A United Kingdom-based electric vehicle event held its first stateside event in the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on the University’s campus on Tuesday.

EV SUMMIT, an annual event advocating for the use of electric vehicles, aimed to help professionals collaborate in transitioning to electric vehicles, said Ade Thomas, founder of the summit and Green.TV Media, a sustainability media company. The event hosted speakers and panels on EV-related topics, networking events and meetings for select leaders. 

“We’re less interested in the EV SUMMIT as an event than we’re interested in the EV SUMMIT for the outcomes that it delivers,” Thomas said. “We’re really hopeful that here in Austin, in the first year, some of the people and the processes that we deliver as a result of the first U.S. EV SUMMIT will result in really meaningful, actionable outcomes … delivering decarbonization.”

Thomas said Austin was an ideal location for the event given its progressive reputation and proximity to EV leaders such as Tesla.

Marc Coltelli, America’s power and utilities emobility leader with the summit’s sponsor EY, said UT factored into the decision to hold the summit in Austin. 

“Climate change is a big, big topic across our education system,” UT alumnus Coltelli said. “We wanted to make sure that there were strong links with universities. …(I’m) really proud being a former student that we could bring it here as well.”

Even electric vehicles have carbon emissions due to manufacturing, said Kara Kockelman, a transportation engineering professor who attended the event. However, she said the industry can continue to reduce its carbon footprint.

“EVs still have a lot of emissions and energy associated with their construction and their maintenance, and so they end up being about half the life cycle carbon emissions of a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle of the same size,” Kockelman said.

Mechanical engineering professor Arumugam Manthiram compared the process of perfecting the infrastructure and technology necessary for EV growth to the adoption of the internet as both take time to implement. Even now some communities do not have access to good internet, he said.

Summit participants had the opportunity to test drive a Tesla Cybertruck, and student organization Longhorn Racing presented their electric race car, which placed eighth in the country at last year’s hybrid event.

Hayden D’Gama, corporate relations lead for the electric team of Longhorn Racing, said he was grateful to attend the event. 

“(I) got to meet a lot of people from the EV sector (and) made a lot of great connections,” D’Gama said. “A lot of people … are interested in (our) car, and we love showing it off and explaining it.”

Editor’s note: A previous caption on this story’s photo misidentified one of the subjects. The Texan regrets this error.