EVS39 is coming to California this summer (June 22–26, 2026).
To Long Beach, to be specific. The Electric Vehicle Symposium has its roots in the late 1960s, and has long focused on the intersection of research, policy, and deployment.. That history matters. EVS has never really been about hype cycles or big announcements. It has always been a place where research, policy, and real-world deployment start colliding in practical ways.
What makes EVS interesting is the mix of people in the room. Researchers presenting work that is no longer speculative. Policymakers paying attention to what is technically possible and what is already stressing existing systems. OEMs, infrastructure players, and operators comparing notes on what actually scales once pilots turn into operations. See https://evs39.com for more information on the event.
Over the years, EVS has consistently surfaced the same tension. The technology may be ready, but the system around it often is not. Grid capacity, charging infrastructure, regulation, supply chains, and coordination between public and private actors tend to be the real bottlenecks.
That is why Long Beach is a fitting location. Ports, logistics flows, air quality mandates, dense urban mobility, and infrastructure constraints all meet there. It is the kind of environment where the gap between theory and practice becomes very clear, very fast.
For European and Dutch companies watching the U.S. EV market, EVS is a useful checkpoint. Not to see what is new, but to understand what is becoming viable, what is slowing down, and what still breaks when innovation meets market reality.EVS tends to surface where progress is real and where friction remains, especially once technology meets infrastructure and policy.
If you are attending EVS39, or tracking it from a distance, I am curious what questions you are bringing into it this year.
