Cape Girardeau is playing host to international guests this week. Electric car enthusiasts from around the world will be in town to attend the third annual Electric Vehicle Conversion Convention hosted by EVTV, or Electric Vehicle Television.
EVTV was started by Jack Rickard and Brian Noto just five years ago. Their weekly shows detail how to convert a regular fossil fuel-consuming car into an all-electric vehicle.
Shane Marczak is an electronics engineer for EVTV. He appears on their show regularly, but this is his first time participating in the convention.
“The vehicles are pretty much what exceeded my expectations,” Marczak said. “Some of the excellent builds that I’ve seen so far are just tremendous. I ain’t never dreamed that they would be so nice, you know, and so well put together.”
Participants will attend sessions Wednesday and Thursday about how to move the technology forward and improve on their own building skills.
There will be races on Friday around 1 pm at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, and a car show at Arena Park on Saturday at 1 pm.
The sessions required pre-registration, but the races and car show are open to the public. Noto encourages the community to come and learn more about electric cars.
“This really gives the public here an opportunity to get up close and personal to talk to the builders, the owners of the cars and to see them,” Noto said. “Kind of get an opportunity to see the technology and what people are doing and hopefully a couple people will take away from that- the ‘bug’ if you will- to build their own electric vehicle.”
Noto hopes that EVTV can help make electric vehicle conversion simpler, less expensive, and more fun.
