Inaugural EV Parade West

History’s Greenest Parade

Plug In America held history’s greenest parade to celebrate clean cars and a new president. The procession of 78 plug-in vehicles was assembled three days before Barack Obama was inaugurated to let the president, Congress and Detroit know that the technology is ready for prime time and Americans want to take the driver’s seat.

Zan Dubin Scott, ZDS Communications’ president and Plug In America’s communications director, was lead organizer and promoter of the event, which garnered media coverage by The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, Edmunds.com and other outlets.

Some 250 drivers, spectators and supporters attended “Inaugural Parade West, Plug In, America!” Preceded by a press conference featuring California state Sen. Fran Pavley, it was held next to the City of Santa Monica’s 40-kW solar carport equipped with EV chargers.

Our specific message: America needs one million plug-in vehicles by 2012 and 10 million by 2016. All were moved and inspired to see ‘old-time’ RAV4 EVs—one of which had some 160,000 gas-free miles on it—parading beside prototypes from Ford and Mitsubishi, beside four Tesla Roadsters, beside a 50-ton truck and a PHEV school bus. We even had an all-electric Hummer H2. The moral of this story is that plug-ins can meet any need and that their time has come, as so well stated by Edward Kjaer, director of electric transportation for Southern California Edison.

“The country is ready, the market is ready, the people are ready and news flash, the technology is ready,” Kjaer said.

Experience some of the activity through this video of the parade (production by Stefano Paris).

Read more: “Driving On Sunshine: California Leads the Electric Vehicle Revolution”.

Vehicles that attended the parade:

Made to be EV or PHEV:

• 40 Toyota RAV4 EVs
• 4 Tesla Roadsters
• 1 Solectria
• 1 Balqon 50-ton truck
• 1 eBox by AC Propulsion
• 1 PHEV school bus by IC Enova
• 1 PHEV Dodge Sprinter Van
• 3 Zero Motorcycles
• 1 Brammo
• 1 prototype PHEV Ford Escape (in testing at SoCal Edison)
• 1 prototype Mitsubishi iMiEV (in testing at SoCal Edison)
• 2 Phoenix SUTs
• 1 SolarCity SolarTaco (only gas car, affixed with solar panels)
• 2 Vectrix
• 2 Chevy S-10s

Conversions, All EV except where stated:

• 3 PHEV Prii, converted by Plug In Hybrid/Andy Frank, Plug In Conversions Corp and EnergyCS
• 1 Jeep by REVConversion
• 2 Porsche
• 1 VW Jetta by AC Propulsion
• 1 Ford Escort
• 1 Hummer H2
• 1 Miata
• 1 Geo Metro
• 1 Suzuki

Speaker line up from the event:

• Chris Paine, director, “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
• Ed Kjaer, director of electric transportation, SoCal Edison
• Kevin McKeown, Santa Monica City Councilman
• Jordan Howard, youth leader, Green Ambassadors
• Sen. Fran Pavley, California State Senator
• Paul Scott, Plug In America co-founder/vice president

Plug In America is leading the nation’s plug-in vehicle movement. The nonprofit organization works to accelerate the shift to plug-in vehicles powered by clean, affordable, domestic electricity to reduce our nation’s dependence on petroleum and improve the global environment. For more information visit Plug In America.