Drive Electric
Earth Day
April 15, 2023

Mark D Larsen


Neighbor Hood
(Click to enlarge)


For well over a decade I have participated in EV’ents to promote and encourage the transition to electric vehicles in Ivins, St. George, Salt Lake City, Zion National Park, and Las Vegas. This year the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association (LVEVA) again sponsored a Drive Electric Earth Day, and I committed to drive there and join in the activity. Below is the usual photo album of the EV’ent.



NOTE: You can click on the following photos to enlarge them.

This year the LVEVA decided to hold the celebration in the parking lot of Robco Electric, so I set my navigation to take me there.

The energy graph predicted that, from my usual 80% charge, I would arrive with about 75 miles of remaining range.

I arrived a few minutes early, and the organizers were setting up the canopies, tables, and informational booths.

I originally parked in between a Model S and a 1976 Fiat X1/9 that had been converted to electric, and set up my usual V8 spoof as shown in the photo at the top of the page.

Here are the specifications of the converted Fiat. I sure wish there were a dedicated conversion shop in Las Vegas, so we could finally convert my wife's BMW Z3 to run on electricity.

One of the Fiat's batteries is under the hood, but covered with a plastic protective shield.

In the trunk is its second battery, also covered with a clear plastic sheet.

The controller is also located in the trunk area. You have to hand it to the owner for tackling this conversion. Wish I had such expertise and skill!

It was great to once again greet Stan Hanel, who has organized these EV'ents in Las Vegas for many years. As you can see, this time I brought Moxie with me.

More EVs started to arrive about the time the EV'ent got started at 10:00 AM.

Before long, the EVs were lined up on both the left side…

…and the right side of the parking lot.

I was pleased to see a Kia EV6 on display…

…as well as its "sibling" Hyundai Ioniq 5…

…with its spacious, practical interior that is my favorite…

…although Tamara prefers the more plush interior of the third "sibling" Genesis GV60.

About a half-hour before the EV'ent would end at noon, I decided to leave and take Moxie to the pet food store where we buy her speciality dog food. I set the navigation to take us there, and it predicted that we'd arrive with only 8% left in the battery.

In reality, we arrived with 11% remaining, and we then drove to a new Supercharger that I'd never visited before only about a mile away.

We arrived there with only a 10% charge remaining.

Unfortunately, the Superchargers were completely packed, with more Teslas lined up and waiting. After 15 minutes it was finally our turn to plug in.

On the bright side, these are v.3 Superchargers that crank out 250 kW, so we were able to charge from 10% to 80% in only 21 minutes.

We then set navigation to take us home, and we pulled into the driveway with 74 miles of range remaining.


I always enjoy getting together with other electric vehicle owners, and even moreso at these most recent EV’ents because of all the new models now hitting the market. I hope to relinquish my Model 3 for one of these newer alternatives before too long, for last year’s breakdown of its battery electronics has caused me to become fed up with Tesla and especially its petulant CEO. I will never go back to driving on fossil fuels, but I also can no longer support toxic, unstable, narcissistic personalities whose attitudes and behavior are driven by greed —no matter the consequences to people and planet.