plug-in technology isn’t ready.
“It is so ready,” Kjaer said. “The country is ready, the market is ready, the people are ready and news flash, the technology is ready.”
Southern California Edison is testing the two prototype vehicles it brought to the parade: a Ford Escape PHEV and a Mitsubishi iMiEV.
“Journalists and bloggers continue to ask if there really is a market for plug-ins, now that gas is back to $2-per-gallon,” said Plug In America co-founder Paul Scott. “That question was answered unambiguously yesterday at this history-making parade. Those in attendance, like Americans nationwide, would tell anyone, ‘yes, we all want to drive on renewable electricity instead of on foreign oil. Just sell us the cars!’ “
Vehicles that attended the parade:
Made to be EV or PHEV:
40 Toyota RAV4 EVs
4 Tesla Roadsters
1 Solectria
1 Balqon 50-ton truck
1 eBox by AC Propulsion
1 PHEV school bus by IC Enova
1 PHEV Dodge Sprinter Van
3 Zero Motorcycles
1 Brammo
1 prototype PHEV Ford Escape (in testing at SoCal Edison)
1 prototype Mitsubishi iMiEV (in testing at SoCal Edison)
2 Phoenix SUTs
1 SolarCity SolarTaco (only gas car, affixed with solar panels)
2 Vectrix
2 Chevy S-10s
Conversions, All EV except where stated:
3 PHEV Prii, converted by Plug In Hybrid/Andy Frank, Plug In Conversions Corp and EnergyCS
1 Jeep by REVConversion
2 Porsche
1 VW Jetta by AC Propulsion
1 Ford Escort
1 Hummer H2
1 Miata
1 Geo Metro
1 Suzuki
Speaker line up from the event:
· Chris Paine, director, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
· Ed Kjaer, director of electric transportation, SoCal Edison
· Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica City Councilman
· Jordan Howard, Youth Leader of Green Ambassadors
· Sen. Fran Pavley, California state senator
· Paul Scott, Plug In America co-founder/board member
Plug In America is leading the nation’s plug-in vehicle movement. The nonprofit organization works to accelerate the shift to plug-in vehicles powered by clean, affordable, domestic electricity to reduce our nation’s dependence on petroleum and improve the global environment. For more information: http://www.pluginamerica.org.
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