Cape Codders can test drive more than a dozen electric vehicles at the Hyannis Transportation Center this weekend.
The organizers of the “Recharge Cape Cod EV Test Drive Event” say the goal is to get people behind the wheel of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and help them learn about rebates, charging, and overall costs. The event, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Saturday, will also feature e-bikes.
“You'll get to take a vehicle out for about a 10 to 13 minute ride and really get to feel how that vehicle feels when you're driving it,” said Stephanie Dorman of the organizing group Recharge America, “and ask any questions you want of the dealerships that we have there, the Recharge team that we have there, and the personal EV owners.” A handful of locals who’ve made the switch away from gas powered vehicles will be on site to answer questions.
It’s part of a larger effort to reduce the number of gas-powered cars on the Cape — cars that contribute harmful greenhouse gas emissions that warm and disrupt the world’s climate. The transportation sector on the Cape is producing 55 percent of the region’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Cape Cod Commission.
Organizers — which include the Cape Cod Commission, Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority, and Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative — are trying to avoid a “sales feeling” at the event, Dorman said, but she did make a pitch for cost-savings.
“If you sit down and actually do the price comparison on what you're spending on gas versus what you would spend on charging your vehicle at home overnight during one of the cheaper periods to spend electricity,” Dorman said, “you will find that you're saving money on electric vehicles … in the long run.”
Organizers plan to have about a dozen vehicles on site, including Toyotas, Volvos, a Ford Mach-E, Ford E-Transit, Ford F-150 Lightening, Hyundai Kona Electric, VW ID. 4, Chevy Bolt, and Lucid Air.
