It’s no secret that gas prices are high. Filling up at the pump is stretching household budgets and making it difficult for many families to make ends meet. More people than ever are looking for ways to save money on transportation. All that made this year’s Drive Electric Earth Month especially timely.
Across the country this April, Sierra Club volunteers, chapters, partners, EV owners, and community members came together for Drive Electric Earth Month to help people experience clean transportation firsthand. Local events featured electric cars, trucks, school buses, e-bikes, ride-and-drives, and conversations about what it is really like to go electric. One event even featured a showing of Back to the Future.
In total, there were 185 events across the country this spring, a big jump from last year’s 158 events. Here are a few highlights:
Grand Haven, MI - The EV showcase at the 19th annual Earth Day Lakeshore event featured a diverse lineup of vehicles and a green march through downtown, giving the EVs on display even more visibility beyond the festival itself.
Omaha and Bellevue, NE - Sierra Club’s Nebraska chapter has been a consistent champion for clean transportation and organizer of multiple Drive Electric events. The Omaha event featured EVs from multiple recent model years, spurring questions from attendees about affordable used EVs. Also on display: an Omaha Metro battery-electric bus!
Kansas City, KS - Sierra Club chapters in Kansas and Missouri combined for an Earth Day celebration at the refurbished Rock Island Bridge, connecting trail systems in each state. Attendees saw EVs at the entrance to the bridge, including a new 2027 Chevy Bolt built at the GM plant in GM’s nearby Fairfax plant.
Montclair, NJ - Sierra Club partnered with the Montclair Office of Sustainability to display EVs at the annual Montclair Earthfest celebration.
Drive Electric Earth Month event in Montclair, New Jersey
Consumer interest in electric vehicles has never been stronger. These events help curious consumers gain authentic insights into how these vehicles can work for them, including practical issues like cost and charging.
That question of charging is one of the biggest reasons Sierra Club released a new report during Drive Electric Earth Month: “Faster but Not Fast Enough: Evaluating States’ Progress on Implementing Federal EV Charging Programs.” The report found that states made real progress in 2025 using federal funds to build more charging, even after the Trump administration illegally froze the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program and delayed implementation for months. (Sierra Club attorneys fought back and got those funds unstuck.) But the report also found that more than 96% of available NEVI funds remained unspent at the end of 2025.
In other words: some states are moving faster in building charging infrastructure, but most aren’t going fast enough.
Our state progress report shows that some states are already leading the way. NEVI station deployment nearly quadrupled in 2025, and states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and Texas had opened the most federally funded highway charging stations by the end of the year. But too many states are still moving too slowly, delaying investments that could help drivers save money, reduce pollution, and make clean transportation more accessible.
The solutions are straightforward: governors and state agencies should move quickly to spend federal charging funds, coordinate closely with utilities and local governments, set clear timelines for deployment, and build charging infrastructure that is ready for growing EV demand.
While faster state charging deployment can help even more families benefit, EVs are already delivering real savings for many drivers.
That is why community events like Drive Electric Earth Month and public investments in charging go together. Talking to a real EV owner or doing a ride-and-drive can help someone picture themselves behind the wheel of an EV. But states still need to build a reliable charging network that gives more people confidence that an EV can work for all their needs, from daily commutes to summer road trips.
To every Sierra Club chapter, volunteer, EV owner, partner, and community member who helped make Drive Electric Earth Month possible this year: thank you. Your work is helping more people understand that clean transportation is not some far-off future requiring a flux capacitor; it is already here with technology already available. Now our leaders need to make sure the infrastructure keeps up so that even more people can be a part of it.
Thanks to our Drive Electric partner organizations: Plug-In America, Electric Vehicle Association, EV Hybrid Noire, and Drive Electric USA.