Battery Vehicle Society

Last weekend I visited the National Kit Car festival at Newark. Since I am now starting to assemble a self designed, self built electric three wheeler. I tried to speak to the Battery Vehicle Society. My experience was very negative. Members showed no intrest in an obviously enthusiastic visitor, the display was poor with only one EV of significance which no one seemed to know anything about. When I finaly engaged someone in conversation my plans, battery choice and even the whole concept of battery vehicles was met with cynicsm. It seemed that the person I was speaking to did not believe that it was possible to make and use a realistic, useable EV. Had I not been so far ahead in my project I would have been seriously detered from continuing. "Who Killed The Electric Car?" -Could the answer be The Battery Vehicle Society?

Oh dear thats not very good is it

What can one say when this occurs, only that while the people you met at the stand at the show are only a very "small" representation of the society as a whole.

Although we should be sending our prime folks to attend shows its not always the case, please dont be put off by the experience there are many folks here with loads of enthusium experience.

ChrisB

BVS displays always seem to be very poorly put together. It's a shame - the BVS has the money and really ought to invest in a proper stand.

Mind you, there are lots of things the BVS ought to invest in. What was really noticeable was in the last issue of the Review, a Fiat Cincequento car conversion was covered. The owner was obviously extremely enthusiastic, but she had to get the information from outside the BVS rather than from within it. I thought that was a real shame.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, duxuk. I am truly sorry that this was your first contact with the society. That was me sat next to John, desperately trying to coax a positive opinion from him.

This is something I've raised on numerous occasions with members of the committee. It was something I tried to improve along with several others too. Sorry to say I simply gave up on it all but I'm really glad you've raised it here on the forum dux. As you probably have realised I'm involved in similar machines and I'm very happy to talk with you here, on the other forum, or indeed directly.

The red mini-el recently sold via E-bay went to a friend of mine who is also a member of c5alive .

I mentioned the BVS to him, but he was a bit reluctant to join. This is because the gent he purchased the mini-el from had said he found the BVS were not much help. I've no details on what sort of help the vendor had requested, but the red mini-el was sold to my friend as a non-runner.

This is a bit of a contrast to when I purchased my own non-running mini-el. I took it to Nikki at a Bevob meeting and she was a great source of help , not forgetting the two Johns .

Nikki at BEVoB is a great asset for any organisation, her enthusiasm for EVs is truly infectious and BEVoB are one of the best groups around in my opinion, very helpful group of people very willing to chat and help anyone with questions on EVs and indeed anything associated with EVs. Sadly some of the stands the BVS have had at events around the country have very much lacked this enthusiasm and welcome. There are however still a few others who are also happy to welcome folk to the world of EVs Carl's another of the members of the Society who put some fun into the group and I think you'll find Ed's enthusiasm is also as encouraging.