Join us for a virtual event to celebrate and learn more about electric transportation!

National Drive Electric Week is here! This year it is celebrated from September 26-October 4, 2020. The event has come a long way since its inception in 2011 as “Drive Electric Day” when there were only two electric vehicle models available. 

To celebrate this year’s National Drive Electric Week, SACE is offering virtual opportunities to connect those who want to learn about driving electric vehicles with the resources. See below to find an event that you’d like to join. 

National Drive Electric Week Virtual Ride and Drive Opportunities

Virtual Electric Vehicle Ride and Drive in a Chevy Bolt
Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 6 – 7 PM ET

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Electrify the South are partnering with the City of St. Petersburg and Florida Sierra Club to offer you an opportunity to experience a virtual electric vehicle ride and drive as part of the National Drive Electric Week festivities! 

Register

Virtual Electric Vehicle Ride and Drive in a Tesla Model 3
Saturday, October 3, 2020, 12 – 1 PM ET

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Electrify the South, the Blue Ridge EV Club, and Mothers and Others for Clean Air are offering you an opportunity to experience a virtual electric vehicle ride and drive as part of the National Drive Electric Week festivities!

Register

Please join us for one of these events and invite a friend who might not know about all the benefits EVs offer. If you can’t make the posted times, the events will be recorded for later viewing. Additionally, we invite you to sign up here to receive our monthly newsletter, “Charging Forward” for information about electric vehicle actions and events you can get involved in.

We’ve Come a Long Way

To see an illustration of how U.S. electric vehicles sales by model grew from 2012 through 2019, check out this fun animated graphic. As recently as 2015, there were 450,000 EVs sold worldwide – by 2019 there were over 2 million! 

Today, the market is exploding with over 50 models available in the US. 500 different EV models are expected by 2022, including many models of trucks. With more variety and lower-priced models to choose from, many consumers will move from EV-curious to EV-ready, and auto manufacturers are getting on board with massive capital commitments to transition us to an all-electric future.

Trending Electric

Economies of scale are tipping the automobile market toward electrification: as it becomes more profitable to make and sell EVs, more manufacturers are doing so. The cost to produce the batteries has dropped 87% from 2010-2019 and battery chemistry and density are improving. More companies are committing to electrifying their fleets and more governments are leading with zero-emission policies. All of these factors are pushing the cost of EVs down closer to the cost of a traditional vehicle and making buying an EV – which already has a lower total cost to own – the best value proposition for mainstream American consumers. By 2025 10% of the global fleet is expected to be electrified and nearly 60% by 2040.

And here’s the critical piece of electrifying transportation with regards to climate change: as the electricity grid becomes cleaner with renewable energy it will result in reduced transportation-generated CO2 emissions by 2.57Gt a year by 2040. Furthermore, adding all of those EVs to our roads would only increase the overall electricity demand by 5.2%.

Keeping Our Foot on the Accelerator

Despite the setbacks with the worldwide pandemic, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is projecting EVs to reach a record share of the overall car market this year. Here at SACE, we are working to ensure this becomes a reality, so during this unusual year, we are continuing to push for policies that will accelerate EV adoption.