November 2016 – My ActiveE Made Me Accidentally Environmental

Traveling without your EV? Here’s how we do it, most recent stop, Perth, Australia

We love to travel.

Even before our many roadtrips in the Model S, we used to fly all over the place. However, the past few years, we’ve done more driving than flying.

When we went on airplane trips, we always made note of EVs and EV infrastructure wherever we went.

From visiting the BMWi Park Lane store in London when the BMWi brand was still in the concept stage.

To spotting Nissan Leaf at Hong Kong airport.

To EV charging stations throughout Malta.

One of the things that I tried to do during the past few years was to catch up and have dinner or lunch or whatever with someone that I’ve gotten to know in the International EV community. First it was one-on-one meetups with specific people when I visit a country. And then, last year I figured that it would be more fun to get together with groups of fellow rEVolutionaries on my International trips.

Last year, while visiting England for Rugby World cup 2015, I figured to send a message out to meet up with the EV community in the UK. I’m pretty active on the Speak EV forum, even volunteering as a moderator.

Speak EV is a great forum for EV enthusiasts because it is not focused on a specific brand of Electric Vehicle. Many of the really popular ones are. But Speak EV is different and that’s what I like about it. The owner/operator for Speak EV is British and many members are from the UK, the presence outside of the UK is mainly Europeans, though there are quite a few of us from this side of the Pond. I started a thread last year to invite folks for this get together that I called the TransAtlantic EV Social and Drinks.

Here’s a panorama that was taken by Tim Ostler at the event.

TransAtlantic EV Meetup - 2015-October-29

From left to right: @Sussex Trug , @MikeProcter and Hilary Procter, @Dennis and Carolyn Pascual, @dpeilow , @RickMGoldie

And then one which we asked someone to take our picture (to include Tim)

It was funny because it was an EV Meetup without the EVs. We all had a great time and I truly enjoy comparing EV experiences with folks in different countries.

So, last month, we decided to take a trip to Perth, Australia. A distance of 9,528 miles from Los Angeles via Sydney, Australia. Now, I started off by reaching out to a few guys on Twitter who happen to be involved with the AEVA West Coast branch (Australian Electric Vehicle Association) I also figured to reach out to the Tesla Owners Club of Australia and via a post on Teslamotorsclub.com. We haven’t been to Perth since 2005 and it was a chance to spend time and visit my godsiblings and the new baby that joined their family.

So, on Thursday, October 20, 2016, we had a meetup at the Odyssea Restaurant at City Beach.

From left to right: Antony Day, Christopher Cook, Matt (@MDK on TMC) [partially blocked], Chris Jones, Joseph Law, My better half, Me, and my godbrother Aaron.

Here’s a better picture from Twitter… (Matt’s not blocked on this one.)

EV meetup with @dennis_p @electriccarbuyr @g4qber @TransOzTesla pic.twitter.com/37LgFx9Amp

— E.V. Grin (@antday) October 20, 2016

My godbrother chose the restaurant for the food and service, but also for the large parking lot so that we can take these sort of shots.

Not an EV, but a cool vanity plate.

Matt with his cool “plate”

He was the first EV to cross the Null Arbor part of Australia. Basically, the Outback for thousands of kilometers on his Perth to Brisbane and back trip from earlier in the year. For those of us in the US, that’s like crossing the Us from San Diego to Baltimore and back. Where the only supercharging available would be the original one in California. Luckily, Australia has a lot of three phase power and Matt has an older Model S that can still make use of the 22kW available on dual charging.

Besides, it’s always fun when we visit different places and spot interesting road crossing signs. Our first trip to Australia in 2003, we had my godparents drive us all over WA to look for a Kangaroo crossing sign and tried to capture a Kookaburra sitting on a gum tree. We’ve been to visit Oz many times since, so I didn’t go out of my way to spot any of these things… However, whilst out and about the city, we did spot some interesting signs.

Spotted the ultra aggressive Black Swans that the river in Perth was named after.

Funny enough, our first trip here over a dozen years ago, we were chased by a Black Swan, so my better half took this shot using the zoom lens on her camera.

Also get to see a magpie… And now I understand why the Collingwood Magpies have them as a mascot. This particular bird was also unperturbed by our presence at the park when we were hanging out and enjoying time with our godsister’s new baby.

On the Friday of our visit there, we went to catch a basketball game at the Perth Arena.

We parked in the parking garage across from the arena. I was impressed that the parking garage had several charging outlets as well as a dedicated EV charging bay.

The one EV charging bay was respected by the ICE drivers and the first-come-first-serve spots that had plugs still had a spot available for another plug-in vehicle to use.

Since these are first-come-first-serve and not dedicated to EV charging, it was perfectly fine for ICE cars to be using these spots.

And many ICE vehicles did take these spots, but at least respected the dedicated EV spot.

