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| | | | | ABOUT US
DRIVE Electric Arizona is Arizona's statewide "Drive Electric" program developed as an Arizona non-profit corporation under the DRIVE Electric USA Initiative. With grant funding from the Department of Energy, and in partnership with 27 states across the country, DRIVE Electric Arizona's mission is to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles. Currently, DRIVE Electric Arizona’s three chapters are Valley of the Sun, Three Rivers Tribes, and Route 66 Kingman.
Launched in January 2024, the all-volunteer organization and its partners educate consumers, utilities, utility regulators, and government officials. They engage auto dealers and fleet leaders, in addition to assisting with EV infrastructure planning.
SPREAD THE WORD
Could you please do us a favor? We need your help spreading the word about DRIVE Electric Arizona. We are hoping you will take a moment and forward this newsletter to a friend or colleague who might be interested in our work. Please help us increase our presence.
Forward this link to subscribe (https://www.driveelectricaz.org/subscribe) |
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| | | |  | Visit our website to see WATTS HAPPENING and to RSVP to get involved!
January 10-12, 2025 | Maricopa County Home Show, Arizona State Fair Grounds, Phoenix
January 25, 2025 | Cave Creek Ride & Drive, Desert Foothills Library, Cave Creek
February 15, 2025 | Eastmark & Cadence at Gateway EV Car Show, Mesa
February 21-23, 2025 | Fountain Festival, Fountain Hills
February 22, 2025 | Chandler Innovation Fair, Chandler |
| | EV SPOTLIGHT
Electric Bus Lights Up Holiday Parade! by Shaun Barnette, Board Member, DRIVE Electric Arizona
On Saturday, Dec. 14th, 2024, the Liberty Elementary School District (LESD) 25 Transportation Department entered the City of Buckeye annual “Glow on Monroe” electric light parade. This event was special for two reasons - it was the first time the school district entered the parade, and the entry was a new IC ECE series electric school bus! |
| | Just 5 days before the parade, the RWC Group of Phoenix, Arizona, loaned the electric school bus to LESD to enter into the parade. LESD is awaiting 13 new electric school buses, expected to be delivered by RWC Group in February 2025. The 13 electric buses are being supplemented through an EPA federal grant that helps replace older high polluting school buses. |
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| It took 6 days of work, done between driving routes and maintenance duties, to complete the transformation of the bus into an old west covered wagon parade float. A custom-made steel support system was used to support the giant inflatable horses suspended off the front of the school bus. The two horses and all of the lights were run off of the auxiliary 12-volt power for the bus and 2 portable battery power stations. |
| The electric school bus won the “Deck the Halls” (best use of theme) award! Congratulations and thank you to all the hard work of the LESD transportation dept!
As a school bus driver, member of the Electric Vehicle Association and Drive Electric Arizona, I am excited and proud we were able to prepare and drive a zero emissions electric school bus in the parade, and thank RWC Group for making the loaned bus available to use. |
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| | Photo Credits: Shaun Barnette |
| | EV LIVINGWhy Rooftop Solar, a Backup Battery, and an Electric Vehicle are the Perfect Trio
As homeowners increasingly adopt rooftop solar panels and backup batteries, a growing trend is emerging that highlights the next logical step: owning an electric vehicle (EV). Together, these technologies create a powerful synergy that maximizes sustainability, cost savings, and energy independence. Here's why combining solar, a battery backup, and an EV makes so much sense.
1. Maximizing the Use of Clean Energy
When you have rooftop solar, your panels generate electricity from the sun during daylight hours. Without an EV, any excess energy you don't use immediately may be sent back to the grid, often at a lower compensation rate than what you pay for grid energy. By owning an EV, you can use that surplus energy to charge your vehicle instead, ensuring your clean energy powers your transportation. This not only reduces your carbon footprint but also helps you avoid using fossil fuels.
