Sioux Valley Energy wants people to experience and understand electric cars.
Ben Pierson is the manager of beneficial electrification at Sioux Valley Energy. He wanted to give the community and opportunity to learn more about electric vehicles because most people don’t have an opportunity to get their hands on actual electric cars.
“Yeah, I think it’s really important to experience it for yourself because the driving experience is so different than what you’re used to and you don’t really understand it until you’re in it.”
One easily noticeable difference in the electric vehicles is the sound.
“It’s quieter because obviously you don’t have the humming engine it’s smoother because you don’t have a transmission shifting gears and even the smell goes away because you don’t have fuel.”
For commuters like Mike Wagner an electric car can pay for itself. He owns a Mustang Machi and lives in Brent Lake. He says his wife drives 70 miles to and from work every day.
“Quite frankly we can make the car payment based on the gasoline money that we’re not buying in this car.”
Wagner says people shouldn’t shy away from them just because of the price.
“Right now, they’re a little expensive to buy that’s understandable but again they’re so much cheaper to operate.”
Electric vehicles do not require half as much maintenance as a regular gas-powered car.
“The maintenance is just not there there’s no oil changes you’ll have to get tires at some point but it’s very low maintenance easy to take care of drives like a dream and it’s just a beautiful car we really enjoy it.”
The event had many electric vehicles including cars, bikes and motorcycles for anyone to test drive. South Dakota is currently looking to add more charging stations around the state to adapt to the future of electric cars.