Public to Get Into Drivers Seat at Electric Vehicle Expo
19 May 1998
Public to Get Into Drivers Seat at North America's Largest Electric Vehicle ExpoWeb Site Launched for NAEVI 98 SAN FRANCISCO, May 18 -- Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas, the EV industry association, announced that for the first time the general public will be able to test drive the auto companies' newest electric cars at the industry's annual North American EV & Infrastructure Conference, NAEVI 98, this December in Phoenix, Arizona. "A technological revolution is emerging in the automotive industry," said EVAA executive director Robert T. Hayden. "The car companies are designing and starting to sell high-performance vehicles that use electric motors, and people everywhere are eager to get behind the wheel of these clean, quiet and energy-efficient EVs." The public will be invited to explore the exhibit hall and to put electric vehicles through their paces on downtown streets on the NAEVI 98 Public Day, Saturday, December 5. Some of the companies showing EVs at NAEVI 98 will be Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. All types of electric vehicle technologies will be seen in the displays, including battery-powered EVs, hybrid EVs and fuel cell EVs, ranging in size from scooters to passenger cars and light duty trucks, to electric buses. The main days of the NAEVI 98 industry conference and exhibition, December 3-4, will draw hundreds of representatives from the auto industry, automotive suppliers, electric utilities, and government policy makers from federal, state and local agencies. As the EV industry's primary conference and trade show in North America, NAEVI 98 serves as a magnet for many related activities. Two of them, Edison Electric Institute's EV Fleet Managers Conference and the EV industry's Infrastructure Working Council National Conference, are incorporated in NAEVI 98 as part of the conference program. Just prior to the conference opening, the NAEVI 98 Media Day will provide an opportunity for news media to get the latest stories and interviews with industry leaders on Wednesday, December 2. All events for NAEVI 98 will be at the Phoenix Civic Plaza in the heart of downtown Phoenix. Public admission for the exhibit hall and EV ride-and-drive on December 5 will be $5 (free for children under 12 and senior citizens). To help the news media and the public learn more about the event and to keep up with new developments about it, EVAA has launched a new web site with regular updates about NAEVI 98. To access the new site, visit http://www.evaa.org and click on the NAEVI 98 icon. Located in San Francisco, EVAA is the industry association working to advance the commercialization of electric vehicles powered by batteries, hybrid power systems and fuel cells in the United States, Canada and Latin America. EVAA members are major industry stakeholders, including auto companies and other vehicle manufacturers, electric utilities, EV components suppliers, research institutions and government agencies. EVAA serves as the industry's central information source on electric vehicles.