These numbers are lower and things were a little slower than in past NDEW events, but this is a new location in a city where we've never staged an EV ride-and-drive event in the past.  Kansas City, KS is a majority-minority community, and we decided to start working with this community specifically to challenge the  idea that EVs are impractical or too expensive.

This was hosted by the Technical School at Kansas City Kansas Community College  (KCKCC) and promoted across the college, but with particular attention to the automotive tech training program, and other skilled trade programs.  Students, staff, administrators and faculty - particularly tech and automotive faculty - made up a good-sized chunk of the crowd.  KCKCC has already hosted a one-off contract EV training program and is planning on expanding EV training into a regular part of the automotive tech curriculum.

In addition, Orange EV, which brought the most unusual truck to the event , is starting an apprenticeship program for KCKCC programs, particularly appropriate since their factory is literally a couple of blocks away.  That unusual truck is featured in the event photo below - a Class 8 36,000-pound all-electric yard truck.  It's an E-Triever, built (very) locally.  They didn't allow test drives, but it did draw plenty of attention.  The second-most unusual volunteer vehicle was a bright blue Fisker Ocean, which also got a lot of attention, and is definitely an EV that you don't see every day.

Please note - the 2500 figure in Item Three includes on-air promotion of the event on KKFI FM on Monday, September 30th on their Eco-Radio program.  KKFI is the community-based  radio station for the Kansas City area, and Eco-Radio has several thousand regular listeners, per KKFI.  Outreach also included social media, handouts, posters and the Kansas City Regional Clean Cities Newsletter. 

A note about vehicle counts - a total of six cars and trucks were brought in by two local dealers (Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightnings, PHEV Escapes), and since one of the dealers didn't register through the NDEW website, some of them do not show up in the online registry of  participants. 

Sincere thanks to NDEW (as always); to KCKCC and their staff/faculty and leadership; to Victory/Olathe Ford and Orange EV for their test and display units; and a special thanks to the Mid-America Electric Automobile Association for their outreach assistance, and their many volunteers.