Ford Ranger Electric Vehicle

Electric Avenue

When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 11
Where: Schoolcraft College, 18600 Haggerty, Livonia
Highlights: 60 EVs, including Chevy Volts, a Tesla, a Nissan Leaf, an Electralite Roadster, a SmartcarED, production scooters, Segways, unique EV conversions, motorcycles, competitive tractor-pull tractors, a Citicar, the classic 1916 Detroit Electric and others. Exhibitors will display EV-related equipment and services; Schoolcraft College will showcase its four new Coulomb Charging Stations.
Admission: Free

Brad Jensen watched as the price at the pump edged over $4 a gallon.

That was it, he thought. Time for a change.

So three years ago, Jensen decided to buy a 1998 Ford Ranger electric vehicle (EV). Today he drives it to his job as an instructor at Macomb Community College from his home in Plymouth.

“When the gas prices go up, there is never an explanation as to why,” Jensen said. “I've never heard an explanation that I believe. Now we're seeing the same thing again.

“It just really bothers me. When the price of milk goes up, you can drink something else, or if the price of cheese goes up, you don't eat it. When gas goes up, you just don't have other possibilities.”

Now, with gas pushing past the $4 a gallon mark once again, area residents may show more than just a passing interest in the third annual Electric Vehicle Show, June 11 at Schoolcraft College.

More than 60 electric vehicles will be displayed. At a Ride and Drive event, organizers say members of the public can take test rides and drives in a variety of EVs on campus. At 11 a.m., state Sen. Glenn Anderson, D-Westland, will lead a “Parade of EVs” around the campus and autocross course, in a made-in-Michigan Chevy Volt.

A panel will answer questions at 1 p.m. about EV technology and infrastructure, EV ownership and driving experience and EV economic and environmental impact.

Twenty EVs will compete in the Solo Autocross at 2:30 p.m. Awards will be presented in a ceremony at 4 p.m. for the Autocross and for EVs in several categories.

LEARN FROM THE DRIVERS

“This event exposes the public to EVs, and not just the vehicles themselves, but the people who drive them,” said Larry Tuttle, president of the Michigan Electric Auto Association, which is presenting the show with Schoolcraft College, which now has four electric chargers on its campus in Livonia, and the Clean Energy Coalition.

Forward with Ford: A Peek at the Future of Everything – Gas 2.0

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There was a lack of posts this week, and it is not without good reason. I was attending the “Forward with Ford” tech conference in Dearborn, Michigan, where Ford gathered “lifestyle bloggers to show us the future of automotive technology.

First off, I want to put it right out in front that Ford paid for my airfare, hotel, and kept me reasonably well-fed throughout the conference, same as they did for the Detroit Auto Show. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary, as the auto industry has been taking care of auto journalists in this manner for decades.

What was out of the ordinary was the lack of automotive journalists at this conference (of the hundred or so people, I met just 3 people I’d qualify as an AJ.) That’s because this conference was dedicated more to the technology in and around cars, rather than the cars themselves. So I’m certainly not talking down about my fellow bloggers, only that it was a different (and much cuter) crowd than I am used so.