Fast Facts | Demo Days Festival San Francisco
📍Location: Alameda Point in the San Francisco Bay Area
🛞 Demo Experiences: More than 22,000 drives and rides across all categories
🎤 EV Reality Check: 15 speakers across two days covered autonomous vehicles, grid infrastructure, and other practical EV topics
🧭 GreenCars Matchmaker: Personalized recommendations included battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, conventional hybrid, and 35-plug-mpg vehicles
Record-Breaking Attendance In the Bay Area
Demo Days made its first stop in the Bay Area this year, and it turned out to be the biggest weekend the festival has run. Held right on the water at Alameda Point on August 22 and 23, Demo Days allowed attendees to experience everything with a motor: gas, hybrid, or electric, with two wheels or four, over dirt or asphalt.
With over 30,000 attendees across two days, Bay Area Demo Days drew the largest crowd in the festival's history. Attendees came from all over Northern California and the entire Bay Area, including the South Bay, East Bay, San Francisco, and the North Bay. Some even came from out of state. Here's a little bit of what they got to experience.
Test Driving the Latest Vehicles
Eighty percent of surveyed attendees said they came specifically to test-drive something. The lineup of vehicles available to test drive included passenger cars from first-time auto exhibitors Honda and Ram, alongside Toyota, Tesla, Jeep, Kia, Hyundai, and Rivian, including the first-ever public demo of the all-new Rivian R2. Attendees could also view a display truck from Slate, one of the fledgling automaker's first public showings. It's a good example of what makes Demo Days special: getting people behind the wheel of the latest, most anticipated vehicles.
The test drives took place on a nearby airstrip, and the layout encouraged back-to-back cross-shopping. Many visitors turned a single trip into multiple test drives across multiple brands and powertrains in the same afternoon.
Bike, Scoot, and Skate
Test driving a passenger vehicle is a big reason people attend Demo Days, but it’s also a place to try out emerging technologies, like scooters, e-bikes, and electric skateboards. Thirty-nine percent of surveyed attendees said they came specifically to ride an e-bike, and by the end of the weekend, the festival had logged over 12,000 micromobility demos. Demo Days is always staying ahead of where transportation is headed next.
Trying an e-bike back-to-back with other mobility options can make the differences much clearer, so see what to consider before buying and owning an e-bike ➜
Attendees could also walk through a display of boats, campers, overlanding rigs, and fully loaded pickup trailers to see how they're laid out and built, alongside future tech like humanoid robots, eVTOLs, and flying cars. FMX pros launched over full-size ramps overhead between zones.
One in five surveyed attendees said the Solar + Energy Zone was the reason they came, where they could see home solar, whole-home battery storage, and EV charging setups from top installers. It's a great place to have nearly every question about solar and energy answered at once.
EV Reality Check and GreenCars' Matchmaker
The GreenCars EV Reality Check stage hosted 15 speakers over two days and covered topics that future EV buyers are wondering about, such as home charging, grid infrastructure, purchasing used, and roadside assistance. Nearly 60% of attendees were homeowners and plan to buy a vehicle in the next year.
Home charging was one of the biggest ownership questions at EV Reality Check, so get a straightforward introduction to Level 1, Level 2, and DC fast charging ➜
GreenCars was on-site giving attendees a chance to try the Matchmaker tool. With so many vehicles available for test drives, attendees could use the questionnaire to narrow down their must-try list. By asking about daily travel needs, local weather, and what they wanted in their next vehicle, the tool returned five recommendations.
Matchmaker can recommend several powertrain types because there is no single cleaner-car solution for everyone, so compare hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric vehicles before choosing your next step ➜
GreenCars was also supported by BMW of San Francisco and Diablo Subaru of Walnut Creek, which brought a 2026 BMW X5 Plug-in Hybrid and a 2026 all-electric Subaru Trailseeker.
Keep Exploring What Demo Days Put to the Test
Inside Demo Days Los Angeles With GreenCars
See how the first Demo Days stop of 2026 combined more than 39,000 rides and drives with EV education and personalized GreenCars recommendations.
Read More ➜
GreenCars Expands Matchmaker to Help More Drivers Find the Right Cleaner Vehicle
See how GreenCars broadened Matchmaker beyond EVs to include plug-in hybrids, conventional hybrids, and efficient 35-plus-mpg vehicles.
Read More ➜
2027 Rivian R2 First Drive Review: A Smaller Rivian, A Better Ride
The R2 made its first public driving appearance at Demo Days Bay Area, and our first-drive review explains what shoppers can expect from Rivian’s smaller EV.
Read More ➜
