July Monthly Meeting at the Public Works Service Center

Hey everyone,
We will be trying out a new meeting space for our July meeting. We will be meeting on Saturday July 11th at 11am. The meeting will be at the Knoxville Public Works building (3131 Morris Ave, Knoxville, TN 37909) that has a large meeting room. Hopefully we can start using this location as a good meeting location for us. This is the building that has the large solar farm you see from the interstate. This location also has several L2 chargers. Let's see how we like it. We will have a quick summary on the success of last months EVs in the Smokies and then discuss several of the biggest EV news items and will also be discussing our plans for the rest of the year as we have some great guest speakers lined up for August and September meetings that leads into our biggest event of the year, the Knoxville Drive Electric Festival on October 10th. And as always bring us your EV questions.
Meeting Agenda
-Introduction of new members, did any get an EV recently?
Report of previous month events
-6th annual EVs in the Smokies
-Very successful 50 vehicles and 74 test drives/rides
-Met our grant requirement, thanks everyone that helped and showed up!
House bill BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870)
-institutes a federal EV registration fee each year
$130 for EVs and $35 for Plugin-Hybrids
-In 2029 the fees increase $5 every two years until they reach $150 and $50 respectively.
-How will this impact TN that already has a $200 EV fee, soon to be $274 on Jan 1st 2027?!?
-Will TN remove their fee or will we be stuck paying $404 a year?
-No where near fair or equivalent to gas tax fees.
New DCFC chargers in the area
-The Local Market Gas Stations 300 Callahan Dr.
-2 CCS1, ChargePoint each 62KW but if only one in use supposedly combines for 125KW.
-Pilot Travel Center Strawberry Plains Pike
-4 CCS1 GM Energy 350KW
Target on Washington Pike
-Coming Soon by Electrify America
Dolly Parton opens Buc-ees competitor Dolly's Tennessee Travel Center
-3686 Pulaski Hwy, Cornersville, TN 37047
-24 Tesla Superchargers
-Live music stage, Cup of Ambition Coffee and Cinnamon Bread Milkshakes!
Summer Harper Cars and Coffee at West Town Mall
-August 2nd, 8am-11am (be parked with us by 6:30)
-Spring one had a lot of crazy energy
additional details will be sent out in email later
Good deals on Used EVs
-1.2 million EVs coming off lease in next 18 months
-40% of EVs on dealer lots are below $25k
-Average used EV only $1,000 more than gas car
Polestar banned from sale in the US
-How are the Polestar owners feeling?
August 8th Monthly Meeting
-Cedar Bluff Library 11am
-Guest Speaker: Dr. Knowles gives us the results of his EV survey
-Possible additional speaker
September 19th Monthly Meeting (3rd Saturday)
-Back at Public Works building 11am
-Guest speaker: Knoxville Sustainability Manager Patience Melnik
-Shares with us the latest updates on EV infrastructure plans, the city EV fleet etc.
Other EV News
-Chargepoint to install 2,500 chargers in multifamily housing in US
-Stellantis says 29 EV models by 2030 (in presentation to stockholders)
-Walmart charger network surpasses 300, initiating charging via the Walmart app will save you 10%
-GM Energy Pass to be one universal interface for public charging
-May 2026 solar out supplied coal for the first time in the US mixture, 12.8% to 12.2%
-way way more news to share
Meeting date and time: Saturday July 11th 11am-1pm
Meeting location: Knoxville Public Works Service Center 3131 Morris Ave, Knoxville, TN 37909