Drive Electric Earth Month
Drive Electric Newport
Newport, OR
Apr 30, 2022

Event Report

The Drive Electric Earth Day event in Newport on April 30 opened with coastal cloudy weather but no major rain, resulting in a good turnout.

Financial sponsors for the event were Plug-In America, Normal Now sponsored by Electrify America, and Central Lincoln PUD.  Host/sponsor Atonement Lutheran Church generously provided their parking lot free of charge because they felt showcasing electric vehicles was important.  The event site had visible frontage along busy Highway 101, so hundreds of people passed by and saw the display even if they did not stop in. 

These shows would be nothing without our enthusiastic volunteer participants and their beautiful cars.  We had 21 different makers this year and 35 cars. Knowledgeable owners had driven a grand total of over 1.2 million electric miles!  They fielded questions about their cars and each car there had groups of people around them.  We heard many comments about how much fun the event was.

Our Rivian R1T had to cancel and had been advertised, so understandably there were some disappointed attendees.  All the vehicles got attention, but a favorite was a Jeep PHEV brought by a local owner.  The Polestar 2 came from Portland and the owner also works for Polestar.  The Kia EV-6 was popular with its sleek styling.  A Tesla Model Y showed off its towing capability by bringing the Eugene, Oregon made Arcimoto Deliverator in on a trailer. One 93-year-old owner drove up the coast from Florence to show his car.

Participants commented that seeing the great variety of cars in several different price ranges was helping them decide about their next car being electric.  Several were evaluating the cars for family hauling needs.  The participant demographic ranged across the board, from 20-somethings to the silver-haired.

Drive and rides were represented by two Chevy Bolts, a Honda Clarity PHEV, Tesla Model 3, and Tesla Model Y.  The Model Y was the most popular drive and ride.  A 2022 Ford Escape PHEV from local Power Ford was planned for drive and ride but instead was on display due to limited staff on hand.

A huge shout out goes to city co-captain Chris Chandler for this DEED activity.  She is the premier advocate for EVs on the central coast and devotes unflagging energy to these efforts.  As a veteran city captain or co-captain for several NDEW/DEED events myself, this year was the most exciting ever due to the sheer number of EVs participating. 

Debbie Jimmerson

photo by: Professor William Warnes, Oregon State University and DEED participant Attendees check out in the foreground a Tesla Model X and a Hyundai Kona. Background shows a Tesla Model Y towing the Arcimoto Deliverator prototype on a trailer.

More photos from this event.

Event Description

Registered Attendees

There are currently 90 attendees registered.

Owners of These Vehicles Have Registered To Attend

Registered attendees report 1,217,518 electric miles driven.