Going to Philadelphia "Plug-in-Day" Sunday, 9/23?

[montgom626]

Is anyone here planning to go to the Philadelphia "National Plug-in-Day" Sunday, 9/23? I know someone once tried to have a SE PA get together, and this would seem to be a good opportunity. I suspect that attendance may be sparse - I feel like the electric car is at the "Homebrew Computer Club" stage at this point. But it sounds like a good way to test out some of the competition. I plan to get there about noon and see if I can get some test drives. Who knows, maybe I'll give some rides in my Volt?

Details:

Philadelphia, PA - National Plug In Day
Sun, Sep 23, 2012
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM


Philly National Plug-in Day at the Franklin Institute Science Museum
222 North 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

What: National Plug-In Day is a nationwide celebration designed to heighten awareness of plug-in vehicles and highlight the environmental and other benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The second annual event will take the form of simultaneous electric vehicle activities staged in more than 50 cities coast to coast. National Plug-In Day 2012 is being sponsored by Plug In America, the Sierra Club, and the Electric Auto Association.

Schedule:

• Noon-4 pm "Ride and Drive" opportunities for attendees in many of the popular new production electric cars including the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi Miev, Toyota Plug-In Prius, Honda Insight FC, as well as electric motor bikes, scooters, hybrid bicycles, and Segways. Raffles for rides in select limited-edition electric vehicles on display including the Tesla Roadster and the Fisker Karma

• 12:30 pm – Global Warming Science, presented by renowned environmental educator Richard Whiteford,

• 1 pm – Ed Rendell presents on the politics of energy & will sign his new book “A Nation of Wusses: How America’s Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great,”

• 2 pm – City council citation presentation declaring Sept. 23 National Plug In Day in Philly

• 3 pm - “Revenge of the Electric Car” movie screening- a lively and fun documentary about the road we have travelled to get to where we are with electric vehicles today (Aux Theatre)

• Noon-4 pm Demonstrations of residential and business charging solutions by Ecotality.

• Noon-4 pm The Tesla Science Foundation will illustrate hands-on the science behind electric vehicles, including a live Tesla coil and wireless power demonstration. Many other exhibits (Harcourt room)

• Noon-4 pm Information and demonstrations provided by PECO energy, Solar Journey USA, Advanced Solar Industries, Mom's Clean Air Force, Clean Air Council and more!

Outside events are free & indoor events are free with general admission to The Franklin. Advance registration is not required. Seating for indoor presentations and “Revenge of the Electric Car” movie is first come, first serve.

Register to Attend and get a chance to win a free ipad: www.pluginday.org

If only Ben Franklin could see this! See you there.

Event Location

Franklin Institute Science Museum
222 North 20th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103

All of this and not a single word about car pooling to the event????????? Any sense a bit of hypocrisy? Do as I say, not as a I do?

[montgom626]

Thanks to both RoomA_113 & drowan for letting me (and the rest of us) know about this event. I am going.

Parking is kind of a mess in that area. There are some metered spots directly across the street from the main stairs (facing Logan Sq) and and a few pay lots within a couple of blocks. I imagine the metered spots may be taken up by the demo cars, so they may not even be available.

I would like to charge while there, and since I would probably end-up paying to park anyway, I am HOPING to get one of the six ChargePoint slots at the Barnes Institute a couple of blocks away. (More about that in my next post).

If there is a meet-up, count me in!

Mark

Thought about car pooling? Anyone?

[russ]

I could do public transportation, but it would just would seem the same.

[russ]

It's been a rough day! I meant it would just not seem the same. I'm only about 15 miles away. I would not need to charge there and could easily make it home gas free. Public transportation would probably cost me more than electric, but probably less than parking.

[Room_A113]

All of this and not a single word about car pooling to the event????????? Any sense a bit of hypocrisy? Do as I say, not as a I do?

Seriously? I actually thought about it before you wrote this, but Russ is west of Philly, I'm East, and Mark is North. How do you suggest a car-pool that would in any way save any energy? Do you have some car pool methodology that can break the laws of the space and time?

[Room_A113]

I just got a text from Mark. We can park at the Whole Foods lot at 2001 Pennsylvania Ave, near the Barnes Foundation.

[Room_A113]

I had a good time at "Plug-in-Day", but it was unfortunately very disorganized. Too many problems to go into, but it was amazing how the parking spaces across from the Franklin Institute were supposed to be for "Ride and Drive", and there were all sorts of regular ICE's parked there too. Shouldn't someone have blocked off those spaces? And then no one was around to let anyone know if/when/how to ride/drive an EV. Even though Russ was willing to give rides he was told to move his Volt, but ultimately didn't have to. (BTW, nice meeting you Russ and Chris!)

Oh, and there was a truck with solar panels that had no place set it up. But enough negativity, I commend those who tried to set up this event. I'm sure they were all volunteers, and at least they tried.

Ultimately I was able to test drive a Mitsubishi Miev from a dealer and a Leaf from a nice couple, whom I then let drive my Volt. I met Dennis (I don't think he's a GM-Volt member) who showed me the differences between his 2012 and my 2011.

Just about every car was represented: A Fisker Karma, a Tesla Roadster, a Tesla Model S, a Think City, Mitsubishi Mievs, Nissan Leafs, a BMW Active E, and lots of Volts (more than any other model by my recollection).

The Model S owner was nice enough to open it up to everyone. I had a chance to sit in the front and rear seats - a very, very nice car, albeit way out of my price range. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the retracting handles, and electro-mechanical door-opening mechanism. This just seems to me to be something that delays entry into the vehicle, and I can't imagine how this will work when your Model S get's 1/4 of ice on it as happens almost every winter around here.

I took a few cell phone photos. I wish I had taken a photo from across the street when there were 10+ EVs/PHEVs parked in a row.



My Volt in front of a brand new Tesla Model S: VIN #66


Inside the Model S

[TwistnShift]

Not sure if this was associated with the Plug in day in philly but GM had their Volt Trailer nearby at the King of Prussia mall with 8 Volts there all weekend. Very great nice crew of people working hard to fight the myths and bad information surrounding our Volts. Anyone who is from the area know's the mall has 2 level 2 chargers at the top of one of the parking decks that gets used heavily by EVs and PHEVs. When I arrived there were two Volts with Michigan manufacturer plates plugged in. Now I understand that the chargers are fair game and first come first served. However, what is everyone's opinion when it comes to GM promoters, when they have enough power in their trailer to charge multiple Volts at a time, taking up both public charge points. They were nice enough to drive me from the trailer to the spots (on the other side of the mall) and move one of their Volts so I could charge mine and I thank them for that but would they have moved for someone who wasn't a Volt owner?