The world’s biggest electric vehicle and home energy show is coming to Sydney on March 11 and 12.
Born out of the success of the EV YouTube channel Fully Charged Show, Fully Charged Live brings together all things electric including a wide range of passenger EVs, e-bikes, smart charging, micro mobility, commercial EVs, electric motorbikes and even electric public transport.
Fully Charged Live has run in the UK since 2018. The most recent event in Farnborough, England attracted more than 23,000 visitors and doubled its footprint versus the 2021 event. The show boasts the broadest spectrum of electric vehicles and clean energy exhibits anywhere in the world.
The Fully Charged Show is the brainchild of UK actor Robert Llewellyn.
Perhaps better known to Australians for his role as the mechanoid Kryten in the sci-fi television sitcom Red Dwarf and presenting the engineering gameshow Scrapheap Challenge, Llewellyn’s strong interest in engineering and fascination with electric vehicles inspired him to start the YouTube channel in 2010.
From its humble beginnings 13 years ago, Fully Charged Show has had over 50 million views and has developed a reputation as a go-to source for trusted electric vehicle news and reviews.
Asked what inspired him to start the show Llewellyn said ” It was a very slow, organic start with a few threads dating back to the early 2,000’s. I was working in Los Angeles regularly from 2001 to 2006 making a TV series called Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars and became slowly aware that something was happening in the automotive space.”
“But these were very early days, before I started Fully Charged in 2010 I made a series called ‘Carpool’ where I gave various people lifts in my Toyota Prius and recorded the conversation.” He said.
“So it was a combination of being able to make something on a micro budget (the tech advances in video editing etc) , the launch of YouTube, and the appearance of more electric vehicles that made it possible.
It was a very slow start, I recall it took nearly 2 years to reach an aggregated 1 million views, and there were so few examples of electric cars.”
The show now has 6 presenters and a team of 12 who not only put out a new episode every few days but also organise and run the Fully Charged Live events which after their success in the UK are now going global.
Seminar sessions will run throughout the two days covering a vast array of topics including benefits of charging at home, away or en route, how can businesses break down the EV adoption barriers for consumers and how we can look to e-mobilise the masses in 10 years.
The show will also include 30 ‘live sessions’ across 2 stages in which YouTube presenters host fun, educational panel sessions with Australia’s leading experts. See the full program here.
Llewellyn is also looking forward to the electrification of delivery vehicles. “And just as important as private cars are busses, trucks, delivery vans and last mile delivery vehicles of all sorts. There is no longer any excuse. They should all be electric ASAP”
Daniel Bleakley is a clean technology researcher and advocate with a background in engineering and business. He has a strong interest in electric vehicles, renewable energy, manufacturing and public policy.