From a stainless-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 if you happen to like Cybertrucks).
For the uninitiated, Electrify Expo is a kind of touring music competition — besides, as an alternative of assorted phases and bands, it units up a variety of 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, they usually had been sort 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 Scorching Import Nights did again within the 90s and early aughts. Nonetheless, nothing ready for the sheer variety of Tesla Cybertruck “tuner automobiles” on show.
All the things 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 couple of extra), there have been one other dozen “plain Jane” Cybertrucks filling up sales space house for dwelling photo voltaic, EV charging tools, and prolonged guarantee firms. Even Tesla had a half-dozen or so Cybertucks 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 had been the best-selling automobiles on this planet.
Individuals 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 had been only a few of the various EV conversions on show within the Electrify Showoff space that invited native EV homeowners to indicate 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 had been that The Reply™️ to the issue of dangerous carbon emissions wasn’t constructing new EVs, however changing all (they usually imply all) the prevailing ICE automobiles into EVs.
Actually.
The OEMs
The actual motive folks flock to Electrify Expo — they usually do, greater than 20,000 folks confirmed as much as the Austin occasion and that was one among eight stops nationally — is to take a look at the most recent 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 — but it surely wasn’t nearly seeing these automobiles. It was about driving them.
See, not like a conventional auto present the place you may stroll round some static automobiles and possibly sit in them, Electrify Expo lets attendees really drive these automobiles. Generally round a race observe like COTA, typically on public roads, and typically on devoted “experiential” tracks purpose-built to showcase the automotive’s distinctive talents.
In the event you’ve ever seen a dirt-focused impediment course with Jeeps working round it at your native auto present, you get the thought. And, whereas the identical form of factor exists at Electrify, I’ve handy it to Ford for taking it to the subsequent stage 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 once they obtained 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 offers you some indication of what the motive 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 type out what occurred later.
And the remainder
While you’re an EV competition, you’re there to see all of it — from e-bikes and electrical scooters all the way in which 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, if you happen to ever get to one among 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; photos by the writer.
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