The second annual World EV Day will take place on 9 September. The event is a global movement that’s driving change collectively. It’s a day of celebration of emobility, and a day designed to shift the transition to sustainable transport with consumer, business and policy outcomes.
In 2021, World EV Day will be asking businesses across the world how they will drive change (#DriveChange) to support emobility, and sharing stories from real electric vehicle (EV) owners about their journeys on the road to go EV (#GoEV).
The event was launched in 2020 by green.tv, who are the same company that delivers the hugely successful EV Summit. In 2020, the inaugural World EV Day was the stand-out emobility campaign of the year. World EV Day transitioned from being a campaign to a global movement.
On traditional media, World EV Day had a total global audience reach of 1.9 billion. On Twitter, World EV Day achieved 197 million impressions, with the campaign driven by retweet active engagement. On Facebook, World EV Day achieved a cumulative reach of conversations of 21.8 million.
In total, 50 partners were involved. The UK government was deeply engaged, deploying the day to announce £21 million of new expenditure on EVs. Nissan announced the production of 0.5 million LEAF vehicles and Jaguar Land Rover the launch of the hybrid Defender.
These are impressive figures and it’s good to see so many people getting involved to spread the word about zero-emissions driving. This year World EV Day, which is being delivered by green.tv in partnership with ABB, will be working with its partners (see below) to either create digitally-led creative campaigns or provide the tools and channels for our partners to work on their own campaigns.
Once again ABB are the lead partner for World EV Day. Hyundai will be the mobility lead partner and Polestar the sustainability lead partner. Accessibility, decarbonisation, eduction and sustainability are the key narratives to this year’s event.
Several important panels will be take place on Thursday at World EV Day. The first will be discussing using social media as a tool for accelerating electric vehicle adoption and awareness. This panel is in partnership with Green.TV and includes the following speakers:
- Dean Prosser, Head of Communications, Green.TV
- Jack Carter, Automotive & Energy Lead, TikTok
- Anita Fox, Head of Automotive, Facebook
- Michelle Davis, Head of Automotive, LinkedIn
- Laura McNally, Head of Social, Autotrader
The second panel will discuss powering electric vehicle uptake. This is being held in partnership with bp and will discuss how best to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and give consumers the confidence to switch. Talking on this panel will be:
- Rachel Maclean, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Transport Decarbonisation and Future of Transport
- Richard Bartlett, SVP Future Mobility & Solutions, bp
- Sarah Cox, Head of Marketing, Volkswagen Passenger Cars
The final panel, which is held partnership with Highland Electric, will discuss school bus electrification and vehicle to grid issues. The EV Summit and the Electrification Coalition will present a high-level, interactive discussion on the practicalities and benefits of electrifying the American school bus fleet, and the role that vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology will play in this transition. Panel speakers include:
- Duncan McIntyre, CEO, Highland Electric
- Trisha Dello lacono, National Field and Legislative Manager, Moms Clean Air Force
- Jackie Piero, VP of Policy, Nuvve
- JoAnn Covington, Chief Legal Officer and Head of Government Relations, Proterra
- Nate Baguio, Senior VP of Commercial Development, Lion Electric
- Moderator: Katherine Stainken, Senior Director, EV Policy, The Electrification Coalition
Partners for the World EV Day 2021 include ABB, ALD Automotive, AutoTrader, bp, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Climate Group, Electrification Coalition, EV Summit, EY, Hyundai, Leaders for Clean Air, LeasePlan, LinkedIn, Motability, Parker Lord, Polestar and SSE Energy Solutions.