September 9 is World EV Day.
If you are like me, you would be forgiven for not having heard of it! Most of us just want to drive cars, as the simplest, fastest means of getting from one place to another. We don’t necessarily want to spend a whole day just hanging out around expensive technologies.
On the other hand, there is a long tradition of ‘auto shows’, the first of which took place in the US in 1901, not long after petrol cars were invented.
These shows were curated by the emerging car manufacturers to feed the dream of mobility which would take us faster, further, cosier, easier. And, indeed, in the context of its day, petrol cars seemed cleaner, as the common ‘wheels’ then created a lot of horse poo on the streets!
Fast forward a century and our cleaning job has got a lot harder than removing a bit manure from the street. Cleaning up the atmosphere is going to take a lot more effort. Part of that clean-up job will be learning how to move without fossil-fuelled transport.
World EV Day is not just about cars. Nor is it an event confected by industry to sell you a product.
Depending on where you are in the world, there may be a meet-up of EV-owners (there is one in Alice Springs, where you can go along and get informed about EV ownership) or a rally of electric cars (there is at least one in New Zealand, in Christchurch) or a display of all things E-Mobility, from bicycles to aeroplanes, as I am anticipating in my city, Perth in Western Australia.
And if you can’t find anything near you, but want to think more about breaking our petroleum habits, you can go on-line to find out more.
World EV Day is a loosely connected network of events. Its’ founder and key organiser, Green TV, doesn’t really know where or how many physical meetings will take place celebrating E-Mobility this year.
Started in 2020, when COVID was dominating lives, the World EV Day began as a mostly online global movement.
‘The day is a celebration of innovation and development in the e-mobility space and aims to encourage the acceleration of the decarbonisation of the mobility sector’, says Sarah from Green TV.
Last year their campaign received a traditional media reach of 1 billion, across all formats, trended across Twitter with a reach of 312 million.
There may not be an E-Mobility show in your town this Friday, September 9. But if you want to help decarbonise the world, or look into the future of flying without fossil fuel, or are simply in the market for an easy-to-ride bike or your next car, go on-line and check out World EV Day.
Hurry Krishna is Indian by birth, Australian by accident and a slow traveller by choice. She is an occasional travel blogger and has recently joined The Driven’s team of writers. She speaks a number of Asian languages, including English, and hopes to walk, cycle or drive her trusty Kona EV far and wide around the world. Under a different name she is a professor and has written many academic books and papers in her areas of specialist research in Media and Cultural Studies.