California Center for Sustainable Energy

Last weekend marked the end of the 2012 CVRP Workshop Tour, and we went out with a bang.  For the past several months, the CCSE Transportation Team has been traveling across the state spreading the word on electric vehicle innovations, incentives, and infrastructure.   Pasadena made the last tour stop even more interesting with the addition of an EV Street Fair outside of City Hall.  EV Fair booths had representation from the City of Pasadena’s Department of Transportation and Public Works Recycling Division.  In addition, we were joined by representatives from:

• Pasadena Water & Power
• Square D
• CODA
• Chevy
• Mitsubishi
• Enterprise Rent-A-Car
• South Coast Air Quality Management District
• Aerovironment
• ClipperCreek
• CALSTART
• Ford
• 350Green
• and Clean Fuel Connection

Even the Pasadena Fire Department took part in the EV Street Fair, grilling hot dogs for the crowd.  Needless to say, the event was a big step toward better public knowledge on electric vehicles, and we had a blast.

The EV Street Fair gave potential plug-in electric vehicle ( PEV) drivers a unique opportunity to explore and test drive some of the newest electric vehicle models.  Test drives were available for the new CODA sedan, Nissan LEAF, Toyota Prius Plug-In, and Chevy Volt.  In addition, there was a sweeping array of static display vehicles, including a Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Toyota Prius Plug-In, BMW Mini-E, BMW Active-E, Honda Clarity, two Tesla Roadsters, a RAV4 EV and the soon to be released Ford Focus Electric.

Pasadena City Hall was a fantastic setting for the workshop presentations inside, and almost 100 people packed into the Chambers to find out more about electric vehicles.  This was the largest workshop crowd we’ve seen so far, and made for one of the largest groups ever assembled in the Chambers.  Colin Santulli of CCSE covered the benefits and incentives available for PEV owners, while Rick Teebay of the County of Los Angeles described PEV Infrastructure and Eric Klinkner of Pasadena Water and Power detailed potential impacts to the grid and utility bills.  Following the formal presentations, the audience heard from a panel of local Pasadena residents who have already made the switch to a PEV and aren’t looking back.  All of the workshop presentations are provided below.

Overall, both the workshop and the EV Street Fair made a great end to CCSE’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project tour.  Over 400 people from all over California made it to these events, and we look forward to reaching out to even more Californians on next year’s tour.  To find out more about the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project application process and requirements as well as a wealth of information about electric vehicles, visit www.energycenter.org/cvrp