The Spacecoast Electric Vehicle Association held their annual Drive Electric Earth Month event at the amazing American Muscle Car Museum on April 20, 2024, in Melbourne, Florida.  The museum is the largest solar-powered automobile facility in the world, which ties in nicely with Earth Day.  It has over 475 incredible and one-of-a-kind vehicles on display worth in the range of 250 million dollars.  The large parking lot, with solar panels in the background, served as the perfect backdrop for the 132 electric vehicles present. 

The event was advertised on radio, newspaper, on-line, and social media.  It reached approximately 65,000 people throughout Brevard and surrounding counties.  We had 432 registered attendees with 683 spectators.  As stated above, there were 132 electric vehicles of all types, including cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and lawn equipment.  We had 87 registered vehicles, comprising of 32 different models with a reported 2,855,593 electric miles driven.  We also had 23 exhibitors displaying everything from solar panels to lawn mowers.

We had 12 automobile dealerships attending with 28 vehicles on display, including Lucid, Rivian, Ford Chevrolet, KIA, Cadillac, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Porsche, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.  Lucid and Rivian offered test drives, and some of the club members also offered test drives.  There were a combined 47 test drives given.  One of the major attractions was a test track, set-up by the museum, which drove customers through a small high-speed autocross course to experience the feeling of the abilities of electric vehicles.  We had 111 people signed up for those rides, and everyone was thrilled afterwards.

A charity car give-a-way was also at the event, which raised money for the Shriners organization. By purchasing a $25.00 ticket, Shriners benefited, and individuals were also able to enter the entire Muscle Car Museum and view the tremendous display of automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, neon signs, and memorabilia.  The event raised over $4,000 for charity.  Everyone that entered the museum was impressed by the facility.

Lastly, the Drive Electric event boosted membership in the Spacecoast Electric Vehicle Association.  We increased our enrollment by 10% and helped teach hundreds about the benefits of electric vehicles.  As far as I have been able to ascertain, this was not only the largest gathering of electric vehicles in Florida, but in the entire country.  It was by far our greatest event so far, and we hope next year will be even larger.