National Drive Electric Week

Except for the oppressive heat, my experience was also good and several people seemed interested enough to follow up with trips to their Honda dealers for test drives. Most had no idea that Honda made a plug-in and were impressed by the size and price. Since we were parked at Destin Commons, the foot traffic was pretty constant thoughout the day. We were restricted from test drives due to the parking, which suited me fine. I did encourage people to sit inside and had quite a few who did. You could tell the ones with kids, because they sat in the back seats first.
I'm trying to remember the kinds of questions that most asked, and there were not really that many. I volunteered a lot of information, but I don't think many people who stopped knew what kinds of questions to ask. They were mostly shoppers who did not know much about EVs, which of course was the whole purpose of the event. For that reason, I am really glad that I went and need to thank all of you on this forum for getting the word out. Otherwise I would not have known about it.
 
What a surprise. My Honda dealer just gave me a $100 check because someone I talked to at the Drive Electric Week event in Lexington KY bought a Clarity!
So my PR was not in vain and my dealer was honest about the referral even though they were at the event with 2 Claritys giving test drives.
Will wonders never cease?!
BTW, that’s just the 4th one sold here since I bought the first one in Feb.
 
I had two prospective buyers who were “sold” by my showing and explaining my Clarity. I half-jokingly thought I should get a commission for the next Clarity sale. Nice of the dealer to reward your efforts!


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On Thursday I went to my local dealer for the A1 service and didn’t see any Claritys on the lot. I inquired with a salesman and he told me they’d had to two sitting for nearly six months that were sold about 2-3 weeks ago, and that they had orders for five more coming in. I’d like to think my Clarity evangelizing at the recent National EV Week event may have had something to do with the spurt in interest!
 
I'm already signed up to show off my Clarity PHEV in Ann Arbor. I expect that like last year, it will be all but invisible as people walk by to see the long line of Teslas or the Jaguar I-Pace. I've been working on a T-shirt to identify and promote the best plug-in hybrid you can buy:

upload_2019-7-31_22-19-5.webp
 
MPower said:
I signed up for Montpelier. At the time I signed up, I was the only Clarity. https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=1919
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I might do that too. Might help to print up a fact sheet to put in the window, just some basic info like it's a plug-in hybrid and listing the electric range and combined range. That might help people grasp more quickly what the car is. Unless they already give you a sheet to place in the window. Also having both the fuel door and charging doors open should help arouse some curiosity, especially for people who are otherwise wondering why this (semi) ordinary looking Honda is parked next to the Teslas.
 
2002 said:
I might do that too. Might help to print up a fact sheet to put in the window, just some basic info like it's a plug-in hybrid and listing the electric range and combined range. That might help people grasp more quickly what the car is. Unless they already give you a sheet to place in the window. Also having both the fuel door and charging doors open should help arouse some curiosity, especially for people who are otherwise wondering why this (semi) ordinary looking Honda is parked next to the Teslas.
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Here's the Clarity HV Mode chart I made to explain the car at last year's event. A year later, there are still two unverified parts of this chart. Does the Clarity PHEV's specified 212 hp happen in Engine Drive mode and is the starter motor/generator fighting the rotation of the ICE when the ICE starts up in response to regen braking with a fully charged battery?
 
I'm signed up to show my Honda Clarity at the Berkeley event. Now if I could just find my Birkenstocks...

Owners of These Vehicles Have Registered To Attend
Vehicle Registered
Chevrolet Bolt 6
Tesla Model 3 3
Tesla Model S 3
Chevrolet Volt 2
Fiat 500e 2
Nissan Leaf (2011-2017) 2
Nissan Leaf (2018+) 2
Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid 1
Hyundai KONA Electric 1
Kia Niro Electric 1
Toyota RAV4 EV (2012 and later) 1

11 Models 24 cars
Registered attendees report 482,384 electric miles driven.
 
I'm overjoyed after just discovering that this year I won't have the only Clarity at the Ann Arbor event on September 22nd! We'll have a Clarity "row" and I'll try to get there early so it can be near the entrance.

Vehicle Registered
Tesla Model 3 5
Chevrolet Bolt 2
Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid 2
Tesla Model X 2
Chevrolet Volt 1
Nissan Leaf (2011-2017) 1
6 Models 13
 
insightman said:
I'm already signed up to show off my Clarity PHEV in Ann Arbor. I expect that like last year, it will be all but invisible as people walk by to see the long line of Teslas or the Jaguar I-Pace. I've been working on a T-shirt to identify and promote the best plug-in hybrid you can buy:

View attachment 5651
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How can I get one?! I like it! Should there be anything about it being a PHEV?


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Kailani said:
How can I get one?! I like it! Should there be anything about it being a PHEV?


Sent from my iPad using Inside EVs
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Honda's decision to pull Clarity PHEV distribution away from 98% of the country took the wind out of my sails for that particular T-shirt that was boasting about how the Clarity is the only high-mileage PHEV left now that the Volt's gone. From reports on this forum, Canadian dealers have received confirmation that there will be a 2020 Clarity, but the car seems to be on minimal life-support these days.

I'll see if I can come up with a different Clarity T-shirt that's still boastful, but doesn't include the schadenfreude regarding the threatened Clarity's fallen predecessor.
 
thanks for the reminder, there are two events near me on different dates so I might sign up for both
So far there are no Clarity models in any of the two events I'm interested
 
Kailani said:
How can I get one?! I like it! Should there be anything about it being a PHEV?
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I removed the ghost Chevy Volt and followed your suggestion by adding "Plug-In Hybrid." Then I slightly modified Honda's slogan, "Runs on electric; has gas if you need it." Here are my two designs. Can't decide which one is better. /s

Clarity_T-shirts.jpg
 
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Just registered for the Cambridge MA event. Only five cars registered so far. Have a feeling it will be rather sparsely attended. Mine is the only Clarity so far (and likely the only one period :-) ).
 
RickSE said:
Just registered for the Cambridge MA event. Only five cars registered so far. Have a feeling it will be rather sparsely attended. Mine is the only Clarity so far (and likely the only one period :) ).
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Did you go to last year's Cambridge gathering? There were only a few cars registered before last year's event in Ann Arbor, but more than 50 cars showed up (half of them Model 3s, of course--they came late and left early).
 
Groves Cooke said:
I could not find any event in the St. Louis area. If anyone knows otherwise, please post.
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Not hard to start one, and doesn't have to be big. Find a location (coffee shop?) where you can hang out in the parking lot with other owners. Get it set up and registered by 8/21 and they will send you a banner, yard signs, literature and a "city captain" T-shirt.
You'll find that you are very likely to get people to sign up an attend with no effort on your part (Plug In America, the EAA, and Sierra club have large followings and are event sponsors.
Choose the "Register a new event" option:
https://driveelectricweek.org/volunteer.php

This will be my 6th year, and am putting together a large(ish) event with some potentially pretty cool stuff. Easily 100+ owners will show for at least part of the day. We've averaged over 100 test drives provided by dealers every year, and expect to easily beat that this year. Having the dealers side-by-side and near or experienced volunteers keeps their shenanigans to a minimum. When we first started, we did a fair amount of dealer education - even had to show a couple how to charge so they could get the cars back to the dealership :rolleyes:
 
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