This means that as EVs proliferate in their city, they can start claiming those outlets for EVs easily.

The basketball game itself was quite fun and the Perth Wildcats won that game.

It was impressive to see the winning record and staying power of the Perth basketball team in its league.

It was also quite entertaining seeing the different things that fans do at these games vs. the NBA.

Those crazy huge head signs would not be allowed in the NBA by the competition committee.

Unfortunately, the Super Rugby and AFL were out of season, but I did get a chance to see their various organizations represented.

The Perth Spirit, which is the division below the Western Force Super Rugby team actually had its players getting ready for their trip to the Grand Finals (which they won as an away game over the weekend of our trip to Perth.) Perhaps we brought them luck.

We also passed by Domain Stadium (which I remember as the Subiaco Oval) (where both the West Coast Eagles and Freemantle Dockers have been playing for years, but apparently both abandoning soon.)

Later that weekend, we took time to speak with some of the same AEVA crew as they did their EV advocacy at the Perth Spring Eco-Fest in Perth’s Central Business District (CBD), or “downtown” as we would call it in LA.

It wasn’t all EVs, got to see a really tiny Joey.

Which made me a little guilty that I had the kangaroo at lunch the other day with the AEVA.

I finally got to sit behind the wheel of a RWD Model S…

And one that has the same color as our Model S at that.

Got to see all the different charging plugs that the guys in Australia use for their Model S. Especially in Perth, where there is no supercharging network.

The charging port is on the same side of the car as the US Model S, which means the driver has to walk around to get to it.

EV conversions still have a big presence in the Australian EV scene as is evidenced by this Mazda Miata.

We took a photo with the fellow rEVolutionaries at the Spring Eco-Fest.

From Left to Right: Mitch Bisby, Bruce Armstrong, Robin (or is it Robyn) Dean (Mrs. Blue Heaven on TMC), Me, Better Half, Matt (MDK on TMC), Rob Dean (Mr. Blue Heaven on TMC), and Joseph Law. Unfortunately we didn’t get to be properly introduced or speak with Mitch and Bruce, but had a great time chatting with the others.

It’s interesting to note that many of these rEVolutionaries in Australia had decided to switch to EVs without any of the incentives available to those of us in other parts of the world. Their cost per kWh is also very expensive and they have a government that does not seem to be too friendly for the EV movement. The reason that Tesla has focused its Tesla Energy sales to Australia and Germany has to do with their ability to compete against the utilities in Australia. Solar and battery storage is “on par” with the cost of energy from the grid.

That being said, hats off to these rEVolutionaries in Australia that have decided to take the plunge without the help that many of us get from our government.

On our last day at Perth we went to King’s Park to take a great picture of the city from its vantage point.

And on our last night, we enjoyed a night market before we headed off to fly back home.

All sorts of cuisine and even American food.

We enjoyed our visit and meeting with the local rEVolutionaries and discuss their challenges and triumphs as well as bring some of Australia’s, especially Western Australia (the “other WA State”) best home with us is another highlight.

So, the next time you travel without your EV, you can always see if you can make it a visit with other rEVolutionaries. There are plenty of friendly EV folks out there.

Model S Third Year Anniversary – November 8, 2016

I am drafting this post around 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern on November 8, 2016 as the pundits and media discuss the initial returns of the current Presidential Election Cycle. Everywhere else in the country folks are talking about Election Night 2016. As I write this, we didn’t know who has won the race. The polls in California are not even closed. It’s been a very challenging election season and I thought that it would be good to step away from all that and focus on something I really like to do.

…and that’s write about EVs and my experiences on this blog.

It so happens that November 8 is a significant day in our family. It’s the day that we flew up to Fremont to pick up our Model S from the factory and started our ownership of the Model S. This is one of the big benefits of Tesla, they’re an American company with a factory that actually builds its cars in California.

I did a bunch of “near real-time” posts on the blog that probably would have been best served by Twitter three years ago. But if you’re interested in following that, just click above and follow the subsequent posts.

I decided to publish this post on November 10 to separate my car’s three year anniversary from Election Day and post-Election Day coverage and to emphasize that US produced electrons from the Sun has done its part to save me money and to ensure that we don’t create more veterans of wars for oil. Energy independence means less need to go and fight wars, but I digress.

On November 7, 2016, we brought the Model S in for its annual service. It was originally scheduled for the previous month, but the Roadster has been in for an extended period, so we tried to time it when the Roadster was going to be ready. We brought the car in with slightly above 66,500 miles and picked up the car and brought it home with 66,569 miles on the odometer.

So, what do they do for the three year service? Well, apparently they match it against the mileage of the car. Our car got service as if it was a five year old car at 62,500 mile service.

We had prepaid our first four years of Model S service and were charged accordingly.

