National Drive Electric Week
EV Expo 2023
Bloomington, MN
Sep 23, 2023

Event Report

The Oak Grove Presbyterian EV Expo took place on Saturday, September 23^rd from 11 am until 1 pm. This is the fifth year of hosting such a successful event. Working with the Minnesota Clean Cities Coalition, we registered 99 people to test-drive EVs, including the Polestar2, Tesla Model Y, Subaru Solterra, Nissan Ariya, BMW ix, Kia Niro & Kia EV6 completing 102 test drives. 

We had 22 EV owners bring their EVs and talk to visitors about their driving experiences as well as Eastern Carver County School District (Chaska) showcasing the Blue Bird electric school bus.  Paula Thompson and Dan Trajano of MN350 talked about the climate, health and learning benefits of transporting our children to school via electric buses rather than smelly old diesel buses, encouraging attendees to send postcards to their local representatives and school districts. Forty postcards were completed!

Jerry's Do It Best Hardware from Valley West demonstrated and invited locals to try out electric lawn tools.  Pdon Pinkton and Daryl Thayer took apart a Tesla motor to show people the "guts" of how EVs work.  Kylie Borchardt led children in building KidWind model wind turbines. 

Rep. Steve Elkins (DFL) District 50B member of the MN Legislative Climate Caucus attended and learned about charging for multi-family dwellings, which he took back to his subcommittee.   

Six non-profits and two government agencies tabled at the event including MN350, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, Interfaith Creation Care, Bush Lake Izaak Walton Chapter, EZ EV Go, and Oak Grove Presbyterian Green Committee, City of Bloomington, and MN Department of Transportation. Minnesota Clean Cities Coalition staff managed the EV test drive part of the event. Over 20 Oak Grove volunteers helped plan, stage, recruited and volunteered day of to make this event so successful. 

photo by: Minnesota Clean Cities Coalition 30 vehicles were available to see and or test drive on September 23 at the Oak Grove EV Expo in Bloomington, MN. EV owner Alan Wernke shares his EV experience with attendees including Scott Randall.

Event Description

Registered Attendees

There are currently 27 attendees registered.

Owners of These Vehicles Have Registered To Attend

Registered attendees report 146,100 electric miles driven.