2026 Past Events

Past Event announcements from 2026

This is an archive of event announcements from 2026, collected here for you to see what we were up to during the year. On the second Thursday of every month we hold our regular General Meetings, except for December when we hold our Holiday Party, and July when we hold our All-EVs Picnic. We hold our major Test Drive & Information Expo events for Drive Electric Earth Month in April and National Drive Electric Month in September at the Daimler Truck North America headquarters. We also put on several events over the summer for the EV community, and attend parades and other community events. It's always a busy year!

to see our upcoming events, go to our upcoming Events page!

April General Meeting

Thursday April 9th, 2026, 7:00 to 9 PM, Board Meeting at 6:30

Daimler Truck North America Headquarters, 4555 N Channel Ave, Portland
Inside the eCascadia electric semi, and our Drive Electric Earth Month event

We're at Daimler Truck HQ Twice This Month!

On Thursday our April General Meeting is in one of the large meeting rooms on the first floor of the Daimler Truck North America Headquarters. If you haven't been here before, it's a great state-of-the-art meeting space. We'll park in the lot adjacent to the headquarters building. The door is secure, but we should have someone stationed there to let you in. If you arrive late, there is a button to the right of the entrance door to ring the front desk for access.

We'll be back to Daimler Truck in a few weeks, for Drive Electric Earth Month.

Upcoming Drive Electric Earth Month Event

Our EV Test Drive & Information Expo celebrating Drive Electric Earth Month is coming up April 26th, details are in the next article below. It's a fun time to get together with other EV owners, maybe take a few test drives and check out the new EVs, attend a presentation or two in the Daimler Headquarters meeting room, and talk with representatives of businesses of interest to EV owners. Registered volunteers and guests get a coupon at the Registration Tent for a free lunch at our on-site food vendor, Home Plate Sliders. My favorite activity is showing the amazing things my EV can do to folks who aren't familiar with state-of-the-art electric vehicle technology.

At the meeting we'll talk about the event a bit, answer any questions you may have if you haven't been to our event before. Tell your friends they can avoid sky-high gas prices. EVs offer a better way. They can learn from experts and experience EVs for themselves at our free event.

We'll bring posters to the meeting of our Buy Electric and Save ad from the Oregon International Auto Show Buyers Guide magazine. Please take them for the bulletin board at your workplace, grocery store, or anywhere else that you can post them to let people know about our event.

Meeting Speaker: Inside the eCascadia Semi Truck

We'll have a speaker from Daimler Truck at our meeting, to give us the inside details on the Freightliner eCascadia class 8 semi truck. This is your chance to find out about the future of heavy transport, and get ready for your eCascadia ride-along at our Drive Electric Earth Month event, see below.

Zoom Stream

OEVA Treasurer Bill Meyer has long advocated streaming our meetings. He often points out that we're the Oregon EVA, not the Portland EVA, and we should reach out beyond our metro area. As a local chapter of the national Electric Vehicle Association we have access to their corporate Zoom account, so Bill will be using that to stream the meeting.

Here is the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81273472967?pwd=9frIp2bPqOoaVqs5fv0OPi034fshmS.1
Meeting ID: 812 7347 2967 Passcode: 070630

Bill has been doing great work with our meeting streaming, but this is still new to us. We plan to use wireless microphones. Let Bill know how the stream quality is for you, Treasurer@oeva.org.

The Usual Details

We will have food at the meeting. Probably sandwich platters and beverages provided by the club. I'll publish details here when they are available. You are encouraged to bring a food item to share. This time I'm bringing a big bag of Cheetos Cheese Puffs. Maybe you would like to bring something healthier, like fruit or veggies. Or maybe something even more decadent, like cookies or other dessert. Your contributions to our evening's festivities are appreciated!

As are all our OEVA General Meetings, this meeting is free and open to the public, and as usual is from 7 to 9 PM. Food and socializing is from 7:00 to 7:30, then the program for the evening begins with some brief announcements before turning the evening over to our host. All OEVA general meetings are held on the second Thursday of the month, so this will be Thursday April 9th, 2026. We hold an OEVA Board Meeting immediately before the General Meeting, from 6:30 to 7 PM, and all OEVA members are welcome to attend to hear what the board is working on.

