I asked Andriko how many cars he had for the event, he said," Scott Cornell's Karmen Ghia, and Ed Thorpe's Honda EV+." So I said I would haul the EAA Silicon Valley Chapter's Aurenthetic electric mini-bike up, feeling that the EAA had to do better than that!

Well, I got there and I couldn't believe what I saw. As I recall there were pure electric cars: one Honda EV+, one Saturn EV1, two Ford Rangers, one Karmen Ghia, there were Neighborhood Electrics: one Kewit, one Reva, one "it",

one Lido , there were gas-electric hybrids: one Honda Insight, two Toyota Priuses, there was one Ford fuel cell vehicle there were a number of EVG Ebikes and of course I had brought the Aurenthetic.

Scott had said they expected 20,000 people to show up, but the weather was excellent and 30,000 was more likely.  Attending from the EAA; Scott Cornell, Ed Thorpe, Andriko Zavadell, myself, plus the representative from "it" Wayne Zawisza, several people from EVG, Curtis, and several other participants (sorry I have no names), stayed from 9 am to 6:30 pm answering questions and talking with each other. I was parked right between the "it", and a solar/wind generator. 

I noticed that a Ford Ranger was plugged in to a 220 VAC outlet powered by the solar panel and the storage batteries it was charging. I saw two 110 VAC outlets not being used, so I asked Light Energy Systems for permission to use one outlet. They said, "sure". 

I plugged in and got enough of a charge to give more rides to children. For children who are too young to ride electric bikes or scooters, I find the Aurenthetic rides to be a great way to make the kids and their parents enjoy the EV experience. This is an aspect that may help form parental attitudes toward EV's. Not only do the kids laugh and smile, but so do the parents! 

The "question of the day" was asked of Wayne Zawisza. The seat backs in the "it" are of a web material, in fact Wayne and I joked all day long about the fact that nearly everybody who looked at the "it", reached in and touched the material . One person asked, "What is the tensile strength of the webbing?!! 

Andriko did a wonderful job getting all of these vehicles for this event. I hadn't planned on staying all day, but this was one of the best events I've participated in. Great job Scott, Ed, and especially to you, Andriko.

More EVent photos:

Links:
Dynasty Motorcar Corporation
Lido

- Terry Wilson, EAA Historian > eaa.historian@n2.com <