2. Lowering Transportation Costs
Electric vehicles are significantly more efficient and cost-effective than gasoline-powered cars. When you charge your EV with solar energy, the cost savings multiply. Instead of paying for gasoline, you’re effectively driving on sunlight. For those with a backup battery, you can store solar energy during the day and use it to charge your EV overnight, further optimizing your solar investment. |
| 3. Enhancing Energy Independence
Rooftop solar panels and a backup battery already give you greater control over your energy needs by reducing reliance on the grid. Adding an EV to the mix extends this independence to your transportation. In a grid outage, your battery backup can keep your home powered, and your EV can serve as a secondary power source if it supports bidirectional charging. This setup creates a resilient system where your home and vehicle operate seamlessly, even during emergencies. |
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| 4. Capitalizing on Incentives
Governments and utilities offer incentives to adopt solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicles. Many EV owners also qualify for lower electricity rates during off-peak hours, which pairs well with backup batteries that store energy for later use. The financial benefits of combining these technologies are substantial and continue to grow as policies favor renewable energy adoption. (Click this link to see Arizona incentives: https://qmerit.com/location/arizona/#ev-charger-rebates.) |
| | 5. Preparing for the Future
The shift to renewable energy and electric transportation is accelerating. Owning an EV now ensures you are part of this transformation while making the most of your existing solar and battery setup. As EV technology advances, the integration between vehicles and home energy systems will become even more seamless, offering enhanced features like vehicle-to-home (V2H) energy sharing and smarter energy management. |
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| The Bottom Line
If you already have rooftop solar and a backup battery, adding an EV to your lifestyle isn’t just a smart decision—it’s a strategic one. Together, these technologies create a sustainable loop that minimizes costs, reduces your reliance on fossil fuels, and prepares you for a cleaner, more resilient future. Drive on sunlight, save money, and embrace the future of energy—because the synergy of solar, storage, and electric vehicles is too good to pass up. |
| |  | As we wrap up our first year of DRIVE Electric Arizona, we want to send a heartfelt THANK YOU for all you contribute to our mission of supporting EV adoption through creating awareness, engaging current and future EV owners, and removing barriers to plug-in electric vehicle use. Your participation and enthusiasm are truly appreciated! |
| | DRIVE ELECTRIC ARIZONA CHAPTER UPDATES |
|  |  |  | Location: Serenity EV, Surprise, AZ |
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| NOVEMBER RALLY - MEET UP & DRIVE
(Saturday, November 23, 2024) Vehicle owners, volunteers and guests made their way to our newest sponsor, Serenity EV, in Surprise for our monthly rally, followed by a group drive and lunch at Sip at the Ranch in Goodyear.
Serenity EV owners John and Josh gave us a tour, and even showcased some new diagnostic gadgets, demonstrating new and exciting technologies now available for troubleshooting our computers on wheels. With two lifts in the their shop, and lots of clean workspace, this is a great facility for repair work on virtually any electric vehicle.
Surprisingly, the most popular vehicle was the Fisker Ocean! Count: FIVE of them. Two of them were red, which happen to be the only two such red specimens in all of Arizona.
Not to be outdone, though… also featured was a Mazda MX-30 - only one of two such vehicles in all of Arizona - no matter the color.
Read More…
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| | | DECEMBER RALLY - MEETUP & DRIVE • RIDE & DRIVE EVENTS - SEDONAOn December 15-16, 2024, DRIVE Electric Arizona hosted TWO ride and drive events with the City of Sedona! Both located at Posse Grounds Park in the heart of Sedona, Sunday the 15th was a public event open to everyone. On Monday the 16th, City of Sedona, Flagstaff, Clarkdale, Cottonwood and NAU staff all enjoyed a private event.
Sedona has a goal to convert their entire municipal fleet to electric by 2030. With only a handful of EVs in their current fleet, this unique opportunity provided city employees, fleet drivers, police and fire personnel, university staffers and others the opportunity to sit in and test drive an EV.
To kick off the weekend, DRIVE Electric Arizona hosted a 9-vehicle EV display at the Safeway in West Sedona on Saturday. Armed with flyers, vehicle owners and a wide selection of EVs, excitement was quickly building for what was to come in the following days!
Both Sunday and Monday events featured a stunning variety of vehicles to drive and on display. A special appearance from UPFIT demonstrated how a Tesla Model Y and Tesla Cybertruck can be outfitted for police duty. Sworn officers from multiple area police departments were able to test drive the special vehicles and see firsthand how they could work in a real-world application.
