The EAA North Bay and East Bay chapters held a joint meeting adjacent to the food court at Napa Premium Outlets. Ed Huestis, Transportation Systems Manager for the City of Vacaville, gave a presentation of his electric vehicle program’s accomplishments, including over 70 EV1s leased to city residents. The success of the program has become so widely known that it has lent the name “Voltageville” to the city.
The NBEAA chapter formed the team “Charging Forward with Electrics!” to help raise funds for the American Lung Association’s Blow the Whistle on Asthma Walk. The walk was 2.1 miles through beautiful Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa. The chapter displayed EVs in this event alongside many other teams’ and organizations' display areas.
Digital images courtesy of American Lung Association staff.
Gary Starr, CEO of Zap, and Steve Schneider, President of Voltage Vehicles, gave us a presentation of the planned merger of their two companies. Afterwards, NBEAA'ers tried out various EVs ranging from the Solectria Force, GEM, Th!nk City, to smaller vehicles like the Zap bikes.
Our February meeting was held at Thunderstruck Motors in Santa Rosa on a damp rainy day. The North Bay Chapter held a joint meeting with the East Bay Chapter. This meeting served as a revival of sorts for the North Bay Chapter, which had had only sporadic meetings for the last year or two. We inaugurated Dr. Nick Carter as the new chapter president. Brian Hall showed us some interesting EV machinery that Thunderstruck is developing. And EVers from the two chapters got to talk and learn from each other and to have fun. All in all, it definitely made up for the rainy weather.