National Plug In Day 2012 – My ActiveE Made Me Accidentally Environmental

Part two of my 2012 Plug In Day experience was down in Cypress. The Orange County event was held at the Mitsubishi North America headquarters and there was plenty of test drives around. This was an opportunity to try out the Mitsubishi i (formerly the MiEV) and see their Level 3 ChaDEmo charger in action.

One of the first things that I saw after I parked at the OC event was a Sparrow. Prior to my ActiveE, I was familiar with the Nissan Leaf, GM EV1, Chevy Volt, the Tesla Roadster and that was pretty much it. As I waited to be allocated my ActiveE, I started reading up on previous EVs and the Sparrow was one that caught my eye. It would never be a vehicle I would be getting, but it harkens to some of the trials and tribulations of EV predecessors to the current generation, after all, as George Santayana has written, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The Orange County event had more EV conversions than the Los Angeles County event.

A converted Geo Metro –

A homebuilt 3 wheeler –

A converted Miata –

A converted VW Pickup Truck –

There was some speeches and now Congressman-elect, and former GM EV1 Driver, Allan Lowenthal was there to meet with his constituents.

The Orange County event provided me with the opportunity to test drive the Mitsubishi i (formerly the MiEV) and a Honda Fit EV (from Toan Ngo). I also let a few interested parties test drive my ActiveE.

The Fit EV –

Here’s a shot of the Mitsubishi i from previous trip to the same site in Cypress –

In all it was a successful day, filled with EV enthusiasts and curious folks who, hopefully, will become EV enthusiasts.

There just have been too many things going on…

I attended my first National Plug in Day event in September and I had a lot of fun meeting fellow EV enthusiasts and even let a few folks test drive my ActiveE. I actually attended both the L.A. County and the Orange County event as they were both well within range of my ActiveE.

For the pictures that I snapped at both events, I created a Flickr set to view these in.

The Los Angeles County event was held in El Segundo at the Automobile Driving Museum. As part of the effort in encouraging ICE drivers to switch to EV, there were test drives provided by various EV drivers (Nissan Leaf, Plug In Prius, and Tesla Roadsters seemed to be participating) and I let the few folks that asked if they can check out my ActiveE have a ride as well. I met with a few other ActiveE Electronauts and had a good time talking with them.

Here’s a few shots of the line to test drive –

and another

Inside the parking lot of the museum were a bunch of other cars including a Tesla Model S.

To make you feel like you’re there… Here’s a panoramic I shot.

I planned on being at the event for the first two hours, so things were starting up when I got there. It was a festive scene with a DJ spinning in the back of the parking lot, Several EVs were well represented, including the Volkswagen EV Golf, Nissan Leaf, a new Toyota RAV4, Mitsubishi i (formerly MiEV), an ActiveE, Chevy Volt, Plug in Prius, Honda Fit, Fisker Karma, Tesla Roadster, and the rockstar – Tesla Model S. Blink Network was there getting people signed up and giving out some nice black baseball caps. The museum displayed their old EVs as well.

Across the street from the parking lot an Electric Motorcycle setup was provided.

There was a guy who also converts ICE to EV and he featured his converted Porsche.

Here’s one of the reasons that we do this… Future EV drivers-

In all, it was fun, quick trip as I had to make the drive to Part 2 of my day, which would be the Orange County event at the Mitsubishi North American headquarters.

Tag: National Plug In Day 2012

National Plug in Day 2012… Part 2… The Cypress event for Orange County.

National Plug in Day 2012… Part 1… The El Segundo event for Los Angeles County.