Having fun and fighting climate change

How Bad-ass is your Electric Ride?

At eMERGE we are working hard to “normalize” EV use in a way that engages a broader part of our community. We need to be speaking to much more than the environmentally committed – like you. We also want to find ways that make people laugh but take us seriously. Climate change is serious business, but we need to find joy along the way.

We’ve had many wonderful comments about our “Bad-ass (electric) ride” campaign – for the EV Show. So much so that we’re listing it for you here.

 If I can’t laugh,

I don’t want to be part 

of your revolution

(sorry Emma Goldman)  

Let the bad-assery begin…..

Grandmother and gardener extraordinaire, Karen (and her usually non-bad-ass husband Dan) have a remarkably bad-ass cat. They not only trained their cat to do her business on the toilet, she also flushes when she’s finished. We’re still trying to wrap our heads around a cat that uses a toilet and flushes when she’s done. If that’s not bad assed, we don’t know what is. Oh ya, she (and Dan) happen to drive a Nissan Leaf. Note Karen’s stylish driving and gardening gloves paired tastefully with her plastic low cut ‘cow adorned’ boots. She tops it all off with lovingly well worn jeans and a hot pink sweat-shirt. The fashion capitals of Milan, Paris and London are going to take a back seat to Karen and her bad-ass electric ride (and cat).

Bad-ass electric rides are about more than just cars. Celebi decided to build his own electric replica of a 1919 Indian Motorcycle. The 100 year old original gas motorcycle had a 5 horsepower gas engine.It’s younger-by-a century replica also sports a 5 horsepower electric motor. Celebi’s bad-ass 2019 version would leave its 1919 counterpart in the dust, or is that in the shadows? He tops off his home-grown e-bike with a replica vintage (and safety approved) bad ass helmet with eMERGE orange glasses.

When you think of bad-ass, we’re sure you think of landscape architects first, right? Like most of her colleagues in that profession Lisa spends a lot of time amongst the leaves (or is that Leafs). She gets how natural systems are infinitely intertwined with our built environment (cool term eh). And with that in mind she actually chose to buy a ‘pre-loved’ (that’s sales language for a used) EV. When she’s not amongst the trees she and her husband (and the kids; maybe, sometimes, kind of) are systematically energy retrofitting their mid century home (that’s real estate lingo for 1950s-1960s)

Shirley was invited to be an eMERGE EV Ambassador last June. Initially she was concerned that she might not know enough about her Model 3 or EVs. In fact she sheepishly admitted that she didn’t know the difference between a kW and kWh. Given that she is a “recovering” gas car driver, we asked if she knows the difference between horsepower and pound feet of torque. We bet you don’t know either (ok some of you geeks out there might but you know what we’re getting at eh).  By the end of the June EV Show she said “I had no idea that I was an EV expert”.  For our photo shoot, she planned to wear a jean jacket to be ‘bad-ass’. We reminded her that bad-assery is a state of mind. While fashion can help, this is all about attitude. It would appear that she had the attitude all along and probably didn’t need the jean jacket as a crutch after all.

This is Tom. Mild mannered business man by day and bad-ass ‘vintage VW electrification conversion guru’ when his family lets him. Along with Dan, his friend and mechanic extraordinaire, they dropped a salvaged Tesla 400 horsepower electric motor into a 1974 VW Thing. Ya you heard that right. They said bye-bye to a 36 horsepower VW gas guzzling engine and then modified the Tesla motor to run with a Chevy Volt battery pack. We understand that his friend, Dan, has a super secret electrification project up his sleeve too. Rumour has it that Tom scared the beejeepers out of eMERGE’s own Evan Ferrari when he took him for a ‘spin’ in the country. “Damn my heart was racing” Ferrari was overheard saying. (What? … a 1974 VW was too fast for a Ferrari?)  Take a close look at the hood ornament above the VW logo. We think you’ll recognize it.   You’ll also notice that he didn’t have to wear a jean jacket to be bad ass.