Drive Electric MN Hosts Ride and Drive at the MSP Airport

Last week, Drive Electric MN (DEMN) attended a meeting of Minnesota’s Interagency Pollution Prevention Advisory Team (IPPAT) with around 50 representatives from across Minnesota’s state agencies. Facilitated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, IPPAT convenes state agency officials and staff that are interested in or responsible for their agency’s sustainability initiatives. This summer’s meeting was hosted by the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) at the MSP Airport.

MAC gave a great update about their ongoing study to determine the potential for using electric and biofuel vehicles in both their utility and passenger vehicles at the airport. The full results of this analysis should be published this fall. After a full morning of presentations about agency accomplishments and initiatives on sustainability, DEMN gave a quick presentation on the long-term cost benefits of EVs, which generally have a significantly lower total lifetime cost than their fossil fuel powered equivalents. Then, DEMN invited everyone outside to check out and test drive some electric vehicles and see how they might work as a component of their official state agency fleets.

For an electric passenger vehicle experience, participants were able test drive a Nissan Leaf around the airport grounds. For more heavy duty utility tuck applications, e-ride Industries brought out their electric utility vehicles, including the E-ride EXV2 truck powered by a 500 Watt solar panel and battery system on its roof.