Electrify Expo is North America’s largest, traveling EV festival, featuring the world’s top electric brands. It was recently in San Francisco, and is headed to Seattle for the weekend of September 14th, 2024. Learn more about the event in this video.
While most trade shows promise education and networking opportunities, Electrify Expo takes it a step further by combining fun, adventure, and hands-on experiences. North America’s largest electric vehicle (EV) festival kicked off in San Francisco on August 24th and 25th, showcasing top global EV manufacturers and electric brands like BMW, Toyota, Rivian, Ford, and Tesla.
The interactive expo featured a Festival Zone, where visitors could learn from EV brand experts, and an EV Demo District (presented by Hankook Tire), where attendees could test-drive their favorite all-electric vehicle — or e-motorcycle, e-bike, e-scooter, or e-skateboard.
New for 2024, Electrify Expo also presented an Outdoor Rec, exhibiting off-road and overlanding EV-friendly gear, which included off-road tires, travel trailers, and accessories.
The event allowed our EV Engineering & Infrastructure team to enjoy the consumer experience, learn more about the latest EV brands on the market, and check out recent prototypes, including in the RV and semi-truck sectors (read more below).
If you missed the San Francisco event or want another chance to experience top-rated EVs firsthand, Electrify Expo is making its way to Seattle next month at the University of Washington on September 14th and 15th. It’s also stopping by New York and Austin before the year is done. To learn more or register to attend one of these events, click here.
Here’s a small taste of what you can experience…
The most energy-efficient vehicle, ever
Designed and developed in Silicon Valley and manufactured in Arizona, Lucid Air launched in 2021, promising the world’s first 500-mile electric vehicle.
You can test-drive the award-winning Lucid Air, an elegant and dependable long-range electric sedan, at one of Electrify Expo’s events.
The 2025 Lucid Air is rated for up to 512 miles of driving per charge, making range anxiety a thing of the past. The base model, Lucid Pure Air, is considered “the most energy-efficient vehicle available,” offering an EPA-estimated range of 420 miles from an 84-kWh battery pack.
This equates to an impressive five miles of range per kilowatt-hour, marking a significant milestone in the pursuit of sustainable transportation.
“We transitioned from a battery company into one where we’ve built our own vehicles in-house,” shared Andrew Hussey, Director of Press Communications for Lucid Air. The company exhibited at the recent Electrify Expo in San Francisco. “We now offer the business the most power-dense, energy-efficient electric motors.”
Case in point: the Lucid Air Pure requires less electrical energy for any journey taken than any other vehicle on the market today.
“Our focus is engineering first. We’ve heavily researched energy density and, for example, how a battery pack brings in energy, affects the batteries, and then expels energy. Our goal has been smaller battery packs, more power, and more efficiency.”
Reducing battery pack size also means more vehicles can be built from a given quantity of raw materials. And when it’s time to recharge, a smaller pack reduces the demands on public power grids, enabling more miles with less energy.
“The result is that we have the highest range of any of our competitors,” added Hussey. “We’re proud of our accomplishments to date and have no intent of slowing down.”
Lucid Air offers the longest range of any EV currently on the market, according to EPA estimates — thanks, in part, to this battery module.
The first purpose-built all-electric RV
“One in 10 American families own an RV, but the RV industry hasn’t experienced innovation for decades,” said Ben Parker in a recent press release from Lightship, America’s first all-electric recreational vehicle (RV) company.
Parker, the Lightship’s co-founder and CEO, added, “Inefficient, unreliable product designs and a power experience that relies on smelly, noisy gas or propane generators fundamentally hinder the amazing experience of traveling in the outdoors.”
That’s no longer necessary because it’s now possible to reserve Lightship L1, an aerodynamic, battery-powered travel RV. The L1 is considered the first travel trailer with a self-propulsion system that enables near-zero range or mile-per-gallon efficiency loss for the vehicle towing it — making it the ideal companion for an EV to pull on any road trip.
