The Knoxville Electric Vehicle Association (KEVA) is Knoxville’s leading non-profit dedicated to educating the public on the benefits of driving electric. Functioning as a regional chapter of the Electric Vehicle Association since 2010. Our monthly meetings and events are great places to come talk to daily EV drivers and have your questions answered as well as a community for EV enthusiasts. If you have never driven an EV we would love the opportunity to put you in the driver’s seat at any of our meetings or various events.

KEVA monthly meetings are the second Saturday of every month, usually at 11:00 AM at Carl Cowan Park on Northshore Drive.  The meeting location may occasionally change due to weather or other issues.  Information is posted to the KEVA website and KEVA FB group. Bring a chair and join the discussions. 

Partners

The Electric Vehicle Association (EAA) is a network of EV enthusiasts and “North America’s leading nonprofit that accelerates the adoption of electric vehicles by supporting its 100 chapters and thousands of members as they talk neighbor-to-neighbor in their communities about the benefits of driving electric.” The EVA is our parent organization and we are one of two official chapters in Tennessee (along side the Chattanooga chapter). As KEVA – the Knoxville EV Association – we have been around since forming in 2005 and worked since inception to positively impact citizens in the greater Knoxville community to educate them about the benefits of driving electric.

ETCF + state 3 logos

The East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition (ETCleanFuels) is one of roughly 90 U.S. DOE “Clean Cities” Programs across the country and serves the eastern half of Tennessee. ETCleanFuels works in partnership with the other in-state program – the Middle-West TN Clean Fuels Coalition – to serve fleets, partners and other entities with services related to education, outreach and implementation of alternative fuels in vehicles. ETCleanFuels has been working with KEVA for over a decade to plan and hold EV “Ride & Drives” and work on EV outreach throughout the region.

DET logo
  • The Drive Electric TN (DET) initiative was born in 2014 by ETCleanFuels to build out educational work to Tennessee citizens on EVs, and work on the Tennessee Workplace Charging Program. In 2017, TVA made a commitment to massively boost the effort and funded several types of work that involved over 100 different people from across Tennessee and beyond to develop the Tennessee EV Roadmap and other outputs to help us have good data. Since then, three “Working Groups” were started and have developed over 10 task forces or committees to work on specific barrier-removing actions to assist Tennessee in growing the number of EVs in our roads from roughly 10,000 at the start of 2020 to 200,000 by the end of 2028.

Current Upcoming Events

Upcoming EVents

Here’s a quick snapshot of what we have going on in the next few months.

August Monthly Meeting

August 9th, 2025 11am

Hey everyone,
We will be meeting at the UT Research Park this Saturday at 11am. Let’s have a discussion on the different country driving cycles and how to interpret what claimed EV range for either Europe or China might mean here in the US. We are hearing a lot about 500 mile range EVs in China but they are using their own CLTC driving cycle which typically is 35% higher than EPA range, so that would be about 325 miles in the US. We will also be discussing the latest updates to our biggest EV event of the year, Knoxville Drive Electric Festival which is September 27, please sign up now if you haven’t already! The more people we have signed up early the more attention we can get from local officials and regional press, which can help promote the event.
Meeting Agenda
  • Member Introductions, meet new members, anyone get a new EV?
  • Report on Previous Month EVents
    • Spring Cars and Coffee
  • What are driving cycles?
    • How EV range (and MPG) are calculated?
    • The difference between EPA, WLTP, CLTC, and NEDC?
    • Can we convert between them?
  • Asian Festival EV display
    • Sunday August 24th
    • 10:30am-6:30pm
    • 2 vehicles and maybe a bicycle?
  • Knoxville Drive Electric Festival 2025
    • September 27th, 10am-3pm
    • Pellissippi Community College Hardin Valley
    • Largest in the southeast!
    • Ad placed in CityView Magazine, working on more
    • Sign-up now to show your vehicle, we want a lot of EVs! We want to break last year’s record!
    • https://driveelectricmonth.org/event?eventid=4803
  • Reminder EV Tax Credit Expires Sept 30th
  • More EV News
    • China Buick platform, 900 volt, 6C LFP battery, peak charging 650KW!
    • Bill in Congress to require AM radio in vehicles, EV motors interfere with AM radio, that’s why AM isn’t in EVs.
    • 93.5% tariff added to Chinese Graphite, which is heavily used in EV batteries.
    • Ford announces  “Model T moment” August 11th, for “breakthrough” EV and a new platform (rumors are a small electric pickup)

Meeting date and time: Saturday August 9th, 11:00am

Meeting location: Institute for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (IAMM) Building located at 2641 Osprey Vista Way, Knoxville, TN 37920.  Room 147 on the 1st floor.

2025 Knoxville Drive Electric Festival

September 27th, 2025  10am-3pm

Pellissippi State Community College Hardin Valley

The Knoxville Electric Vehicle Association (KEVA) and Drive Electric Tennessee (DET) are working to make the 2024 Knoxville Drive Electric Festival bigger and better.  All activities — vehicles on display, ride and drives, vendors, etc. — will be held on the Pellissippi Community College Hardin Valley (Main) Campus. The 2024 Festival was the largest National Drive Electric Week event in the South East, with well over 100 EVs representing 40 different models. Let’s do it again in 2025! Come see electric cars, trucks, boats, bikes, buses, and motorcycles!

Come experience how fun EVs are to drive in out Test Drive area where we expect 15+ models to be available. This is your best chance of the year to see all the latest EV models in one place and talk to actual owners.

This is a festival, we will have food trucks and live music. We will update when we have the food trucks lined up. The live music stage will be powered by an F-150 Lightning ! We will have some of the best blues players in the area hit the stage. Featuring the School of Rock House Band at 10:00am,  Tangled In Blues at 11:30am and Mighty Blue at 1:00pm!

Powering the music stage is a great example of how EVs can do V2L which stands for vehicle to load. Come learn how the latest EVs trucks can power your entire house for 7 days!! Both Ford and GM offer vehicle to home (V2H) integration for backup power.

We are family friendly with activities for kids and games for adults and kids.

Interested in EVs?

  • Take an EV for a no strings attached test drive
  • Come see our EV showcase with wide verity of models
  • Talk with the owners who drive these cars everyday
  • Learn how easy it is to own and use an EV

Already Own and EV?

  • Please signup to show off your EV in the EV showcase
  • Help us break last years record of EVs in the showcase
  • Hangout and meet other interesting EV drivers and members of the public
  • Please share this event with your friends and family that own EVs are might be interested
  • E-bikes, One Wheels, any all electric transportation is welcome
  • Goodies for those registered in the EV showcase and raffles.
See more details and register here to attend or to show off your EV!

https://driveelectricmonth.org/event?eventid=4803

Our Staple Yearly Big Events

Drive Electric Earth Day (DEED) is a national campaign to share information about electric vehicles throughout the month of April. In addition to being better for the environment, electric vehicles are more fun to drive, more convenient to fuel and less expensive to operate than gasoline vehicles. Attend an online event to experience driving electric!

  • National Drive Electric Week (NDEW) is a nationwide celebration to raise awareness of the many benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more.  Hundreds of events are held each year, with many in-person events offering the opportunity to talk with EV owners, and to ride in or drive a variety of EVs.  NDEW usually takes place in late September, check the website for current dates.  Nationally, NDEW is sponsored by Plug In America, Nissan, and the Electric Auto Association.

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