Library Event Lets Public See an Array of Electric Cars Up Close

 

“I’ve spoken to tons of owners and once you go electric you really can’t turn back,” said Tesla Advisor Michelle Chang, at the Pasadena Public Library Electric Vehicle Displays at the Central Library branch near City Hall on Saturday.

Tesla, BMW, Prius, Chevy Volt, and even an electric Go-Kart were on display for the public to explore up close.

“We are here to talk about how practical and possible EV lifestyle is,” said Chang. EV lifestyle refers to the Electric Vehicle lifestyle.

“For so long everybody has been used to the idea of gas. Going from completely empty to full, to empty again,” Chang added, “Owning electric cars is a very different lifestyle.”

For students from Caltech, this different lifestyle led to the creation of a Sustainable Vehicle Club. Also on display at the library was their electric Go-Kart.

“The goal is to compete in the Formula SAE Electric Competition in June, 2016,” said Evan Sloan, a Mechanical Engineering Undergrad from the Caltech Sustainable Vehicle Club. “That’s a student college challenge where we have to design, build, and rig our own racecar starting from scratch,” he added.

In regards to the BMW i3, Director of Pasadena Public Libraries, Jan Sanders, said, “I’ve obviously never driven one, but it’s pretty intriguing.”

According to Chang though, Tesla has released their intriguing patents to the public for other companies to make use of them.

“We want the competition so that it’ll push us to innovate more and we’ll be able to quickly accelerate the world to a more sustainable form of transportation,” she said, “That’s the goal here.”