Local and national electric vehicle (EV) owners showed off their cars to educate, share and offer personal test drives in Hamden.
For its fourth-consecutive year, the Hamden National Drive Electric Week event was celebrated on Saturday at the Hamden Public Library: A lavish display of EV’s ranged from the Tesla Model Y, Chevrolet Bolt, Volkswagen ID.4, to an electric go-kart and more.
With sponsorship from the town’s Energy Use, Climate Change Commission, Wells Fargo and others, walking through the range of vehicles in the parking lot felt like a kid in a candy shop.
EV owner and Hamden native Robert Langdon who has attended the show every year was in for a surprise as well.
“It gets more and more interesting every year,” Langdon said. “There’s more vehicles every time we are here.”
Langdon displays his 2017 Chevrolet Bolt and enjoys seeing certain EV models for the first time.
“Today, I saw for the first time a Volkswagen I.D. 4,” he said. “And it’s a very exciting field, next year there will be even more.”
Traveling from New Jersey, Volkswagen I.D. 4 owner Ron Wilson enjoys EV car shows and participating.
“My primary reason is to talk to real people who are on the fence about electric cars and maybe I can convince them it’s okay for an electric car to be a viable option,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s interest in educating people who are interested in purchasing an EV to potential customers comes with his perspective as the customer with experience in buying rather than a car salesmen’s approach.
“I want them to see that all types of people buy electric cars,” Wilson said. “It’s not just wealthy people, it’s not just white people, Asian people… Black people buy these cars too so I wanted to add diversity and let them see that all types of people are buying these cars.”
By Wilson’s research on EV’s and staying within his budget he found an ideal car, but some other owners like electric go-kart competitor Mark McCrate from Ohio wanted to start from scratch.
“The electric go-kart was built from scratch for something called the Power Racing Series, which is a league with 25 races per year anywhere from California to New York,” McCrate said. “And one of the most interesting things about the event is it forces creativity.”
With the league’s requirement for vehicles to cost no more than $500, McCrate immediately wanted to join in 2014.
“The first car that we built went 2 mph,” McCrate said. “The second car that we built went 5 to 7 miles an hour. This car goes 20 to 25 so we’re getting better.”
With the upcoming race on Oct. 23-24, McCrate continues to work on building the EV go-kart and fulfilling his engineering passion since 6 years old.
“I like to see people have fun driving it,” McCrate said. “ I work really hard on building it but during the race I do not drive it.”
The array of EV’s whether reconverted, all-electric, or plug-in- hybrid vehicles gives you the choice to test drive multiple vehicles.
Saturday began National Drive Electric Week from Sept. 25 to Oct. 3. Click here for more information.