AMA EV expo provides education about world of electric vehicles

By Lethbridge Herald on October 10, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Tom Moffatt displayed his Ford Mustang Mach-E 4 X at the AMA EV Expo on Saturday.

Justin Seward
Lethbridge Herald

The Alberta Motor Association hosted the Great EV Adventure and Expo at its Lethbridge location on Saturday.

The Expo allowed attendees to learn about electric vehicles through talking to experts and owners and seeing different types of EVs.

“What we’re finding is Lethbridge is really leading the charge in terms of interest and adoption of electrical vehicles,” said Kristin McVeigh, AMA communications specialist.

“So we’re really just here to provide resources to people, so if they’re interested in learning more about electric vehicles, they can learn more about the vehicles they see here or for the adventure, sort of learning about the infrastructure as well around owning an electric vehicle.”

AMA has found that through member province-wide surveys that people in Lethbridge are not only purchasing EVs but wanting to hear more about them.

“I think there’s a lot of questions that pop up for us (that) people have and so these are really great ways for people to actively be able to seek those out,” said McVeigh.

AMA is finding through another survey that around 34 per cent are consider EVs as their next vehicle.

“They are certainly growing in popularity,” said McVeigh.

“Dealerships are just bringing in more electric vehicles,  there are some used electric vehicle dealership services now and that type of thing. So I think people are just trying to keep up with  that demand as well.”

Common questions that AMA field include what the range is on an EV, how colder weather impacts them and how does infrastructure meet the demand of people looking to buy one.  

Tom Moffatt was an exhibitor with his Ford Mustang Mach-E 4X at the Expo.

“I was interested in an EV that would take me to Calgary in one shot and so once they started to get to that kind of range, that’s what prompted me to make the jump to an all-electric vehicle,” said Moffatt.

Moffatt has found challenge of being with the winter range.

“The winter range can be a bit of challenge if it happens to be like 30 below for two weeks at a time,” he said.

“The heater uses a lot of electric power and that can cut down the range.”

Rudy Reger, owner of Energy Smart Canada, has seven electric vehicles between his business and home.

Reger sees the benefit of EVs through savings.

“We (are) saving probably  80 per cent of our fuel bill,” said Reger.

Reger doesn’t agree with the misconceptions of EVs not working in the winter,  the range not being adequate and there being no charging stations.

“There is no issue in the winter time ever, except you lose a little range,” said Reger.

He provided the example of his work Hummer EV’s range.

“I’m driving 500, 550 in the summer and I go about 400 in the winter but I start,” he said.

He plans to have his fleetof 20  vehicles all electric in the next two to three years.

The day began with the Adventure component where there was a scavenger hunt all over the city and each new puzzle got participants closer to winning $2,700 in prizes.

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