Electrify Expo is a different kind of an event
It’s a fun, open-air festival with food, music, crowds and attractions. It’s a tradeshow with booths, exhibits, stands, banners, companies, products, and attendees. It has vehicles, but it’s not your grandfather’s car show. There is no standing behind ropes cowered by “Do Not Touch” signs here. This steroid-infused, Auto Show 2.0 rockets drivers to different dimensions with the opportunity to feel the hands-on, behind-the-wheel, G-forced-back-in-your-seat instant acceleration of electric vehicles (EVs). Last year, on closed courses, attendees experienced 25,000 test drives of EVs, and over 100,000 e-bike demo rides.
The Electrify Expo covers over a million square feet (a larger space than most convention centers) and showcases EVs of all types: hybrids, plug-in hybrid EVs, and fully electric cars, trucks, and RVs. There are e-bikes, e-motorcycles, e-karts, e-skateboards, e-scooters, e-boats, e-surfboards, and e-watercraft. Some of the auto brands displayed include Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford, General Motors, GMC, Jeep, Kia, Lexus, Lucid, Polestar, Porsche, Rivian, Tesla, and Volvo. Other companies include tire companies, makers of charging stations, solar companies, insurance, and recreational companies. Demo courses, test drives, thrill zones, and simulated racing are available for everyone. Additionally, even though it’s an outdoor event, no gas generators are used. Instead, nearly all of the Expo is powered with clean renewable energy from portable solar batteries provided by Anker Solix.
Electrify Expo is a cross between South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Consumer Electronic Showcase (CES)
It combines the fun and excitement of an outdoor fair, with the cutting-edge, transformative technology of a major tradeshow. It’s a multi-faceted event, combining education, entertainemnt and engagement. For 2025, the expo is an eight-city tour (up from three cities in 2021). The show launched in Orlando this year in March, then moved to Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, and Chicago. The Festival motors into New York’s Nassau Coliseum on October 17-19 and Dallas on November 15-16. The expo creates memorable experiences and fosters commerce. Shoppers and curiosity-seekers can easily test drive and compare different models without sales pressure.
The show is full of surprises
At the LA show earlier this year, Archer Aviation demonstrated a personal electric aircraft. Think this is the stuff of science fiction? Think again: it’s science fact and today’s reality! This eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft) will be used during the 2028 LA Olympics to transport Team USA to various locations around the games. At the upcoming New York and Dallas shows, Destin Cantrell (an X Games gold medalist), and his team, will perform jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, mind-boggling, free-style Motorcross aerial stunts. But the biggest surprise may be the education the Expo presents: it works to correct the mass misinformation surrounding EVs.
What you may not know
Electric vehicles are quick and quiet. They are more popular outside the United States. Electric car sales worldwide topped 17 million last year. Norway leads all nations in the percentage of EV sales: 88.9 percent of all new car sales in 2024 were electric vehicles (up from 82.45 percent in 2023). Over 50 percent of new car sales in China are EVs, compared to about 20 percent in Europe, and 7.5 percent in the U.S. (All the percents are trending upwards.) Corporations are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in EV technology and manufacturing.
Are electric cars the future?
EVs are not for everyone. They should be a choice, not a mandate. They are a green alternative, and cost less to fuel and to maintain than internal combustion engines. Most people drive fewer than 40 miles a day and most EVs purchased in the US have a range between 250 and 400 miles on a full charge. Texas and Florida are the number two and three states for the highest number of EV registrations in the U.S. Does an electric vehicle work for you?
Check out Electrify Expo when it comes to a town near you. It may just blow your mind.
For Electrify Expo event details, including ticket information, go to electrifyexpo.com or show up at show site.
This story originally appeared as a truncated version in the Q4 2025 issue of Exhibit City News, p. 98. For original layout, visit https://issuu.com/exhibitcitynews/docs/exhibit_city_news_-_oct_nov_dec_2025/98.