Read More…
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Retirement Communities & EVs, Part 1 by John Morrill, Board Member, DRIVE Electric Arizona
My mother, a resident of a large retirement community, now has an EV and (because of a happy coincidence) she is able to charge easily because her assigned parking spot in their underground garage happens to be next to a support pillar with a plug in it. Like most people in her community, she drives little and can keep her car fueled from a Level 1 charger. And, also happily, utilities are included in the monthly fees in this community. However, she and her car are now sparking the community management to begin to grapple with the whole idea of residents buying EVs and wanting access to charging. At her suggestion, their facilities director reached out to me for straight information and advice. I provided him with thoughts on two main subjects: charging costs and EV fire safety. I thought that this information was also worth sharing with others on this forum. Part 1 is below. Part 2 will be forthcoming in the January 2025 newsletter. |
| Retirement Community EV Charging Many people without an EV have no idea that the costs of the electricity for EV charging at home is generally quite low. In Arizona, very much so. Much lower than gasoline. Each time I replaced a gas car with an EV, my electric bill went up only $25-$30 vs. the $150-$200 I was paying for gas fill-ups each month. This is one of the main reasons why EVs are better. My family drives our cars (a fairly typical) 1000 miles each month. This is a pretty normal amount for most people, but it is much more than retired people who don't commute. Yet, to fuel 1000 miles, the EV charging only added between 5-10% onto my electric bill. It was insignificant compared to my A/C use and our pool pump. Uninformed people imagine EVs "doubling" their electric bill. This just isn't even close to being true. |
| | I'm not sure what commercial rate per Kilowatt hour (kWh) a retirement community pays, but at home, I pay a mere 8 cents per kWh as my SRP night rate for my EVs. However, the average rate in AZ is 16 cents per kWh. So, I will use this for my illustration calculations. |
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| My mother has put a mere 1300 miles on her new EV in 5 months. That means she’s driving about 260 miles a month. I am assuming she is pretty typical for people living in her community driving only a few times a week at most. Her car (and most EVs) goes around 4 miles per kWh in city driving. So, that means she uses (260/4 =) 65 kWh of electricity for her driving. At 16 cents per kWh, she would be consuming a mere ($0.16 x 65) = $10.40 of electricity per month. (At my night rates, she'd pay only $5.20). But the point is that it is nothing like the cost of gas. EV drivers would cost the community just that small an amount per car for a WHOLE MONTH'S driving.
To put that cost into perspective … While she certainly could, my mother never actually cooks meals in her unit. However, there are others who do. As such, even with an EV, I would argue that my mother is consuming less total electricity than residents who turn on their stove and oven every day. The community covers utilities including electricity in their monthly resident fees. There are not separate meters in each unit. Each person uses different amounts in different ways, but the costs are communally spread and factored into a constant monthly fee. |
| All such retirement residences need to accept and confront the idea that more and more residents will want to have access to convenient, low-priced charging available at or near their normal parking spot as time goes on. But what community management should strive to avoid is creating a larger problem trying to meter EV charging than it's worth. Hooking up hundreds of separate meters or installing commercial chargers that bill to credit cards, etc. will create administration costs far in excess of the actual net electricity cost of the power EVs use. As this is your residents’ "home," they are likely to expect the convenience of charging an EV "at their home." |
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| Therefore, I recommend that the community sticks to the policy of including utilities, provide EV owners spots with access to normal outlets, and charge enough in the monthly fees to cover the utility costs. Simply accept that EV usage is just one of many resident power consumption needs - like cooking and climate control. Alternately, if there is a perception of massive unfairness on behalf of ICE drivers (despite the reality being demonstrably untrue), then consider simply imposing a nominal flat fee of $10 or $15 a month for people with EVs to be added onto their monthly fees. That would certainly cover the actual power costs without generating a costly bureaucracy. Installing a bunch of separate meters, card readers, billing apparatus, etc. would force communities to start charging residents $50 a month or more to pay for all that accounting just so residents can get their $10-worth of power. That would make gas cars artificially cheaper. I would beg communities NOT to do that!
Someday, when all (or most) retirement residents have EVs it would surely make obvious sense to treat charging as being included that as part of "utilities." So, don’t make the mistake of imposing a costly transitional solution. Residents with EVs don’t and shouldn’t expect to spend a ton of money just to meter what will only be a small amount of actual power per person. It would be a tragic mistake to artificially and massively increase the costs. |
| | | | CALL TO ACTION!
Support DRIVE Electric AZ
As we work to grow Arizona's EV community, there are many easy ways to support DRIVE Electric Arizona: • please share this newsletter with your peeps • engage on our social media sites • participate in EVents • make a donation |
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| With your help, we are heightening awareness about DRIVE Electric Arizona and our three growing chapters: Valley of the Sun, Three Rivers Tribes, and Route 66 Kingman. |
| | | FORCE FOR GOOD Arizona Impact for Good is a membership organization devoted to uniting nonprofits and philanthropy across the state. DRIVE Electric Arizona is working with AZ Impact for Good to strenghen our all-volunteer efforts to advance our mission to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles throughout Arizona. |
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| |  | | | | | Help us sustain our momentum by tagging us in your posts
and using the following hashtags! |
| #DriveElectricAZ #VOTSEVA
#3RT
#Route66EV
#driveelectric |
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| #electricvehicle
#eva
#deaz
#electrified #zeroemissions |
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| | | Charge On!
John S Martinson and Peter Culin
Co-Founders
DRIVE Electric Arizona
Valley of the Sun Electric Vehicle Association |
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