If you haven’t had the experience of driving an electric vehicle, now is your chance. The 4th Annual National Drive Electric Week is September 15-21, 2014 and will take place in 115 cities in 35 states and oversees. The event allows consumers the opportunity to see the benefits first hand of driving an electric vehicle including clean-air and cost-savings, by participating in ride-and-drives.

National Drive Electric Week (formerly National Plug In Day) has quadrupled in size since its launch in 2011. This year organizers said it is expected to draw at least 35,000 attendees. Many cities are participating for the first time while other cities have participated since the event was founded. Just as U.S. plug-in vehicle sales are expected to reach their first quarter-million mark, cities will offer one-day activities or observe the celebration’s entire week, organized nationally by Plug In America, the Sierra Club and the Electric Auto Association.

“As we celebrate the first quarter-million plug-ins sold, these vehicles continue their inevitable march toward mainstream adoption,” said Plug in America President Richard Kelly. “Plug-ins offer the industry’s most efficient technology, freedom from gas stations, costly car repairs and reliance on foreign oil, and the option to drive on renewable energy, delivering tremendous public health and environmental benefits. National Drive Electric Week offers everyone the chance to learn this first hand.”

National Drive Electric Week events target people who have never driven EVs and offer ride-and-drives of every plug-in on the market. All the events are free.

“Don’t let Drive Electric Week zoom past without visiting an event near you. Electric cars take fuel efficiency and state-of-the-art technology to an exciting new level,” added Said Sierra Club’s Director of Future Fleet & Electric Vehicles Initiative, Gina Coplon-Newfield.

Here are some examples of what cities across the U.S. are planning:

• Connecticut’s Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection and the state’s Automotive Retailers Assn. will award the state dealership with highest plug-in sales.
• The mayor of Huntington Beach is expected to appear at Surf City’s seaside event.
• Stella, the world’s first solar-powered family car and winner of last year’s World Solar Challenge, birthplace of the storied EV1, will visit Cupertino, where organizers are attempting to break the Guinness world record for most EVs assembled.
• Poolesville, Maryland’s event could draw 10,000, staged next to an annual fest replete with a town parade and marching band.
• Houston will celebrate EVs at a solar-powered IKEA store, which will trumpet the event on its electronic billboard, visible from a major freeway intersection. Attendant mini-events will take place at EV charging stations around the sprawling city.
• Scottsdale, Arizona’s event will bring EV efficiency to the site of one of nation’s longest running gasoline-car shows.
• UCLA and Santa Monica High School will share the EV message with youth through lectures and other activities of the new National Drive Electric Week Ambassador School initiative.
• 50 EVs in New Hampshire will scale Mount Washington, the northeast’s highest peak.

For more information about National Electric Drive Week and to find a city near you, visit www.driveelectricweek.org.