Ironically, when we were exiting the freeway to drive to the service center, the TPMS warning light went yellow and rather than stop and check it out ourselves, I figured to go ahead and drive to the service center directly and just report the notice to Tesla. I’m glad to report that even though the tire had a nail in it, and Tesla’s previous policies were to replace the tire, the service center are now patching tires under certain conditions (in a nutshell as long as the sidewall is not compromised.) We are still on our original set of four tires. We even added a fifth one (that is usually in the frunk) and that one is at 8/32. We’ll need to replace those four tires soon (Tesla recommends replacement at 3/32)

The other thing that we reported to Tesla (and had reported it earlier in the year as well) is the continuing and increasing level of milling noise coming from the motor. Our previous request to repair this noise resulted in Tesla notifying us that the noise was within parameters. The last time this occurred was around 25,000 miles and it resulted in the motor being replaced. The noise is a constant whir that occurs between 20-35 mph (32-56 kph) and gradually lessens (though still existent) as the car approaches 55 mph (88 kph) and then is imperceptible to my ears. The error was not as bad as the drivetrain failure on the loaner P85D but is quite irritating and I don’t know if it’s a symptom prior to a bigger failure.

This time around, apparently the noise has gotten to the point that Tesla Engineering has approved the replacement and we are waiting for the replacement part to arrive to re-schedule the repair. Since we just got the car back today, there has not been an estimate on when the service center expects to receive the replacement motor.

In all, the car spent less than 24 hours at the service center and we were able to pick it up “good as new.”

So, how does our three year old car look? Let’s compare to previous pictures at pickup at the factory.

Three Years Ago

Today

Three Years Ago

Today

Three Years Ago

Today

Three Years Ago

Today

So, our car still looks pretty close to how it looked when we picked it up three years ago. Not bad. In fact, if Tesla had not modified the fascia of 2016 Model S, I would dare say that our car would still look brand new.

With the service that we receive from Tesla, we can hopefully say the same for the car many years to come.

Drivetrain failure on a P85D loaner and a temporary solution

So, we brought my better half’s Roadster in for its annual service . Since we scheduled our service a while back, we were able to request and receive a loaner. Our first loaner was a regular P85 and it was a nice ride. However, while the Roadster was in for service, the guys at the service center found an issue when the car was headed back to us after completion of the service.

Roadster parts and service is a little bit more of a challenge to Tesla than Model S service. The issue with the car is still ongoing and the fault has been isolated. In the meantime, the loaner will be with us a little longer than expected. Having never experienced Autopilot as a driver, I requested a swap out of loaners to an AP enabled one, should the service center be able to accommodate. A while after the request, and about a week after we’ve been driving a standard classic Model S P85, we got word from the service center that an AP enabled Model S was available for a swap, so I hurried down to the Service Center to swap out the P85 loaner for a P85D loaner.

Not a Ludicrous P90D, but still insane.

So, aside from auto pilot, we also got Insane. I’ve been through a few Insane launches previously, so I didn’t really care to try that again. One of the things that struck me with this Model S is the upgraded TPMS system that these newer Model S has. Older Model S TPMS did not indicate the status of each individual tire pressure. The Roadster does, but early Model S did not.

The car had firmware 7.1.

One of the best tests for Autopilot is in stop and go traffic and you can see this loaner handling that fine.

Speeding up when the traffic ahead starts to move faster.

We took it out for the weekend. Both the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County (meetup, TMC, or Twitter) and Los Angeles (website or Twitter) decided to go Apple Picking in Yucaipa. We figured it would be a great way to try out the autonomous features and get some experience with Auto Pilot since none of our current Tesla cars have it. We met at the Rancho Cucamonga Supercharger and left for the Apple Farm from there.

The caravan was fun, but we were in the back, and the group ahead of us got there a lot sooner than we did.

Here we are at the Apple Farm with the group.

It was a great long trip to Rancho Cucamonga and Yucaipa. The car performed admirably and I still was not as comfortable as others with the Auto Pilot. It worked great, but I’m just too much of a control freak. The car seems to sit closer to the right side of the lane than I do. Either way, there’s a lot of coverage on AP and now that 8.0 is released and AP 2.0 is getting produced, I’m not adding anything to further the pro or con case for AutoPilot 1.0.

However, I can give some hints on what can be done should you encounter some trouble. This is not an all-inclusive list, just a story of what happened to us and how we temporarily resolved it.

A few days after our club trip for Apple Picking. Something distressing happened. The drivetrain failed. We were doing some errands locally. I was making a left and had the PRND status on the driver dashboard go red, that was strange, so, I put the car on park, and the PRND status went to P. I then switched back to D and it engaged. Figured that this was a weird event, we decided to head home and swap cars.

