Drive Electric Week Melbourne 2014 Recap

National Drive Electric Week – Melbourne, FL 2014 was a great success!

Despite poor weather conditions National Drive Electric Week Melbourne drew around 300 people from the hours of 10-3 to the event on Saturday, Sept 20th at City Hall in downtown Melbourne, FL. The event was organized by our group, the Space Coast EV Drivers with the City of Melbourne partnering with us as our location sponsor. Event sponsors included Melbourne BMW, Schneider Electric, Brevard Solar, SEMAConnect and FPL who were all on site with information for EV owners and future owners. WFIT 89.5 FM was Melbourne’s local National Drive Electric Week Media sponsor.

Exhibitors included our sponsors as well as Blue Life Florida, Central Florida Clean Cities Coalition, Tesla Motors, and Space Coast Progressive Alliance. Donations for the event were received from our sponsors as well as Tesla Motors, Electric Car Insider Magazine, Palm Bay Kayaks (prize donation), Corey’s Bagels (food donation) and 5th Avenue Starbucks in Indialantic (coffee donation).

Mayor Meehan opens National Drive Electric Week Melbourne

Mayor Kathy Meehan opened the event by reading a National Drive Electric Week Proclamation alongside members of the City Council as well as representatives from the City of Melbourne’s Sustainability program.

Over 26 different types of electric vehicles were on display at the event and owners gave a combined number of over 50 test rides or drives during our event. Event attendees were able to drive or ride in privately owned Nissan Leafs, Chevy Volts, Tesla Model S vehicles and a Toyota RAV4EV while the owners of the vehicles shared their personal experience with their vehicle. Even the Mayor got in on the fun and learned more about the all electric Tesla Model S.

Mayor Kathy Meehan Poses with a Tesla Model S

The attendees were able to learn about, price, availability, cost savings and more from the owners of the vehicles. Other EVs such as e-bikes, a Tesla Roadster, BMW i3s , Ford Fusion Energi plug in hybrids and a Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid were also on display at the event. Personally owned Nissan Leafs as well as Chevy Volts dominated the event.

Josh and Brenna, founders of the SCEV Drivers group were on hand all day to give information to attendees and answer any questions.

Both Florida Today and News 13 were on site to cover the event as well as local bloggers.

“The Melbourne event, organized by the Space Coast Electric Vehicle Drivers club, had high-end electric vehicles as well as economy models on display. The yellow Tesla Roadster, BMW i3 and Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid were the most popular vehicles.” – Florida Today