Lightship’s L1 is an all-electric camper that features integrated solar power, with a high-capacity battery and self-propulsion system.
According to the company, this means a 300-mile-range EV used to tow the L1 remains a 300-mile-range EV, and a 25-mpg gas truck remains a 25-mpg gas truck.
“You can almost think of it as an electric vehicle, a smart home, and a home solar residential system that’s all connected,” shared Amanda Winther, head of marketing with Lightship, and who was at Electrify Expo. “It has about two kilowatts of solar on the roof and an 80-kilowatt-hour battery in our long-range configuration.”
The Lightship team — which includes alums from Rivian, Proterra, Lucid, Zoox, and Tesla — is leveraging their expertise in automotive EV design to deliver a battery system that can provide a week of off-grid power without charging.
“It also has an ecosystem of all-electric appliances, with a kitchen and connected features,” added Winther. Lightship L1 was a finalist in the 2023 SXSW Innovation Awards design category.
Tesla’s Semi features a suspended center seat, designed for exceptional visibility. Large side mirrors are complemented by camera displays on side infotainment screens to enhance a driver’s situational awareness. (Image: Tesla)
The future of electric trucking
Tesla wouldn’t share much, but their semi-truck prototype (aptly named “Semi”) was on display at the Electrify Expo, with the promise of “one-day soon” availability. Tesla’s online tagline for the transportation truck of the future: “It’s a beast.”
Semi offers a unique central seating position, which promises drivers better visibility. According to Tesla, the truck will offer advanced motor and brake controls to deliver traction and stability in all conditions and an all-electric architecture that reduces rollover risks.
With less than two kilowatt-hours per mile of energy consumption, Semi can travel up to 500 miles on a single charge, recovering up to 70% of range in 30 minutes using Tesla’s Semi Chargers. You can read more about Semi here.
The peace-of-mind experience
Have you heard of VinFast? This Vietnamese automaker may be new to many, but it made headlines by launching its first electric vehicles in Southeast Asia in 2019 — achieving this milestone in just 21 months. And these are no ordinary EVs.
VinFast is dedicated to offering a modern EV experience that includes in-vehicle content streaming (it just partnered with Sony) and advanced safety features, such as automatic emergency braking and lane departure warning.
“What differentiates us is our standard features that aren’t available in other basic EV models, such as our heads-up display, heated and ventilated seats, and our sunshade,” said Ted Dumpit, Store Manager for VinFast, who attended Electrify Expo. “But what really stands out is our warranty.”
VinFast offers an impressive 10-year, 125,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, providing comprehensive coverage and peace of mind.
“And then our high-voltage EV battery is 10 years, unlimited-miles battery warranty under standard use,” added Dumpit. “The vehicles are quite exceptional, but our challenge has been brand awareness.”
That’s likely to change soon as VinFast is now in multiple countries, including the US and Canada. (Our rideshare post Electrify Expo happened to be a VinFast, which felt like a luxury SUV and drove smoothly and powerfully in both sport and standard modes.)
What’s next for VinFast? the company recently showcased the VF Wild prototype, a mid-sized pickup truck with a unique midgate design that can expand its cargo-hauling capability.
The company’s online motto is “Live more. Worry less.” Along with the warranty, VinFast is holding true to its motto, with access to 95%+ public charging stations nationwide, including Level 2 ac and Level 3 dc fast charging (which provides a 10 to 70% charge in just 31 minutes).
It also offers over-the-air firmware updates and 24-hour, seven-day-a-week roadside assistance. There’s also a VinFast app for flexible maintenance and support, remote charging management, in-app payment, and trip planning.
“Most EVs build a car around a battery,” our rideshare driver said. “VinFast builds vehicles first, and then fits the best battery and motor, so the vehicles are of high quality without any shortcuts in manufacturing. I’m so glad I bought one!”
For an even more adventurous event, check out Electrify Expo’s Electrify Showoff, North America’s largest gathering of customized electric vehicles. Showoff features some of the world’s most personalized and radically customized EVs. Learn more here.
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