Earth Day 2013

After racing the 914 with the gas-guzzlers on Satuday, I took her to the Earth Day event on Sunday at El Chorro Park in San Luis Obispo.  The previous two years I took the Beetle and told people about the wonders of biodiesel.  Amber from my biodiesel group brought her biodiesel VW down this year, so it was my opportunity to show the 914.  I figured there would be some interest, but I was happily surprised to have a crowd around the car the whole day.

Most people liked the electric conversion, the quality of the restoration or talked about their memories of the 914 back in the day.  The crowd was pretty knowledgeable about electric vehicles, but I did get to dispel some urban legends about electric cars, battery technology, charging time, Tesla, the Leaf and the Volt.  I fact I was parked between a Leaf and a Volt.

Kari from the local Coast Nissan dealership was there, showing folks the features of the Leaf.  She's a great advocate of electric vehicles in general and the Leaf specifically.  Be sure to contact her if you're in the market for an affordable pure-electric vehicle!

Earth Day 2012

I was invited to bring my Biodiesel VW Beetle down to the Earth Day event at El Chorro park in San Luis Obispo.  Next year I'll take the 914 down...

I was part of the Central Coast Clean Cities Coalition (C5) alternative fuel vehicle area.  We had a Nissan Leaf, but by way of FunRide, a green by-the-hour car rental service.

The local Honda dealer brought an Civic Hybrid.  He had planned to bring the Compressed Natural Gas version that they had in stock, but someone bought it a couple of days before the event.

The owner of this car brings it around to every event.  He's chopped it and removed a lot of weight and gets between 60 and 100 mpg.

This Arro Autogas van runs on Propane.

Aaron and his father brought these two factory-built electric Ford pickup trucks.  Ford only made 1500 of them, so they're very rare.  They were reconditioned by a specialty company, bringing the Nickel Metal Hydride battery pack back up to spec.

This is the main C5 booth, handing out literature about alternative fuel vehicles.

And here's the Beetle.  I also had pictures of the 914 so I talked about both of my non-gasoline cars with folks.

It was cloudy in the morning but cleared up and was beautiful and warm.  Of course I was facing the sun and got a little burn on my face, but it was worth it.