EV Expo this weekend - Sat May 15, 2010 in Ottawa ... pics posted

[MetroMPG]

The Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa will be holding an electric vehicle display event, "EV Expo" at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa this coming Saturday.

Directions and map

The event will run on Saturday from 10 AM through 4 PM, rain or shine.

Come and see all kinds of electric vehicles and meet with people who know about and are interested in electric vehicles.

The ForkenSwift will be there!

[MetroMPG]

Interesting tidbit:

Zero Motorcycles has confirmed they will come for EV Expo on Saturday.

I know Transport Canada will also be bringing some of their evaluation vehicles. They always have cool cars in their programs.

[NeilBlanchard]

Darn -- that is tempting... But it is 1 hour farther (each way), making it 15 hours of driving; so I would have to stay overnight on at least 1 night. And I think my passport has expired...

[MetroMPG]

Not knowing exactly what vehicles will be on display, I wouldn't encourage anyone to travel long distance for this show.

Last year's was actually pretty sparse in terms of vehicles on display. Martin came from Montreal (only an hour or so away) and I felt kind of bad!

Other years have been pretty good though.

[tasdrouille]

Well, even if there was not a whole lot of vehicles last year I still found it worthwhile. I got to see the forkenswift up close and a Solectria Force too.

I won't make it this year though. I'll be forming my garage's floor this weekend (the basement extends under the garage floor).

[MetroMPG]

Good luck with the floor, Martin.

I got the ForkenSwift polished & waxed and almost ready for tomorrow.

(You know you're an ecomodder when you have spent several HOURS (cumulative) cleaning up a car's motor compartment, yet you have never cleaned the interior once in 3 years!)

The good news is the weather forecast looks great: 17C and sunny.

[MetroMPG]

Had a really good Expo today!

Steady stream of visitors AND a lot more vehicles than last year. Something like 39 - many being e-bikes, but about 10 were not.




The ForkenSwift won a prize (4th place in voting - viewer's choice... we're slipping!!!) 1st place was a hydrogen fuel cell / electric train set.

Lots of positive comments about the shiny 18 year-old paint. Hey, it's why I put in the elbow grease this week.



The ForkenSwift's "twin" showed up - ElectricFly - having been towed from Toronto (~450 km) behind an aerocap equipped pickup! That's Robert' Weekley's rig - Robert is an EM member. I think the aero cap may have garnered more attention - at least initially.



Transport Canada showed off a Hymotion PHEV evaluation Prius. T.C. has amassed a small evaluation fleet of EV's - including a Tesla Roadster - and we hope to see more of them in the future at EVCO meets.



ZERO Motorcycles had a steady stream of visitors at their "pro" display. If I had the coin, I'd get one. (Don't need one!)



Another company - http://eMileage.ca - attended with an Enginer PHEV Prius.



This is the first of these I've seen in person: a vintage Jet Industries ElectraVan (OEM commercial conversion).



What's up with the headlights in this high quality Jetta conversion??? They look like tail lights!



It's half a Jetta! Converted to electric, then converted into a trailer for ease of towing (backwards) this demonstration EV project to classrooms.



Ottawa's active e-bike community was well represented too, as usual.

My highlight of the day actually had nothing to do with EV's at all: I got to test ride a 100% human powered, fully recumbent, short wheelbase bike with underseat steering. And an aerodynamic tail box. Very odd, initially, but fun and very cool.

My favourite EV of the day may have been a really nicely detailed chromed mild custom chopper/cruiser with a FWD hub motor conversion. I didn't get a pic of it (he left early). If someone else posts one, I'll link it here.

[NeilBlanchard]

Kewl -- thanks Darin!

Did you drive the ForkenSwift to the event?

[RobertSmalls]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

My highlight of the day actually had nothing to do with EV's at all: I got to test ride a 100% human powered, fully recumbent, short wheelbase bike with underseat steering. And an aerodynamic tail box. Very odd, initially, but fun and very cool.

Very fast?

YKYAEI you see a recumbent and your first thought is where the fairings would go if it were yours.

I tried to buy an EV on Craigslist today... a 36V lead-acid lawnmower. No luck, though.

[blownb310]

Very nice. Thanks for posting the pictures Darin.

That recumbent bike ride sounded like fun!