National Drive Electric Week
Lihue, HI
Sep 27, 2020

Day:	Sunday, September 27, 2020 NOTE: this event has already happened, find current-year events on the Attend page.
Time:	2pm-5pm
Location:	Hokulei Village Safeway Chargers 4454 Nuhou St Lihue, HI 96766

Contact the event organizers, which took place in 2020.

Event Report

KauaiEV had an awesome EVent! Because of Covid we did not have a regular Ride and Drive EVent like the years before, instead we had a caravan visiting our charging stations. Mission Zero Hawaii donated a 2-day Kia Soul rental, so a potential EV buyer could attend in the Soul and really get to know the car, she was later able to test-drive a Nissan Leaf as well. Another potential EV buyer came as a passenger in a Nissan Leaf, and then switched and rode in one of the Kia Niros. Other than that we sadly had to discourage test rides and drives.

The starting point was at a very popular EV charger location in front of Safeway, and got very high visibility for the 1/2 hour we were at the start. We were able to help EV drivers who had troubles with these chargers before, and successfully charged for a while. 17 EV drivers attended with their vehicle.

Almost all EV drivers dialed into a zoom meeting and we toured Lihue, visiting charging stations on the way and stopped at the Kauai County building to look at and try their 8 new dual chargers. Most of them were turned on, and we demonstrated how to use them, and chatted about chargers, EVs, policy, admired a self-parking Tesla. After 20 minutes we left, visited more chargers.

The next stop was at the Coconut marketplace where we discussed the chargers that were installed there a couple years ago and never turned on. After another 15 minutes we drove to our last stop, the Kealia lookout or Kaiakea point. The public was invited to this part and we showed our EVs in a beautiful island setting. Another EV driver in a Chevy Bolt joined us there, so we had a total of 18 cars, some drivers had to leave shortly after getting

We stayed 45 minutes to show and photograph our cars. Our drone photographer was Eric Burton, who also runs the Kapaa food pantry at The Kauai Store. He is the proud owner of a self-built electric bike and donated his time and expertise flying his drone in the coastal breeze.

Much of the EVent was broadcast live on Facebook, to view please join the KauaiEV Facebook group.

Thank you to all our participants and volunteers, our local sponsors, to the NDEW team, to Plug-In-America, the Sierra Club, the Electric Auto Association, the Nissan Leaf and all the other sponsors!

photo by: Eric Burton - The Kauai Store
We had a total of 18 all electric cars, 14 stayed for the drone photos! We had Kia Niros and Souls, Nissan Leaf 2014-2019, Tesla Model S and Model 3, a Chevy Bolt!

Event Description

For this NDEW we will have an EV caravan again and follow it with a photo session and public Talk Story at 4pm at the Kealia Overlook! Weʻll drive together, visit the charging stations of Lihue and Kapaa and pay attention to social distancing and masks when we get out of the cars. Hopefully weʻll find many working chargers and many photo ops along the way.

Start 2pm in Puhi a the Hokulei Village Safeway EV chargers
Drive to chargers in Lihue and Kapaa, stop for charger demonstration
End at Kealia overlook for group photo and drone video
Public welcome to view cars and talk to owners 4 – 5pm
Face masks and social distancing required at all times outside of vehicles

Weʻll start at the Hokulei Village Safeway Chargers. Please look at the maps at the end of the event description for exact route.

We will end the caravan a bit before 4pm at the Kealia Overlook to take photos of EVs. After that, around 4pm some of us will stay there and the public is invited to join us to talk story, look at the EVs and ask questions.

During the caravan, we have scheduled a dial-in zoom meeting so we can describe the route and information about chargers. After dialing in, put it on your speaker phone and mute yourself so you can hear the information. You should receive the zoom link after registering, if you need it please contact KauaiEV on Facebook or through our website. It is not necessary to dial in if you'd rather not. Many thanks to the Sustainable Energy Hawaii LLC for allowing us to use their zoom account for this meeting.

Please RSVP using the button at the top of this page to receive a zoom link.

Please note there are very interesting Hawaii specific EV webinars scheduled as well, on the NDEW site 9/26 event and our 10/3 EVent.

When you are outside of your car please wear a mask covering your mouth, nose and chin at all times, observe a 6ft distance, and follow all Kauai Covid-19 guidelines and precaution measures. We strongly discourage test rides or drives. Outdoor gatherings on Kauai are limited to 25 people, should there ever be more some of us may have to wait in their cars.

We will meet at the Hokulei Village Safeway Chargers, visit Kukui Grove (Starbucks), Rice Street Shopping Center, have a longer stop for photos at the new Kauai County Chargers, drive by Walmart to the 3 locations at Wilcox, drive through Hanamaulu towards Kapaʻa, stop at the Coconut marketplace, visit the Safeway chargers, and end at Kealia Overlook to take photos of EVs and those who want can stay for the public Talk Story.