adric22
Well-known member
Just a little story I wanted to convey.
A co-worker of mine is a local cub scout leader and asked me to bring my EV to a meeting and talk to the kids (aged 9 to 11) about EVs. This took place a few days ago on Tuesday evening. We brought our Leaf and our Volt. There were at least 30 kids there, plus several adults. I prepared a powerpoint presentation designed to last about 25 minutes. I had originally planned to have them look at the cars afterwords so they would have a better idea of the differences between the cars. But the parking lot lights were not working and it was starting to get dark, so I told the kids we'd go look at the cars first. I told them we were going to turn the cars on so that they could see the instrumentation, but not to put the cars in gear. Before we left the building one of the kids asked if they could honk the horn, I grudgingly agreed that they could.
We had the cars spaced apart with all of the doors open, the charge ports open, and powered on. The kids filed into the cars and immediately somebody started honking the horn one one car, then the next. The horn honking went on for quite some time and the kids were just having a blast with that. I was talking to one of the scout leaders and I said, "I can't believe I brought two of the most advanced vehicles on the planet out for them to look at, but they are more interested in the horn."
Anyway, after we went inside, I begin to go through my slides. I brought some props with me including some EV battery modules, including some 18650 cells similar to what Tesla uses. I passed those around and the Voltec level 1 EVSE. I tried to engage the kids by asking them questions and letting them guess. For example, I held up one of the 18650 cells and asked them to guess how many were inside an EV. Most of the kids guessed 150 or less. Then one kid guessed 9,999. He was laughing so I think he was joking, but in the end he ended up being the closest guess since Teslas have nearly 7,000 such cells.
I also had a section of my powerpoint slides called "myth / no myth" and I would go over some of the common myths (and some truths) and see if the kids could guess which ones were myths. To my surprise, they got nearly every one right. Many adults I've talked to have done far worse.
Later one one of the scout leaders said he had seriously considered a Volt after seeing one at an auto show, but just couldn't afford one right now.
Now I'm hearing from some of the parents that their kids are saying they want an EV when they are old enough to drive. The parents were somewhat concerned because they didn't think they could afford one. But I told them at least by the time these kids are old enough to drive, there should be plenty of used EVs on the market for much less money.
Another interesting thing is that I didn't really notice the kids having any particular preference over the Volt or Leaf. They seemed to think both were just as cool.
A co-worker of mine is a local cub scout leader and asked me to bring my EV to a meeting and talk to the kids (aged 9 to 11) about EVs. This took place a few days ago on Tuesday evening. We brought our Leaf and our Volt. There were at least 30 kids there, plus several adults. I prepared a powerpoint presentation designed to last about 25 minutes. I had originally planned to have them look at the cars afterwords so they would have a better idea of the differences between the cars. But the parking lot lights were not working and it was starting to get dark, so I told the kids we'd go look at the cars first. I told them we were going to turn the cars on so that they could see the instrumentation, but not to put the cars in gear. Before we left the building one of the kids asked if they could honk the horn, I grudgingly agreed that they could.
We had the cars spaced apart with all of the doors open, the charge ports open, and powered on. The kids filed into the cars and immediately somebody started honking the horn one one car, then the next. The horn honking went on for quite some time and the kids were just having a blast with that. I was talking to one of the scout leaders and I said, "I can't believe I brought two of the most advanced vehicles on the planet out for them to look at, but they are more interested in the horn."
Anyway, after we went inside, I begin to go through my slides. I brought some props with me including some EV battery modules, including some 18650 cells similar to what Tesla uses. I passed those around and the Voltec level 1 EVSE. I tried to engage the kids by asking them questions and letting them guess. For example, I held up one of the 18650 cells and asked them to guess how many were inside an EV. Most of the kids guessed 150 or less. Then one kid guessed 9,999. He was laughing so I think he was joking, but in the end he ended up being the closest guess since Teslas have nearly 7,000 such cells.
I also had a section of my powerpoint slides called "myth / no myth" and I would go over some of the common myths (and some truths) and see if the kids could guess which ones were myths. To my surprise, they got nearly every one right. Many adults I've talked to have done far worse.
Later one one of the scout leaders said he had seriously considered a Volt after seeing one at an auto show, but just couldn't afford one right now.
Now I'm hearing from some of the parents that their kids are saying they want an EV when they are old enough to drive. The parents were somewhat concerned because they didn't think they could afford one. But I told them at least by the time these kids are old enough to drive, there should be plenty of used EVs on the market for much less money.
Another interesting thing is that I didn't really notice the kids having any particular preference over the Volt or Leaf. They seemed to think both were just as cool.
