After spending the last five years of spending festivals across the US educating people about electric cars, the Electrify Expo launches a demo experience where people can bring their EV home over the weekend. The first company to partner with was Tesla, and Electrify Expo CEO BJ Birtwell said more brands will join in the near future.
“It’s an opportunity for Electrify Expo participants to have non-sales experience with electric vehicles to use electric vehicles, run errands and see if this vehicle actually makes sense to them,” Birtwell said in an interview.
When you drive an electric vehicle for the first time, you can often convince people to jump from an internal combustion engine. There is also a strong demand for these types of experience. Late last year, a consumer report found that half of all US consumers were interested in testing EVs.
To impress expo participants (also required driver’s licenses and car insurance), starting with the Los Angeles Festival, which begins June 21st, the new “Electrify Weekender” experience hopes to use the Los Angeles launch as an opportunity to resolve issues ahead of other festivals in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Dallas, Dallas and San Francisco.
For Tesla, the Electrify Weekender program could be a way to reach potential customers who may still be new to the brand or even wary. Perhaps it could provide a boost when the company’s sales are flagged as it has a dilapidated lineup, increased competition, and victim CEO Elon Musk has done it against the company’s image. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment about the program.
Birtwell said the Electrify Weekender program is a natural extension of the kind of EV demos his festival has been offering for years. These demos are short, but often last for 8-10 minutes, but he said they play an important role in converting participants into EV buyers.
“People who buy tickets to come to our festival often cross-shop a bunch of different electric cars and trucks, just as we’re literally coming to our events,” he said. “Then they’re going into all these cars and find out what they want to buy, so that’s why that experience alone can help people who have really low buying funnels experience converting.”
Auto companies have long offered similar expanded test drive programs, but Birtwell said they often leave interested buyers pressured them to buy from local dealers. He hopes that Electrify Expo will act as a kind of intermediary that can slow that pressure, while also attracting consumers who have never signed up for such a test drive in the first place. Ultimately, Birtwell said he expects thousands of people to win an Elterify Expo on offers.
“If we’re pushing for broader EV adoption over half our population, that means we need to appeal to everyone,” he said. That means targeting consumers who are particularly curious and skeptical about EVs.
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