Alternative fuel cars, including the 2012 of this 2011 Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell sedan, which emits nothing but water vapor from its tailpipe, will be available for test-drives for two hours on Friday at the Alternative Clean Transportation Expo being held at the Long Beach Convention Center this week. Photo courtesy of American Honda Motor Co.
2:02pm | Ever dreamed of getting behind the wheel of a highly advanced so-called “green car”?
If so, then consider this Friday your lucky day, because the 2011 Alternative Clean Transportation Expo being held at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center May 4 – 6 is offering a special test-drive event for the general public.
On Friday, May 6, the final day of the exposition, the public is invited to participate in the ACT Expo Ride and Drive event, which will be held from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the parking lot behind the Long Beach Arena at 300 E. Ocean Blvd. During this two-hour time span, members of the Long Beach community will be able to test drive and ride in some of the cleanest, most advanced alternative fuel vehicles that are currently commercially available.
The ACT Expo is the largest showcase of clean, alternative fuel vehicles in the United States this year, according to the expo’s website. Vehicles that run on natural gas, electricity, biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and propane, as well as hybrids, will be highlighted during this year’s event, expo spokeswoman Kristen Rockwell said.
Hundreds of automotive enthusiasts, community members and executives from General Motors, American Honda and Ford Motor Company, among other automakers, are expected to attend this year’s three-day expo, which is being held against the backdrop of rising oil prices and $5-per-gallon gas. Featured during the expo will be what Rockwell described as “the future of transportation” — more than 70 advanced alternative fuel vehicles, 26 of which will be available for free test drives around the convention center during the Drive and Ride event.
Also during Friday’s free event, 45 other advanced alternative fuel vehicles will be on display in the convention center’s Expo Hall A, to which the public will be granted free access.
Rockwell said that among the vehicles available for test-drives are advanced alternative fuel light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks; tractors; police vehicles; vans; and sedans.
Asked for specific models, she listed a Freightliner M2 106, a 25-foot hybrid electric tractor truck; a Honda natural gas Civic GX, which has been rated the “greenest” vehicle in the United States for the last eight years; a Crown Victoria police interceptor vehicle fueled by propane; and a 2012 Honda hydrogen FCX Clarity fuel cell sedan, which emits only water vapor from the tailpipe. These vehicles will all be available for test-drives.
Among the vehicles on display will be an HME Ahrens-Fox Fire Truck, the only fire truck in the world fueled by compressed natural gas; a Kenworth T370 diesel-electric hybrid delivery truck for Coca-Cola, which has 700 of these hybrid trucks operating in California.