How do we get noticed?

I agree.. and to be on-topic this should have been posted in the Advocacy section of the forum .. in any case, yes, you're right.

I listened to a podcast episode yesterday of an interview of a guy who intend(ed/s) to build an electric car company. He noted that in Europe the alternative vehicle advocates want vehicles that stand out and scream "I'M DIFFERENT" to get attention the way you say. The guy said in the U.S. the alternative vehicle advocates seem to want their vehicles to be stealthy, to look like regular instances of vehicles but be alternatively fueled. Like the typical conversion vehicle where you can't tell from the outside it's any different. There's a guy down the street from me who owns an electric pickup truck and other than the 'Electric' chrome thing on the back you can't tell it from any other pickup.

I do think for acceptance people need to learn to recognize the vehicles and see them from time to time. Familiarity breeds acceptance over time, usually.

But at the same time I think a forum like this is helpful for us EV nuts as a place where we can learn from each other and help each other get running.

what about a 45hp DC motor in the front of a model-"T".....
make it a roadster and leave the engine area open...people will see the shiny motor in the place of the gas engine and know right off it has to be electric!

On my e-max, I get noticed all right - but the reaction generally isn't positive.

Firstly, in spite of a big "ELECTRIC" decal on both sides, and it's near silence, few notice that it is electric, the predominant question being "what kind of gas mileage does it get".

Secondly, the general reaction depends on where I am.
When I go into the city, there is a "alternate personal transportation" culture, but it is dominated by either bicycle-anarchist types, or Vespa-snobs. So, I get a sort of polite quiet disregard - most of them thinking it is a cheap-Chinese "moped", or in the case of the anarcho-critical-mass types, only leg-power is "pure" enough. (I suspect they will start to think otherwise when they are in their 50's).

Then I head out into the 'burbs - the "South Hills" - and, from both SUV and sidewalk, it's: Moped-man! ha-ha-ha!, or; Hey buddy - get a real bike!, or simply some 20-something republican bubbas pointing and laughing from behind rolled-up car windows in the next lane, or the funny looks I get from co-workers. Then, the discovery of the egg someone threw at it when it was parked.

Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic here but we do have a lot of public education to do. Our EV's are a bit like my other pastime, hang gliding, when I tell people I've jumped off a 500 ft. hill and flown to 9000 ft. without an engine, they give me the same sort of look. In spite of so many vastly more complex gadgets around us these days, we still seem to be riding or driving things that most people don't even know are technologically possible.

Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic here but we do have a lot of public education to do. Our EV's are a bit like my other pastime, hang gliding, when I tell people I've jumped off a 500 ft. hill and flown to 9000 ft. without an engine, they give me the same sort of look. In spite of so many vastly more complex gadgets around us these days, we still seem to be riding or driving things that most people don't even know are technologically possible.

Good points, but when I see people getting ignorant about the things I love and have more time invested in, I tell them the power curve(more like "torque curve") and how my bikes take off with dragster like G's then they have a bit more interest in the sport/way of life. When I practice for instance(EV pocket bikes) I ride it as hard as the tires can grip the road...I take my turns as fast at pro riders in a good clean parking lot. I draw crowds some times and people always are amazed about the long run times I last in for..

Gas bikes need to cool down after about 15 min of running

How to get noticed? Be loud. Be noticeable. Never pass by an opportunity for attention. In the last three years I've had two articles about me in the local paper and a letter read on NPR. It's not all that difficult. I got in the paper by calling them and asking to be interviewed. Opportunities come along all the time it's just a question of seizing them, and occasionally making them. A little arrogance probably doesn't hurt either.

Getting noticed in public is even easier. I ride a Bionx with a big black and white sticker on the battery pack that says "This bike means one less car on the road." People notice that. Sometimes it's my fluorescent orange jacket they see first, but whatever works. I used to stash my helmet and gloves in the panniers when shopping. How silly is that? Now I always take them into the store. Inevitably it leads to questions in the checkout line especially in the winter.

"You ride in this kind of weather?"

"I ride in every kind of weather. We're not going to solve global warming by sticking to what's easy and convenient."

ELECTRIC VEHICLE EVANGELICALS! EV EV'S

Hey,
I live in Fl. and I ride my electric skateboard almost every day 4-6 miles with my wife lagging behind on her bicycle, Get a lot of strange looks from the SUVers, But have had a lot of people stop me and ask me how far and how fast it will go, They cant believe that it will go 16 to 19mph and up to 15 miles on a charge, then they ask how much it cost to build, and when I tell them I built it for less than $200.00, I have to break it down piece by piece, And had a few ask me to help them wire one up when they get all the parts..
So get out there...

One thing to keep in mind if you wish to help out the electric vehicle future is to not say things like "Some Republican Bubba"
Why piss off half of the country with Liberal snobbery? Does the earth only belong to Democrats? Are all SUV's piloted by Right Wing Babtists and all bikes are owned by Democrats? As you may have guessed I am not only a Repubican but a Republican activist who is working overtime on the Republican agenda. I also happen to be fascinated in EV's and I am actively building two of them with plans for a third. I work with the Robotics department at the Mukwanago High School as an adviser.
Labling people alienates them..In fact the comment in this thread irritated me to the point that I nearly quit this forum. This country is deeply polarized and I spend enough time fighting what I believe to be mistakes in the current administration. Do we want to talk about that or my Electric Chevrolet Vega project?
Or is the fact that I am a "republican Bubba" make me unwelcome here?

You are more than welcome here, Just don't say Palin, Ha Ha, I think every party needs to be involved, But as the lone Democrat in my family, It is hard when the rest of my family (Republicans) think Global Warming is something made up by the Democrats to deceive the tax payers, in America, out of there money

You are very welcome here .. but what you say about pissing people off by labeling them things like "Liberal snobbery" goes both ways y'know.

... Why piss off half of the country with Liberal snobbery? ...