NORMAL — Richard Struck is the kind of person organizers hoped to attract Thursday to the EVening of EVs at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in uptown Normal.

Struck lives in Tonica and works in Streator, and he grows organic fruits and vegetables for local markets. An environmentally conscious lifestyle is important to him, and he sees an electric vehicle as part of that.

“I’m an electrician by trade, so I understand electric vehicles like forklifts, so they aren’t a foreign concept to me,” he said.

He has test-driven a Nissan Leaf in Peru and came to Normal just for the EV event, he said. Still, he’s not quite ready to buy one, he said.

Struck was among dozens of people who filled the meeting room, milling about the cars and chatting with vendors representing everything from charging stations to electric bicycles. They could sit in and admire cars ranging from a Mitsubishi i subcompact to a Fisker Karma, a six-figure, luxury sports car.

Struck said one of his concerns is range in rural areas with few charging stations. Driving an EV is “like always driving a car with a quarter-tank of gas,” he said.

Normal Mayor Chris Koos said he was pleased with the turnout Thursday because it let people ask such questions. “Range anxiety” is a common concern, and that it why the Twin Cities hope to have 50 charging stations installed around town by this summer as part of the ongoing “EVTown” effort, Koos said.

He said electric cars now can run 60 to 100 miles between charges, but the race is on to break the 300-mile range barrier.

Bill Roberson of Hubbell, a charging station vendor, envisions a day when charging stations will be all over parking lots at Walmarts, McDonalds and other retailers, who will see them as a cheap way to attract customers.

Showing off the Mitsubishi i, Bill Danosky, a sales associate for O’Brien Mitsubishi in Normal, said he answered a lot of questions about the model, including range. The i’s practical range is about 80 miles but it gets the equivalent of 112 miles to the gallon, he said, and people smile at that.

“People are in love with the idea of not paying for gas,” he said. “It feels like they are getting away with something.”

Dave Bevans of Bloomington, who retired after 47 years working in car plants, was displaying a 1982 Honda Gold Wing motorcycle he is converting to electric power. He said carmakers made mistakes in the past that almost killed EV technology, but he is confident they finally are on the right track.

Surveying the room, he said, “What is the future? This is it. This is the beginning.”