Are You EV Curious?

Mar Vista Eco Car Expo at MV Farmers Market -- April 10, 2016

Are you EV curious? Have you wanted an electric vehicle, but been too swamped to do the research? Come to the Mar Vista Farmers Market on April 10, from 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. and ask eight EV & plug-in hybrid drivers all your burning questions. We’ll have real live owners of the following vehicles: Nissan Leaf, Fiat EV, Ford C-Max Energi, Zero S Electric motorcycle, Chevy Volt, Tesla Model S, Toyota Rav 4 EV, and the newest addition to the EV arsenal, BMW i3.

We’ll also have “car-free living” representatives on hand offering alternative transportation options including Santa Monica’s bike share program, an electric scooter, a bamboo bicycle, demonstrations of several car-free ridesharing apps, and a hover board.

Want a preview? See each presenter listed on the side bar to the right - click on each link to read about the presenter.

Join us for the fun right in the middle of the Farmers Market, at the Grand View / Pacific intersection. Look for the Green Tent and the MVCC tent and a bunch of really happy EV drivers. 

Bike Share

You've seen the bright green bikes pop up throughout Santa Monica. But how does it work? What does it mean to us? Will we get them in LA?

CycleHop is joining us at the Expo to answer all of our questions! They operate Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and WeHo's bike share programs.

Just think about it - with the Metro opening the line to Santa Monica in May, bike share means you can spend time in Santa Monica car free! Let's have some discussion about these bikes becoming regional and integrating between these systems and serving Los Angeles neighborhoods like ours with their flexible technology.

Toyota Mirai

Mar Vistan  Julia Greenberg works at Toyota and has had the chance to spend a lot of time driving the Mirai. She's excited about sharing the new technology at the Expo.

The Mirai runs on a fuel cell, which uses hydrogen stored in a carbon fiber tank to produce electricity to drive the motor. The car uses oxygen from the air--scooped up through the extra large front vents--and combines it with hydrogen from the tanks to create water, generating clean electricity in the process. It’s a clean, efficient, powerful drive--and the only tailpipe emission is pure water.

The most interesting thing about the Mirai, to me, is that I don’t have to think about driving any differently. On a full tank, I still get just about 300 miles. Filling the tank works exactly the same way as filling a gasoline-powered car--I attach the hose to the filling port, wait five minutes, and I’ve got a full tank. I don’t have to retrofit the electrical system in my home to plug in the car, and I don’t have to worry about how long it takes to charge. I can make the road trip from LA to San Francisco in a single day!

The only obstacle for Mirai owners right now is the number of hydrogen fueling stations. Fortunately, there’s already a lot of hydrogen infrastructure in place--there are a lot of industrial uses for hydrogen, so hydrogen is being shipped around to a lot of major cities already. Retail hydrogen fueling stations are popping up all over Southern California, and the Mirai has a built in mapping app that helps you find the nearest one.

The Mirai is an eco car for people who don’t want to have to change the way they drive. Can’t wait to show it off!

Visit us at the Mar Vista Eco Car Expo on April 10th at the Mar Vista Farmers Market . We'll be on Pacific and Grand View. See the Toyota Mirai, meet the owners and learn more!