The Electric Auto 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 EAA 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.
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.
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.