(L to R) Bob Simpson (founder & CTO) explaining shop activity to Wayne Downer, Paul Lackey (president & engineer)

March Meeting at EVDrive On Swan Island in Portland

Thursday March 12th, 2026, 7:00 to 9 PM, Board Meeting at 6:30

EVDrive, 4865 N Lagoon Ave, Portland, OR 97217
An Evening of Fascinating EV Technology

EVDrive Visit

The OEVA started as a group of individuals working on their own EV conversions, or keeping their primitive commercially produced EVs running. While the vast majority of us now own reliable EVs made by major manufacturers, many of us are enthusiasts not just of the cars, but also we're fascinated by the underlying EV technology. We have a lot of engineers and tech enthusiasts in the club.

As often as we can we hold our OEVA monthly meetings at places you wouldn't normally get to see, and hear from experts in EVs and the fascinating technology that underlies them. This month's meeting is one of these. EVDrive has the components and engineering expertise that has enabled them to put together world-class electric drive systems in applications on the roads, in the air, on water, and underground. We were last at EVDrive in October of 2023, so these opportunities don't come around that often.

Back then Bob Simpson told us the harrowing story, which had just recently happened, when a gas car (oh, those gas-propelled demons!) crashed into and destroyed his immaculate BMW 3-series EV conversion. Thanks to solid engineering a bit of luck Bob and his puppy-passenger came through with relatively minor injuries, but the driver of the gas car wasn't so lucky. After Bob's talk we toured the EVDrive shop and saw motors, inverters, custom battery packs, equipment, and fascinating technology they were developing. I still remember being surprised at the incredibly thin liquid cooled battery pack heat sinks they developed.

This Month's Talk & Tour

Bob's current EV conversion project started with a 1962 Volvo P1800, though highly modified. He will tell us about this project, just what goes into a custom conversion at this level. And we also hope to hear from Paul Lackey about what he has observed in the industry over the past few years and where he thinks things might be heading. Then we'll tour the shop, see all the cool tech, and look over the Volvo project asking questions of these EV conversion experts. And of course there will be our usual food and socializing before we get into all of that.

The Usual Details

Our OEVA Hospitality Coordinator Chris Stonard is bringing sandwich platters, sandwich fixin's, and beverages. As always, you're encouraged to bring some food items to share. Maybe some sort of potato chips, Doritos, coleslaw, potato salad, or whatever you think will go well with the sandwiches? If your diet leans a bit more to healthy food, perhaps you would want to contribute fruit, a veggie tray, or heart-healthy nuts. Or bring a treat for dessert. I'm bringing a Costco bag of Rip Van Wafers, a Dark Chocolate Creme Filled Wafer Snack. Maybe not dietarily ideal, but they are delicious.

As are all our OEVA General Meetings, this meeting is free and open to the public, and as usual is from 7 to 9 PM. EVDrive is located at 4865 N Lagoon Ave, on Swan Island in Portland. There is parking both in front of the building, and along the left side near the EVDrive entrance. Food and socializing is from 7 to 7:30, then the program for the evening begins with some brief announcements before turning the evening over to Bob and Paul. All OEVA general meetings are held on the second Thursday of the month, so this will be Thursday March 12th, 2026. We hold an OEVA Board Meeting immediately before the General Meeting, from 6:30 to 7 PM, and all OEVA members are welcome to attend to hear what the board is working on.

Our thanks to OEVA Events Coordinator Paul Burkey for contacting EVDrive and setting up this meeting.

Oregon International Auto & Motorcycle Show

Drive Electric Featured Exhibit - OEVA Volunteer Opportunities!
February 19-22, 2026, Oregon Convention Center

777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland

Free Volunteer Parking Courtesy of Kia of Portland, See Important Details Below

Sign Up Now at https://signup.com/go/XGGAeXp

The Auto Show is this month, and the OEVA will be there with our awesome Volunteers as one of the sponsors of the Drive Electric featured exhibit. Drive Electric is the centerpiece of EVs at the Auto Show, and volunteering is a great opportunity for you to share your knowledge and enthusiasm for EVs with show guests. It's a really fun experience, talking with people who are interested in EVs, but are sometimes a bit uncertain about taking the plunge. Sharing your experience and answering basic EV questions at this event really makes a difference.

