Dozens of residents got behind the wheel of electric vehicles for the first time June 27 at a free ride-and-drive event in Gilroy, the first of its kind held in the city.
Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Breathe California partnered to sponsor the event at Gilroy City Hall from 10:30am-2:30pm, offering test drives in more than half a dozen EV models, including the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Hyundai IONIQ 9, Nissan Leaf, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4 and Chevrolet Bolt.
Vehicles rotated throughout the day, with more than 50 people pre-registered for test drives and additional walk-ins arriving throughout the afternoon.
Raul Hernandez, marketing lead for SVCE, said the event was designed to let residents explore EV options without sales pressure.
“We wanted people to be able to just go and not feel pressured to buy something,” Hernandez said. “It’s more about learning what this technology is and how it works.”
SVCE offers rebates for income-qualified customers and has been looking to expand its outreach into South County, Hernandez said.
The event also drew EV owners and enthusiasts to show off their vehicles and preach the benefits of driving electric.
Mike Trapp, of San Jose, who has driven electric vehicles for more than a decade, brought his 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum—one of the first production models off the line—and said he joined the event as a volunteer EV ambassador.
Trapp said the case for going electric goes beyond environmental benefits, highlighting quiet acceleration as a primary selling point.
“If you’ve ever driven an EV, you don’t want to go back to gas; they’re just too much fun,” he said. “On 17-Mile Drive, just driving along, you can hear the waves crash on the beach, the golfers cursing on the golf course. It was just like if you were riding a bike.”
Trapp, who also drives for Uber and Lyft, said he charges his truck at home overnight and wakes up each morning to a full 300-mile charge for a fraction of the cost of gasoline.
He also saves money on maintenance, noting that he has never had to bring the car in for service in six years of ownership.
“The only thing I have to do on this one is wipers, wiper fluid and the interior air cleaning filter, that’s pretty much it,” he said. “I’m still using the original tires, which is pretty much the only other thing you have to replace.”
One of the more eye-catching vehicles on display was a 1953 Studebaker Champion coupe that George Stuckert of San Jose converted from gas to electric—a five-month project he completed in 2022 at a cost of about $25,000.
Stuckert, a member of an EV enthusiast club since 2006, stripped the car to a rolling chassis, built a custom battery box in the rear where the gas tank once sat, and installed a 320 amp-hour lithium battery pack made by CATL, the Chinese manufacturer that also supplies batteries for the Chevrolet Bolt and Volkswagen ID.4. The car gets about 100 miles of range.
“Back in the day, it was only crazy people like me doing this stuff,” Stuckert said. “Now there are over 20 manufacturers making electric cars.”
Stuckert said battery prices have dropped dramatically since he did his first EV conversion on a 1996 Volkswagen Golf around 2008, when a comparable lithium cell set cost upward of $10,000.
The CATL pack in the Studebaker cost just more than $7,000 for cells with more than triple the capacity.
Beyond the test drives, the June 27 event included popup tables from Breathe California, which highlighted the air quality benefits of reducing tailpipe emissions; and the City of Gilroy, which shared information on local housing and community projects.
Casa de Cultura y Arte, a Gilroy-based nonprofit serving Latino youth through arts programming, was also on hand. Live music, food trucks, face painting and raffle prizes rounded out the afternoon.
Hernandez said SVCE hopes to bring more such events to South County.
“We want to make sure people know what options are available,” he said. “We want to do more of these.”
