From a chrome steel Tesla Optimus to an electrical DeLorean, new Polestar EVs, and even a tail-sliding journey in a Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally, the final Electrify Expo of the 2024 season had one thing for everybody (particularly in the event you like Cybertrucks).
For the uninitiated, Electrify Expo is a kind of touring music pageant — besides, as a substitute of varied levels and bands, it units up numerous distinctive tracks, road drives, and closed course “experiences” which might be populated not by bands, however by the most recent EVs out of your favourite manufacturers. And this previous weekend, Electrify Expo closed out its 2024 season with a cease at Circuit of the Americas, and so they have been variety sufficient to ask me to test it out.
Right here’s the rundown.
So. Many. Cybertrucks.
Sure, it’s Texas. And sure, it’s an EV expo that highlights customized automobiles in the identical means that Sizzling Import Nights did again within the 90s and early aughts. Nonetheless, nothing ready for the sheer variety of Tesla Cybertruck “tuner automobiles” on show.
Every little thing from polished metal to rainbow wraps to off-roaders was there — one man even had a “digital exhaust” on his that sounded a bit like a anemic leaf blower. Past those proven right here (plus a number of extra), there have been one other dozen “plain Jane” Cybertrucks filling up sales space house for house photo voltaic, EV charging tools, and prolonged guarantee corporations. Even Tesla had a half-dozen or so Cybertucks readily available for demo drives, permitting anybody with a driver’s license to take to the storied F1 circuit behind the wheel of Elon’s boxiest experience.
In case your solely publicity to automobiles was the Electrify Expo, you’d stroll away pondering they have been the best-selling automobiles on the planet.
Folks need Restomods to be a factor
These electrical DeLorean (a couple of) and Subaru Brat initiatives in all probability look acquainted to longtime Electrek readers, however whether or not they do or don’t they have been only a few of the numerous EV conversions on show within the Electrify Showoff space that invited native EV homeowners to point out off their distinctive, electrified rides.
Extra shocking than the presence of so many Restomods at an occasion like this, nevertheless, was how adamant their builders have been that The Reply™️ to the issue of dangerous carbon emissions wasn’t constructing new EVs, however changing all (and so they imply all) the prevailing ICE automobiles into EVs.
Actually.
The OEMs
The actual purpose individuals flock to Electrify Expo — and so they do, greater than 20,000 individuals confirmed as much as the Austin occasion and that was certainly one of eight stops nationally — is to take a look at the newest EVs from the OEMs.
To that finish, Porsche had its newest Macan EV, GMC had each the Hummer EV and Sierra Denali EV, Polestar had the 3 and 4 fashions on show, and Lucid even confirmed off an early manufacturing Gravity mannequin. A Rivian R2, new Lexus PHEV, and a stainless steel-skinned model of Optimus rounded out my favorites there — however it wasn’t nearly seeing these automobiles. It was about driving them.
See, in contrast to a standard auto present the place you’ll be able to stroll round some static automobiles and perhaps sit in them, Electrify Expo lets attendees really drive these automobiles. Generally round a race monitor like COTA, generally on public roads, and generally on devoted “experiential” tracks purpose-built to showcase the automotive’s distinctive skills.
Should you’ve ever seen a dirt-focused impediment course with Jeeps working round it at your native auto present, you get the concept. And, whereas the identical sort of factor exists at Electrify, I’ve at hand it to Ford for taking it to the subsequent degree with a brand new Mustang Mach-E Rally pushed by skilled driver on a closed, 90-second -ish rally course simply off the primary car parking zone.
Ford set the tone
The very first thing most attendees noticed after they acquired to the occasion was an eerily quiet, high-speed show of lurid, tail-wagging slides courtesy of the brand new Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally. By 9AM on the second day, a full hour earlier than opening time, there was already a line forming to expertise the Mach-E. Such was the ability of the word-of-mouth and social media affect surrounding this occasion.
Having some rally expertise, I wasn’t fairly certain what to anticipate — however the quiet was surreal. In an ICE automotive doing stuff like this, the sound of the engine provides you some indication of what the driving force is doing. In an EV? Within the Mustang? You don’t have any thought. All you are able to do is strap in and really feel the gs, then let your mind kind out what occurred later.
And the remaining
While you’re an EV pageant, you’re there to see all of it — from e-bikes and electrical scooters all the best way as much as one-off SEMA specials like Neil Tjin’s Mustang Mach-E, ultrafast Formila E racecars, a pack of BMW CE02 electrical bikes, a brand new Sur-Ron fashion e-bike from GoTrax, and even a Pickman micro truck.
Truthfully, in the event you ever get to certainly one of these, belief me — plan on spending the entire day there. In the event that they do it once more in 2025, I do know I’ll.
Unique content material from Electrek; photographs by the creator.
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