JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As a push to educate Northeast Florida on the value of electric vehicles, JEA hosted a ride-and-drive event Saturday afternoon.
The free event at the University of North Florida was created to educate people about electric vehicles while promoting initiatives that improve air quality in Northeast Florida.
Roughly 100 current electric vehicle owners attended the event to share their experiences with the vehicles. Local dealers also joined in on the fun and brought out new electric vehicles to show to interested people wanting to make the switch to electric.
JEA Electrification Manager Dave McKee said the event had an amazing turnout with at least 500 people pre-registering and well over that amount showing up.
“Just a fabulous group of brand-new electric vehicles, and they’re available for ride and drive for people to come in and actually sit in them and check them out,” McKee said.
McKee said one exciting feature of an electric vehicle is that it does not burn fossil fuel.
“If you’re concerned about global warming and fossil fuel emissions and carbon reduction, then you should think about an electric vehicle,” McKee said.
McKee assured people that JEA is well-equipped for an increase in electric vehicles on the streets.
“Jacksonville is in a great position for transferring from fossil fuel power vehicles to electric. We have a very robust distributions grid that can support a lot of vehicles and there are more public charging stations being installed every day,” McKee said.
Mike LaBrie said he’s a new electric vehicle owner and has already made two road trips from South Florida, including today.
“I charge at home. The only time I use the fast-charging networks is when I’m on a road trip, so I’ve done it twice already,” LaBrie said. “The first time was a challenge but now I’m able to use the app and figured it out.”
LaBrie said it’s convenient to be able to charge his car at home and wake up to a full charge.
“I don’t even think about it. It’s much easier than my car I sold last week, my gasoline engine car,” LaBrie said.
Although electric vehicles can have a higher upfront cost, McKee said there are some better pay-offs down the line.
“They’re quickly paid back. You make money on owning them if you keep them for more than two years. So for people that drive a lot and put a lot of mileage on their cars, it makes a lot of sense to convert to an electric vehicle because you have enormous fuel savings,” McKee said.
Attendees were able to get a first-hand experience by test driving and exploring electric vehicles such as Tesla, BMW, Ford and Rivian.
To learn more, visit JEAdriveelectric.com.