Drive Electric Earth Day goes virtual with an EV livestream tomorrow

In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Plug in America, the Sierra Club, and the Electric Auto Association are hosting a livestream version of their annual Drive Electric Earth Day event tomorrow.  The event will consist of informational speakers, live entertainment, and more. Celebrity guests include race car driver and EV advocate Leilani Münter and the Wall Street Journal‘s automotive columnist Dan Neil.

The livestream will start tomorrow, April 22, Earth Day, at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT on Facebook Live.  A Facebook account is not required to view the stream.

For years now, Plug in America, the Sierra Club, and the Electric Auto Association have hosted an annual electric vehicle advocacy/test drive day called “Drive Electric Week.” This brings out lots of EV fans and advocates for specific EV-related information, and most events offer a chance to drive several electric vehicles in one place.

Last year, they went national with a new event, “Drive Electric Earth Day,” joining up with local Earth Day events to bring EV advocacy to a non-EV crowd.  It went well, with hundreds of events across the US and a few in other countries as well.

Most of the fun of these events is in getting to meet up with EV advocates in your area. EV owners can forge new connections with other drivers and share tips and information they’ve found out. Newbies can engage in one-on-one discussions to get information from actual drivers about how they fit electric cars into their lives. And test drives, of course, are best done physically and in person.

Unfortunately this year’s event had to be canceled in the service of social distancing, so much of that won’t be possible this year.

But we will get informational speakers and entertainment, even if it’s just in the virtual realm. And hey, at least parking will be easy.

Coronavirus lockdowns are also showing us just how clean the air could be if we all drove electric cars — which seems to be convincing some drivers that EVs are worth a look. They’re also showing us that clean air is important in reducing deaths from respiratory disease, making EVs more important today than they’ve ever been.

So tune in tomorrow and see what it’s all about, and maybe learn some new things about electric cars while you’re at it. Tell your friends, as maybe it will be easier to convince them to watch a livestream than to get up and drive across town to a physical event. Besides, a livestream has lower emissions than a car anyway, so maybe this is a good thing.