3-day Everything Electric weekend
“Everything Electric Australia” in Sydney Olympic Park is an evolution of last year’s Fully Charged Live Darling Harbour show, continued its focus on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as well as home energy technologies, now on a larger scale. The event, sponsored by companies like Polestar, NRMA, Origin Energy, the NSW Government and many others, featured about 80 exhibitors and aimed to encourage the adoption of cleaner technologies as well address psychological barriers to BEV adoption. Visitors could test-drive a variety of BEVs, including models from Polestar, Audi, Hyundai, BMW, and many others. It’s a unique opportunity for Australians to compare and test-drive different models in one place.
Beyond mainstream automakers, the exhibition showcased BEV conversions of classic vehicles and light commercial vehicles. E-motorcycles were represented by local manufacturers like Savic Motorcycles and Zero Motorcycles, with a notable presence of e-bikes as well.
Charging infrastructure companies, solar race car displays, and electric (induction) cooking were also featured. The event included on-stage presentations (of varying quality) by industry experts, and YouTube personalities, covering various BEV-related topics, along with 50 live sessions discussing subjects like BEV myth-busting and reducing carbon emissions.
I went Friday (only) though had planned to maybe go for two of the three days, but to be honest, the panel disccussions were not that interesting (having a YT channel doesn’t turn you into a battery chemistry scientist). It would be better to have two people on your panel discussion who actually know what they are talking about, than having another two present who waffle about and suck up all oxygen in the room.
I had seen most of the cars before. Except the electric Lotus (a Volvo cousin), and electric Polaris.
I test drove a BMW i4, just to compare against my Volvo, and that interior is just not for me. Also way too many buttons. Like, a P button and a P lever? A stop/start button? And then those screen graphics. Meh.
What I did love was Peugeot’s e-3008 instrument cluster layered graphics, that looked really neat and modern and not like a 90s video game on the BMW.
Check out the full Flickr album .
