LOS ANGELES — With nearly every automaker on the planet shifting toward electric vehicles, a new EV-only car show is rolling into Los Angeles Saturday. Autopia 2099 is a retro-futuristic event for zero-emissions enthusiasts, whether they drive an everyman's car like the Chevy Bolt or have wrenched and replaced a gas engine with a battery and motor.
"We haven't really been optimistic about transportation since the 1950s when we'd have jet packs in ten years and all these other things that would make life so much easier. Then the '70s came, and it was all doom and gloom. No one is optimistic about transportation anymore," said Autopia 2099 co-founder Bradley Brownell, who envisions the event as an automotive utopia that shows enthusiasm for the future. Thus, the name Autopia and 2099, he said, is "just a far-flung number to get us thinking about what could come."
This weekend what's likely to show up will run the gamut, from mainstream EVs to garage projects. Brownell said he's especially enthusiastic about some of the electric hotrods that will be at the show, including a 2006 Ford Mustang retrofit with a Tesla motor that makes it five seconds faster in the quarter-mile than stock and a DeLorean that runs off the motor of a Nissan Leaf.
Fittingly, Autopia 2099 is taking place at Optimist Studios — an indoor/outdoor space for creators near Los Angeles International Airport. Brownell is expecting about 50 cars to show up but has room for a best-case scenario of 150.
That's similar to how things worked out for RADwood, the car show series he co-founded five years ago to celebrate the '80s and '90s automotive lifestyle, complete with parachute pants and other era-appropriate clothing. The initial 2017 show in San Francisco drew 150 cars and became so popular that there are now ten shows a year in cities from Seattle to Las Vegas to Boston.
"I'm just a car guy," said Brownell, 33, an automotive journalist who lives in Reno, Nevada. "I'm not discriminatory. I just like trends that are the underdog that are forming in the dark corners of the world. With Autopia, we're at the forefront of technology where everything is still developing."
Brownell drives a first-generation Nissan Leaf – a car with a maximum speed of 93 mph and a maximum range of 73 miles per charge that ushered in the modern-day electric era a decade ago. Nissan is now the title sponsor of the inaugural Autopia 2099, where the Japanese automaker will show off its most recent generation Leaf EV that can travel twice as far per charge as the original.
It also will be showing its all-new 2023 Ariya EV crossover (and taking deposits for the vehicle expected at dealers late next year), as well as its Formula E race car. Nissan will also host a plant giveaway and urban farming workshop, recognizing that eco-minded drivers are likely to engage in other planet-friendly activities.
"We're calling it a one-of-a-kind, first-of-its-kind event," said Jeff Wandell, EV public relations manager for Nissan, which signed on as the premier automotive sponsor of Autopia 2099 based on RADwood's success and its own EV strategy. "There's been a lot of Leafs on the road in Los Angeles for the last ten years, so LA is definitely a focus of ours with its strong EV infrastructure and a lot of enthusiasts in the area."
Harley-Davidson's spinoff electric motorcycle brand — LiveWire — and Zero Motorcycles, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., also will be displaying electric two-wheelers at the show.
"We don't want it to be all one thing. Hopefully, it will be a wide cross section of everything," said Brownell, who is expecting a mix of EV tinkerers, modern car owners and automakers on Saturday, almost like a zero-emissions car and coffee. "Electric vehicles have been on the fringe for so long, and now they're gaining momentum. I'm just really excited."