By Simon Acton – 31st July 2020

In early July 2020 we asked our members for feedback on which events they would like to participate in for the remainder of the year, COVID-19 permitting. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who took the time and effort to participate, this is very much appreciated.

Survey Results

We received 232 responses in total with averaged results indicating preference for the suggested events in the following order:

1. Autumn Meet-Up – Cars & Coffee Style – 72.5%
2. Best EV Photo Competition – 60%
3. Christmas Social – 60%
4. 500km EV Challenge – 57.5%
5. Photo Rally – The 32 Counties Challenge – 55%

We also received 63 suggestions of which 52 actually related to events. Other suggestions and feedback on the survey have been noted.

The 52 events related suggestions can broadly be categorised as follows:

1. Regional Meet-Ups – 19 respondents indicated a preference for more regional based EV meets with a variety of locations and formats suggested.
2. EV Challenge – 15 respondents indicated support for some form of EV Challenge through a variety of different ideas and formats.
3. Charging Explainer – 8 respondents requested some sort of event relating to gaining more information about charging, whether that be home or public chargers, but also drawing in information about complementary home energy solutions such as solar PV and battery storage.
4. Presentations – 6 respondents indicated a preference for more online informational events and presentations, particularly for new owners.
5. Demonstration – 2 respondents suggested some form of public demonstration of EVs to generate publicity, possibly directed as government.
6. Track Days – 2 respondents suggested some sort of track days for trying out EVs, either their own or cars provided by manufacturers.

Analysis & Planning

Firstly, for the purpose of planning and considering the COVID-19 restrictions still in place we have decided not to plan any events before September.

Regarding the ‘32 Counties Photo Rally’ which we have run in every previous year, considering the considerable time it takes to complete this challenge, where we are already at in the year, the waning number of participants over the past two years and feedback from the survey we have taken the decision to rest this event for the time being. We wonder if this event is now less relevant and indeed less of a challenge with many longer range EVs now on the market.  We will however consider it again for 2021 come the next AGM. We will however still run the ‘Best EV Photo’ competition as this involves considerably less effort and we love seeing pictures of your EVs in exciting locations or situations!  A trophy will be awarded to the winner at next year’s AGM.

With a clear appetite for an Autumn Meet-up and so much input from our members about regional events we have decided that we would like to plan an EV meet-up in each of the four provinces in late September or early October. Since we are currently working on a re-branding exercise we would also like to take this opportunity to relaunch IEVOA. As part of this we will therefore be offering some free IEVOA merchandise to members who attend these events.  More information, dates and venues to follow on this.

Regarding an EV Challenge, the 500km Lucan-Cork-Lucan EV Challenge has been well supported over the past two years and there is a clear appetite to run something similar once again.  We must however emphasise that this IS NOT A RACE and there will be strict rules in place to ensure that it is not treated as such.  This year we will run the event in three categories for BEVs based on battery capacity: up to 24kWh, 25-40kWh and 41kWh and above.  We will also allow challengers to participate on the basis of time (elapsed total journey time) or efficiency (total kWs consumed).  Trophies will be awarded at next year’s AGM for the winners in each of the six categories.  More information, dates and venues to follow on this.

We will look into the idea of some sort of Christmas Social event or events later in the Autumn, once we know where things stand with COVID-19.  We would like to do something but only if it is responsible to do so.

If you got this far, many thanks for reading. There were a lot of great suggestions and we will keep these in mind for the future but considering our limited resources and means we have decided to focus on the above for the time being. We will provide more details of all events soon.

Best Regards,

Simon Acton, IEVOA Chair.