The centerpiece of Drive Electric is the FIND YOUR EV display, a double-sided wall with 66 large spec sheets covering just about every EV available in the US. People at the wall often have questions, and appreciate your EV knowledge and personal experience. Former OEVA President, Gary Exner, creates these excellent reference sheets every year for the Auto Show. Last year's data sheets are currently on the Cars page of this website, but we're working to update the page with the new sheets before the Auto Show.

Surrounding the FIND YOUR EV wall, a variety of EVs are on display from local dealerships exhibiting at the Auto Show. In addition to exhibitor vehicles, this year the OEVA invited Rivian to bring their awesome R1 series adventure vehicle and Tesla to bring their wildly popular Model Y. Seeing the specs, then examining the cars, getting questions answered by experienced EV owners in a non-sales, educational environment, gives people a great introduction to electric vehicles.

Volunteering Details

Sign up now at https://signup.com/go/XGGAeXp. We will send out important volunteer information and updates using these registrations, so please sign up early. Many of the OEVA members really enjoy volunteering for the Auto Show, and sign up for several consecutive time slots and multiple days. Feel free to take breaks during your shift. We'll have a locked meeting room where you can chill if you like. If attendance slows during part of your shift, take a walk around the show. There are always a lot of interesting cars and exhibits, and many of us just enjoy the conversations with other OEVA volunteers between talking with guests. If you're doing a particularly long shift take a meal break. Stay refreshed and enjoy your time volunteering with the OEVA at the Auto Show.

In order to be immediately recognizable to auto show guests as an OEVA Volunteer, please wear your OEVA embroidered polo shirt and name badge. Don't have an OEVA shirt and name badge? Why not take care of that! A shirt and name badge are available to you at no charge when you join the OEVA. To get your shirt and sign up for your custom name badge, see Paul Albertson at any of our regular monthly meetings. We'll have OEVA shirts available to borrow in our locked meeting room near the exhibit. Check with the OEVA board members volunteering at the event for they key.

Auto Show Dates and Hours:

Thursday, February 19 | 10 am – 4 pm

Friday, February 20 | 12 pm – 10 pm

Saturday, February 21 | 10 am – 10 pm

Sunday, February 22 | 10 am - 7 pm

Of course you get free admission on the day you're volunteering. If you volunteer on multiple days you get an Exhibitor Badge, good for early entry and for all days of the show, which you can pick up at the Exhibitor Entrance on MLK when you arrive for your first shift. If you volunteer on just one day instead of an Exhibitor Badge we'll email you a link for you to download a show admission ticket. Note that this procedure is subject to change by the Auto Show, so sign up early so you get the updated information.

When you choose your volunteer shifts, please keep in mind that we'll need more volunteers during peak hours. The busiest day is Saturday, so we'll need more volunteer help then! But when crowds are light at Drive Electric, take a break and walk around the show. It's interesting to check out what's on display.

Guest Tickets

We will have 30 free guest tickets to give away this year. Give them to your friends and family to meet with you after your volunteer shift and tour the show together. For tickets email OEVA Event Coordinator Paul Burkey at Events@oeva.org.

Free Parking Changes This Year

If in prior years you've parked at the "I-5 lot", under the elevated freeway, behind the Convention Center, that lot is not available this year as it is being used to store highway construction equipment. Thanks to Ken Cornelison, Kia of Portland's general manager, Kia of Portland has arranged for free parking for us in the parking structure on NE Irving street across from Kia and only two blocks from the Convention Center. We'll send out an email with important parking and exhibitor credential details shortly before the event.

Sign up now at https://signup.com/go/XGGAeXp. We will send out important volunteer information and updates using these registrations, so please sign up early. For questions or late registrations, email OEVA Event Coordinator Paul Burkey at Events@oeva.org.

Oregon International Auto Show 2025 Photo Carousel

February Meeting at Swickard Honda in Gladstone

Thursday Febuary 12th, 2026, 7:00 to 9 PM, Board Meeting at 6:30

Swickard Honda, 19400 SE McLoughlin Blvd, Gladstone
Plenty of Convenient Free Parking, Flying Pie Pizza!

Our first meeting at a Honda dealership

This will be the first OEVA General Meeting we've held at a Honda dealership, and it's high time we learned more about the Honda Prologue! I'm getting this meeting announcement out a bit later than usual. Our planned meeting location fell through, so board members Morris Green and Ken Butler went out looking for a venue at short notice, and Swickard Honda in Gladstone General Manager Ron Owens immediately said yes. Our thanks to Ron Owens and the Swickard staff for helping us out with this meeting.

