Onlookers at last year's Hot Nite in the City watch a Tesla X "dance" to music.
Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Tesla Owners Club of British Columbia
July 24, 2019 - 6:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - The streets of Kamloops will be filled with hot rods, big rigs and electric vehicles next month. Hot Nite in the City is celebrating its 25th year and the car show has adapted to the changing automotive industry.
This will be the third year for the Electric Avenue portion of the event, which includes electric vehicles from Tesla, Nissan, Ford, Chevrolet and more.
City of Kamloops sustainability educator Jaimie Garbutt is helping to organize Electric Avenue. She says the number of vehicles already registered surpasses previous years and she is expecting a full street of environmentally-friendly vehicles.
“The electric vehicle owners are very passionate about their vehicles... it’s really great to talk to their owners and get the ins and outs of what works for them and what they love about their vehicle,” Garbutt says.
She says that the fleet of electric cars will be mostly comprised of various Teslas, such as the Tesla X and the Tesla S, since they partner with the Tesla Owners Club of B.C.
“There's one gentleman that always puts on a show with his Tesla X, that’s a show stopper… it dances to music. The rearview mirrors go in and out to the beat of the music and the lights go to the beat of the music and they alternate and the doors come up, and they come down, and they go up,” Garbutt says. “It’s really, really cool.”
In addition to the electric vehicles, Electric Avenue will have information tents set up by B.C. Hydro, the City of Kamloops, Thompson Rivers Unversity and Pedego, an e-bike company operating in Vernon.
Although it’s only the third year that Hot Nite in the City has featured Electric Avenue, Garbutt says B.C. is ahead of the rest of the nation when it comes to the electric vehicle industry.
“B.C. is a great example for charging stations,” Garbutt says. “The (electric vehicle) infrastructure in B.C. is the best in Canada. Basically, there’s more than 1,000 public and fleet charging stations across the province.”
The City of Kamloops is beginning to add electric vehicles to the fleet of cars for city staff.
"We just purchased four Hyundai Ioniq vehicles and they’re amazing. It’s great to have a vehicle that has zero emissions so there’s not that additional cost to power them and there's less maintenance on the vehicles,” Garbutt says. “It’s a really good move for the city.”
Hot Nite in the City runs from August 9 to 11, with the smells of Kamloops Ribfest wafting in as it runs during the same days. The event will shut down some of the downtown streets, while Ribfest feeds the masses in Riverside Park.
You can check out the schedule and find more information about Hot Nite in the City here.
Click here to find out more about Kamloops Ribfest.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019