Local EV owners to showcase their vehicles at annual expo

POCATELLO — Owners of electric vehicles plan to present their cars and trucks to the local community this weekend.

These vehicle owners will gather in the parking lot of the Marshall Public Library at 541 West Lewis Street for the Pocatello EV Expo from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. There will be around 16 different electric vehicles parked, and the owners plan to answer questions from attendees and explain what they love about their cars.

“It’s just people, it’s your neighbors, it’s just people down the street who have been driving their electric vehicles for several years and are excited about it and want to tell people. So there’s virtually no sales pitch,” said Linda Engle, secretary of the Portneuf Resource Council Board of Directors.

There will be a wide range of electric vehicles that meet a variety of consumer needs. People will be able to learn more about affordable vehicles, like the Ford Fusion Energi or the Chevrolet Bolt. For those more interested in luxury EVs, there will be at least two kinds of Teslas at the event.

This is the third year that the non-profit has held the expo in conjunction with National Drive Electric Week, and Engle said the event has grown since the first year. This year, the event’s marketing was limited to community calendar updates, but there will be more vehicles at this expo then the event has had before.

“People started coming to us (to register) their vehicles,” Engle said. “We have done virtually no marketing and people are coming to us this time,” Engle said.

While electric vehicles are more popular today then they have been in the past, many people have still not been exposed to them. Engle feels that people understand the appeal of EVs more once they get that exposure.

“They are definitely new, but I think once people drive one and they see how smooth and quiet they are, they sell themselves,” Engle said.

Engle drives a Tesla Model 3 and her husband drives a Kia Sportage Hybrid. She said that owning these vehicles have saved them money and time. They are able to charge their Tesla from home, and it requires limited maintenance.

“There is virtually no maintenance if you have an all electric vehicle, and it’s because there’s no engine, no transmission, spark plugs. There’s no tailpipe or distributor or catalytic converter. There’s none of that stuff that needs maintenance,” Engle explained.

There will also be six speakers at the expo, starting at 11 a.m, including the keynote speaker Jett Hawk from the Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, Nate Roberts, representative of District 28 in the Idaho legislature and a student from Pocatello High School’s Earth Club.

Engle has found that despite the growing popularity of electric vehicles, many people still have questions. She sees this as an opportunity for people to get their questions answered from normal people.

“They’re definitely something new and that’s part of the point of the EV Expo is to introduce people to all the different brands,” Engle said. “You can pretty much find anything from a van to a jeep to a truck to just an around town car,” Engle said.