The dealership building is surrounded by parking on all sides, so you should be able to find convenient parking on the lot.

Meeting Details

Gladstone is a bit further south than most of our meetings have been, but our October meeting at Dick Hannah Nissan in Gladstone was well attended. We Beaverton area folk will just have to plan some extra commute time.

Swickard Honda has offered us the use of a nice conference room for our meeting. It's on the second floor, which has elevator and stair access. There are bathrooms right next to the conference room. Andrew, a salesman with 12 years of experience at Swickard Honda will tell us about the Prologue and what's upcoming, and answer your Honda questions.

And we'll announce the latest information about our participation in the Oregon International Auto Show, taking place Thursday February 19 through Sunday February 22. See the detailed announcement below. New to volunteering at the Auto Show? Get your questions answered at the meeting! Our free parking arrangements for volunteers is different this year, which you can find out about at the meeting.

Food and Timing

As our Hospitality Coordinator Chris Stonard is not available for this meeting, Morris Green will arrange for Pizza from Flying Pie, which he tells me is excellent. He and Ken Butler will be bringing beverages. As always, you're invited to bring some food items to share. If your diet leans a bit more to healthy food, perhaps you would want to contribute fruit, a veggie tray, or something similarly dietarily pious. I'm bringing a Costco bag of Rip Van Wafers, a Dark Chocolate Creme Filled Wafer Snack. Maybe not dietarily ideal, but they look delicious.

As are all our OEVA General Meetings, this meeting is free and open to the public, and as usual is from 7 to 9 PM. These meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, so this will be February 12th, 2026. We hold an OEVA Board Meeting immediately before the General Meeting, from 6:30 to 7 PM, and all OEVA members are welcome to attend to hear what the board is working on.

January Meeting at Kia of Portland

Thursday January 8th, 2026, 7:00 to 9 PM, Board Meeting at 6:30

Kia of Portland, 720 NE Grand Ave, Portland
Plenty of Free Parking, and a Delicious Chipotle Burrito Bar!

Our first event of 2026

For the third year in a row, the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association will hold our first General Meeting of the year at Kia of Portland at 720 NE Grand Ave. Our thanks to the Kia folks, particularly general manager Ken Cornelison, who go all-out to make us feel welcome and provide us with helpful information. Ken's talk last year about the economics of EV leasing was so interesting we asked him to reprise the talk at our April Drive Electric Earth Month event. You can catch all the talks from the April event on our Videos page.

There have been a lot of changes in the EV market, and Ken will give us an update on that, and the impact on leasing EVs. Kia has two new lower cost EV models, the EV3 and EV4. I look forward to finding out about these sure to be popular models. One great feature of the Kia EV6 and EV9 that I hope the new lower cost models come with is Vehicle-to-Load power transfer (V2L). This enables them to power external devices, potentially even charging another EV through a mobile charger. I think all EVs could benefit from that feature.

This will be the first meeting where we use the OEVA public address speaker and wireless microphones. It will be a great space to try out this system. Let a board member know if you find this helpful and we'll make it a regular feature at our meetings.

Parking and Food

Ken has arranged for us to park for free for the evening in the parking structure across NE Irving street from the entrance to Kia of Portland. Please don't park in the lot at the Kia of Portland building, as they've got very limited parking spaces there.

Kia of Portland is treating us to a Chipotle burrito bar! I enjoy it when I get to build my own burrito, so I can make it just the way I like it. As always, we appreciate it when meeting attendees bring a food item to share. Since Kia is providing the main meal, maybe bring fruit or a dessert? I'm bringing chocolate chip cookies. If you've started your January repentance for all the overeating you did in December, feel free to bring the Christmas candy and cookies you're trying to avoid eating. Your OEVA friends will be glad to help you out with that!

As are all our OEVA General Meetings, this meeting is free and open to the public, and as usual is from 7 to 9 PM. These meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month, so this will be January 8th, 2026. We hold an OEVA Board Meeting immediately before the General Meeting, from 6:30 to 7 PM, and all OEVA members are welcome to attend to hear what the board is working on.

Start the New Year with an interesting evening of EV information, visit with your OEVA friends, and enjoy good food and treats. Everyone is welcome. We hope to see you there and at our many upcoming events in 2026!

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