Inside Scoop On First Ever Electric Vehicle In Rose Parade

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The Oregon Ducks take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl Game on in Pasadena, California, to ring in the New Year, and the pre-game festivities begin with a treat for electric vehicle fans. When the 136th annual Rose Bowl Parade rolls down Colorado Boulevard, it will feature the first ever float powered by an electric vehicle. Aside from a win for electrification, the Mars-themed float also includes several other firsts that help cement the parade’s reputation as a tech-forward event decked out in flowers.

First Electric Vehicle In Rose Bowl Parade: (Almost) Everything Old Is New Again

CleanTechnica got the inside scoop on the new float from its mastermind, Ernest Koeppen, President of the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association. Mr. Koeppen graciously shared his work on the new electric vehicle in an email to CleanTechnica. Here is our Q&A in full. I’ve added links to some of the technologies he mentioned, along with some light edits for clarity.

CleanTechnica: Can you provide some details about the electric vehicle — is it an electric pickup truck, for example, or was it specially built for the float? Do the accessories on the float (robotics, drones, etc.) use batteries or is an on-board generator required?

Koeppen: The vehicle is a special vehicle assembled and evolved over the life of the [La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association], which began in 1978.

There are parts from a cement truck axle to old fire engine frame to unique one-off build-to-suit needs. The vehicle weighs 20,000 to 30,000 pounds depending on the build of the year.

Previous to this year power has been supplied via two V8 engines turning hydraulic pumps for animation and propulsion, plus a third generating all auxiliary power for communications, lighting, climate, sound and effects. This year we have removed two of them (the third will be removed next year as we ran out of time to install its replacement safely).

As of now all robotics, helicopter, rover, all Martian character mechanisms, communications, lighting, sound system atmospheric smoke [etc.] are running off six LiFePo battery packs, weighing over 1 ton for a total of over 150 KWh of energy.

The iron phosphates were chosen for a number of reasons, safety due to close proximity to the public being one of the main ones [see more background about the connection between electric vehicles and iron phosphate energy storage here].

The Electric Vehicle Of The Future: Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose

The auto industry has been recycling itself for generations, an effort that now includes electric vehicle battery recycling, so it’s no surprise to see the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association focusing like a laser on resource management.

CleanTechnica: What kinds of materials were most easily recycled from the previous year? What recommendations do you have for others to recycle/repurpose float materials?

Koeppen: The majority of the recycling has been the planned and judicious use of uniform sizes of steel that we can re-purpose. Additionally various foams that are carved can be re-carved down smaller each year; sheet foams are totally re-usable, floral is dried and ground and used as dry base in following year. Using electrical motors and gears vs. many gallons of hydraulic fluid [is another example].

The lighter non-reusable metals (i.e. screens and so forth) are sent to the recycler. That just leaves the painted expanded spray foam sections to store and use as filler for as long as we can before disposition.

One way to recycle a great deal of a float is to use the same sub-frame (above the chassis which is always a total re-use-as-is item)  and simply decorate over the same fixed pattern. This does indeed work for some, but with that comes a critical reduction in some creativity, lending itself to a certain sense of “been there done that.”

We feel modeling to a Parade theme keeps the wonder alive. So to that end building smarter — using materials than can be cut down smaller and re-used, while minimally backfilling with new — works best for us. We even use better quality hardware down to high grade screws and bolts that last for years rather than get disposed of.

Training The Next Generation Of High Tech Art Makers

The new electric vehicle float is also the latest iteration of an ongoing, free youth training program under the umbrella of the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association, which Koeppen calls the TechNovation Center [not to be confused with another worthwhile youth organization with a similar name].

CleanTechnica: What kinds of skills training does the TechNovation Center provide?

Koeppen: The float site and float build are open classrooms that we offer as a free an open resource; in part to replace the traditional shop and industrial arts classes no longer offered in our public schools. Not as any sort of competition, rather it is a symbiotic resource.

Students that come can receive community service hours, but we are also working with the school district to be able to offer credit.

Students that come here have the opportunity to experience and learn Welding, Design, CAD, Fabrication, Robotics, Hydraulics and Electrical to name a few disciplines. All under the big umbrella of “maker.”

We offer and teach what we call the DREAM curriculum: Design Research Engineering Art Maker. And we rarely if ever say no to any idea; indeed our mantra is “Fail to 100%.”

This is a community endeavor and there is a piece and idea of everyone built into this. The ideas and tech that make up the big picture here is the program. Seeing an advanced float come out of the grand collaboration that is then displayed on the world stage, is just the cherry on top that makes the DREAM come alive.

The Rose Parade As A Premier Electric Vehicle Showcase

The electric vehicle innards of the new float will be hidden under a mind-bending display of technological activity including a homage to ingenuity in the form of a drone from the firm Aerovironment (a first for the Rose Parade) and robotics-controlled color-changing floral displays (another first). Still, just knowing that it’s there can make a difference. Hopefully other floatmakers will make the switch to electric vehicles, if not to save the planet then to spare other marchers from having to breathe the exhaust from internal combustion engines and generators.

CleanTechnica: Can you describe why it’s important for a high profile event like the Rose Parade to showcase sustainability?  What kinds of actions have the organizers taken that seem to have the most impact?

Koeppen: Sustainability can often take many forms, more frequently it takes shape in small forms (i.e. a battery powered leaf blower). We feel it is tremendously important to be able use a high profile event such as the Tournament of Roses Parade to display how to think big, witnessing creativity, ingenuity and innovation being applied at the grandest scale.

In this particular case it is also apropos, given that it is a “floral parade” that exudes “green,” so it makes sense that the parade actually is Green.

Social responsibility and being good stewards of our resources is always a positive trait to lead by example, in this case being able to further that and use it as an opportunity to showcase unique skills and applications to achieve it; and much of it is performed by youth learning trade skills. It builds community and a knowledge transfer path for all.

And with that, whether you’re rooting for the Ducks (#1 seed) or the Buckeyes (#8), drop a note in the comment thread and share your thoughts about the first ever electric vehicle float in the Rose Bowl Parade.

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Image (cropped): For the first time ever in Rose Bowl history, an electric vehicle will power a float in the 136th annual Rose Bowl Parade on January 1, 2025 (courtesy of La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association].