The school's parking lot is located on a busy intersection of the south side of Chicago and Stefano had to nearly yell to get his voice heard over the constant stream of gas-powered traffic behind him.  "By the time these kids can drive, half of those cars going by will be electric," said Sarah Elizabeth Ippel, the school's Founder and Executive Director.

The school's optimistic attitude toward energy and sustainability is one of the most important lessons taught there, and the crew of Revenge of the Electric Car was happy to spend part of the day giving their students the opportunity to see and touch a real electric car. We hope they weren't too disappointed that it doesn't come in pink.  Yet. Check out more photos from the visit here.

There were lots of folks I knew in attendance, all of them excited that delivery was finally close. There have been delays, something we advocates of plug-ins have grown to expect. But these were happy folks. There was no mistaking it. I got to meet Nathalie Bauters, the communications director for the MINI E program in the U.S., and she assured me the delay was only due to getting final UL approval for the plug they are using for charging. The cars have been waiting in a parking lot in Oxnard for weeks. BMW wants to make sure that all of their customers have an approved and permitted charging station installed in their garage before delivery. 

This is exactly what happened when we got our Toyota RAV EV six years ago. No charger, no car. So, it appears most, if not all of the cars will be delivered in June. These MINIs, combined with the 400-500 Tesla Roadsters that will be on the road by end of June, effectively doubles the number of production highway capable EVs in the U.S.  The Teslas will continue delivering at a rate of 100 per month while the MINI E customers will be the only ones in the country with these cars until the year long test phase is over and BMW cranks up the production of more. 

The difference with how Nissan is approaching the EV is interesting. While BMW is taking a careful look at how its customers will be driving the cars and how they charge them, trying to see if there are any issues to deal with before committing to large numbers of EVs, Nissan is racing to get thousands on the road as fast as possible. They seem very comfortable that their car is going to be bulletproof right out of the gate. I heard today that they expect to have 5,000 Nissan EVs for sale by the end of 2010. It is expected they will expand production quickly to the tens of thousands in 2011. 

We are privileged to have front row seats to observe this quickly evolving transportation technology. When you look back 20 years from now, when virtually every vehicle sold has a plug on it, you'll remember these pioneer companies as being well ahead of the curve. Tesla will be a common brand, with several well received models in all price ranges, and there will be a few proud owners of the original Apteras zipping along the freeways among all manner of new plug-in cars, trucks and even SUVs. The gas burners of today will be mostly gone, replaced with cleaner and quieter cars. The 200 people at tonight's party will soon take their place among the pioneers who helped bring this future about. You could really feel their excitement. My good friend, Jeff U'ren, who came loaded with questions for the BMW folks and came away satisfied with the answers. The one question about whether the lessees can take the $7,500 tax credit is still to be determined. More on that later...

Plug In America's dedicated volunteers worked their magic during the few weeks leading up to this latest EVent to organize a very successful and historic green parade. EV grins were everywhere and the enthusiasm for plug-ins couldn't have been greater. Plug In America's Inaugural EV Parade West rates as one of the best plug-in EVents to date. Click play on the below 38 minute video of Plug In America's Inaugural EV Parade West to watch 26 minutes of rally speeches and experience the parade festivities.  Thanks to Viddler's great contextual timeline tagging feature, you can easily skip to any speaker or portion of the video without delay.