National Drive Electric Week event in Minneapolis/St Paul

[hybridbear]

The most popular EV at our event was the Tesla Model S (19). Second was the Leaf (18), then the Volt (14), C-Max Energi (4), then the Focus Electric (3) then the Mitsubishi MiEV (3) & & Plug-in Prius (3), then the Smart ED (1) & Ford Transit EV (1) & Tesla Roadster (1) & 1987 Corvette EV conversion (1) & Honda motorcycle conversion (1). Sadly there were no Fusion Energis there. If my wife hadn't been out of town for a wedding we would have brought both the Focus Electric & the Fusion Energi.

I had the hood of the Focus Electric open and the foam cover removed which made it very popular. I got to talk to a lot of EV owners about it as well as a number of people who came because they're interested in EVs but don't own one yet.

The first two pics are wide shots of the street that was closed off for the event in front of the state capitol building.





Here is a pic of our Focus Electric with my parents' C-Max Energi behind it along with the Tesla Roadster & a Model S in the background (edited with Instagram).



Here is a pic of the three Focus Electrics that were there.



Here are two pics of the Corvette conversion.





And one of the EV motorcycle.



And one of the Tesla Roadster. The owners have 37k miles on it. It is number 105. They have lost about 10% of the original range.


There was also a Leaf owner there with the first Leaf sold in MN. They have just over 30k miles on their Leaf and have not lost any of their bars of HVB capacity. They said that they almost never charge higher than the 80% setting Nissan built in to the early Leafs.

More pics will soon be posted on the MN Plug-in Vehicles Owners Circle website.

Edited September 22, 2014 by hybridbear

[GrySql]

Quite a group, those personal conversions are impressive.

 

I was stopped at a stoplight the other day and a recyclable BMW i3 EV car was opposite me in the other direction, it is an interesting design, styled to be noticed.

[hybridbear]

 

I was stopped at a stoplight the other day and a recyclable BMW i3 EV car was opposite me in the other direction, it is an interesting design, styled to be noticed.

Many of us were disappointed that we didn't have an i3 at our event. Jukka, the organizer of our local group linked above, said that he has not yet heard from any local i3 owners even though the local dealers have them in stock and have been selling them.

[jeff_h]

Seeing the Focus Electric and the Leaf there next to each other, it looks like the FE has a lot more storage space in the back -- they have about the same size HVB and range, correct?

[hybridbear]

Seeing the Focus Electric and the Leaf there next to each other, it looks like the FE has a lot more storage space in the back -- they have about the same size HVB and range, correct?

I think they both have about the same cubic feet, but they're packaged very differently. The HVB & range is basically the same in both. The Leaf has a much taller cargo bay, but it isn't as deep or as wide. The Focus cargo area has a high load floor with lots of under floor storage. You can also remove the cargo organizer that Ford provides to just have a deep open area instead of under floor storage.