As part of the nationwide Drive Electric Earth Month (DEEM) activities celebrating Earth Day, EV owners from central Michigan gathered on Saturday, April 25, in the parking lot of H.H. Dow High School in Midland.
Since the event was only about two hours from home, I decided to attend — especially curious about the dealership participation announced by organizer Frank Malczewski. My past experience has often involved dealers being hesitant to promote electric vehicles, so seeing the Midland dealers joining EV owners was a very pleasant surprise.
Despite the unusually cold weather, the event was lively, with plenty of exhibitors, owners, and visitors. We lined up our cars in the parking lot and began the usual exchange of experiences among EV drivers, along with conversations with dealership representatives. One of the first signals from the dealers was clear: interest in EVs has increased recently, especially since fuel prices have climbed.
Conversations with EV Owners
As everywhere in the EV world, discussions with owners revolved around familiar themes:
- charging habits and preferences
- lower energy and maintenance costs
- issues encountered and how they were solved
- the joy of electric driving
- and, more recently… the joy of not driving
You guessed it — FSD (Full Self-Driving) was a hot topic. Two Tesla owners with newer models were extremely satisfied with FSD. For the owner in the photo — who bought his Model Y in February 2026 — FSD was the main reason to purchase the car before subscription only pricing was introduced. He kindly allowed me to take a picture of his dashboard, showing the miles driven on FSD.
3,753 FSD miles out of a total of 4,285 miles since purchase — that’s 87.6% of all driving done in autonomous mode!
Photo Gallery – Midland
A simple printed description was enough to spark conversations with curious visitors about the VW ID.Buzz.
Subaru Solterra brought by the local dealer.
The Ford dealer brought two versions of the Mach‑E plus a PHEV.
The GM–Chevrolet dealer showed up with a Bolt and a Blazer.
The Chevy Blazer is an impressive presence, but…
… it has no frunk and requires an adapter to charge at Tesla Supercharger.
The new Chevy Bolt comes with a NACS (Tesla) charging port and a very attractive price of around $30,000.
Heavy‑Duty Electrification
Even though it wasn’t part of the EV event, I was glad to see that one of the Earth Day exhibitors brought an electric Isuzu truck — a reminder that electrification is expanding beyond passenger cars.
A Few Lessons Learned
At every EV event attended around the world, I pick up ideas that other organizers can use for EV outreach. In addition to what I observed last fall in Kalamazoo and Hastings, here’s what stood out in Midland:
- First of all, a big THANK YOU to Frank Malczewski, who put together an excellent one‑man show. You don’t need a large organizing committee when the goal is clear and EV owners are willing to help with conversations.
- Hosting the event alongside a larger local activity brings in more foot traffic, even from people who didn’t come specifically for EVs.
- Include a precise map location in the invitation. My GPS took me to the right school but to a different, empty parking lot. After walking around the building, I found the correct area where the EVs were displayed.
- Food and restrooms matter. If the event spans lunchtime, having food trucks (as in this case) and access to restrooms makes a big difference.
Another encouraging sign was the growing number of EVs parked around the area, even if they weren’t part of the DEEM event itself.
Wishing you great success with organizing your own EV outreach events, whatever the occasion. Every effort helps bring accurate information to the public and accelerates the transition to clean mobility.
My lifelong automotive career started with design and testing of ICEs, continued with service and sales, followed by 20 years of global seat design, requirements and knowledge management.
My recent passion for electric vehicles found its home at 24auto.ro and electromobilitate.