Five minutes later, we were at a stop and the PRND status went red again. Once again, I didn’t get a picture of the failure because of traffic. Unfortunately for us, we were in Pacific Coast Highway at a stoplight. Now this is a very busy road, and we were a little stressed at the speeds that people behind us were traveling before the stop. We called Tesla Roadside Service to see what was going on. Their solution was to send a tow truck to pick us up. However, we were stalled in the middle of the street. So, we called our service center and were advised to reset the car. Now, it was too dangerous to get out of the car to do this. Turning the car off would have turned off our hazard lights.

The service center had a novel and ingenious way of restarting the car to see if the car can fix itself. While parked. Brace yourself so that you can raise yourself off the seat. Open and close the door quickly. What this does is reset the vehicle. The car went off and then turned back on. Guess what. It worked. The drive train was able to be re-engaged. We were a few minutes from home and were happy to get home unscathed.

Called Tesla back to redirect the tow to our home.

As with any Tesla, the car needs to be towed by a flat bed.

It was an afternoon in Southern California, during Rush Hour… So, we spoke with the service center and they were able to get us a replacement loaner. No auto pilot, but a nice Silver P85. Here is the P85D getting towed.

This loaner has the built in center console and I used to want one. Now, I’m sure I prefer to have the open space.

Bottom line is, the car is great, but if you ever find yourself in a situation where the drive train won’t engage. Try a few things.

1) Put it in Park. (and then switch it back to gear. This worked ONCE and wouldn’t again.)

2) Step out of the car and step back in. (or make it think that you do by lifting your bum off the seat, then open and then close the door.) Car will go “off”. Then start the car as normal.

Hope that helps.

Bolt EV – Meet and Ride EVent with @OCTeslaClub owners

Motor Trend was interested in gauging Tesla owner feedback on a just released Chevy Bolt EV article they just published. A few weeks prior to this EVent, Motor Trend, along with other members of the automotive media got a chance to take the Chevy Bolt EV on some impressive long distance driving from Monterey to Santa Barbara along PCH.

As one of the organizers of the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County, I know a LOT of local Tesla owners and membership interest is a mix between those that enjoy Tesla for all the Eco and Green things and those that enjoy it for all the performance things and some for the luxury things. It’s a mixed bag, but members range the gamut from either or all of these interests. So, with short notice, I sent a note for our members on a Thursday to see how many would be interested in possibly seeing and riding in the Chevy Bolt EV in exchange for being interviewed by Motor Trend for their opinion on the car.

We got a few “takers”, including this writer. (A chance to check out a new EV that can go 236 miles on a full charge? No way am I turning THAT down.)

So, a few things we learned of the crowd that was there. Most were Tesla owners and had reservations for a Model 3. There was one person that joined us who is an i3 (with REX) owner who also had two Model 3 reservations. Of the Tesla owners, we had mostly Model S owners, one Model X owner, and several Roadster owners.

So, how does it look? Here it is among some classic Model S

And a nice Roadster joined the party. Our Model X member was here early and took off before we can get the picture.

I have a bias for Tesla and most things Tesla. However, I root for all EVs, but we’ve put our money behind Tesla. Both as a customer as well and an investor. I believe in what Tesla stands for and as much as it pains me that Elon has stated that he would like to see more EVs, even if it means that Tesla stock takes a hit.

Well, the Chevy Bolt EV is a good swing at Tesla and the Model 3. It’s a solid car. Not a luxury car by any definition, but it’s a long-range EV with seating for five (or four and a half if you look at how small the back seat is.)

But the back seat is definitely big enough for your author and one and a half more people.

The seats may not be that big, but the USB charging in the back is a nice touch.

One of our participants showed up with his baby and we tested the baby seat in there.

It’s a pre-production car, so the anchors were not there and the baby carrier was strapped in “old school” using the seatbelts.

I’m guessing she’s the only baby to have taken a ride in the Bolt EV at this time.

So the key to the Chevy Bolt EV looks like a regular key, not nearly as playful as Tesla’s “car shaped keys.”

The interior of the car isn’t what I would call luxurious, but it definitely is functional and solid. And for those that want to run a CD or even a cassette deck in the car, you can. There is an AUX port in the one delivered for the testers. (Yes, this is a concern. Check out this thread on Model3Ownersclub.com)

The trim level that was brought out was the higher trim level and I wonder what one loses with the lower trim level. At the same time, I wonder how much higher than the $37,495 base trim price this one is. The front of the Bolt EV is pretty comfortable. I don’t think that the seats were leather, they were probably “leatherette”, not sure if they’re vegan friendly though.

The controls and displays in the Bolt EV is a mix of modern and traditional. The infotainment display is slightly larger than the Leaf SV or SL (Acenta or Tekna in the UK), I believe. And there are many traditional controls for many of the functions. One thing missing is a built-in GPS and navigation controls. The vehicle uses the Apple and Google solutions (Carplay and Auto) to project the latest smartphone’s offering to the display rather than use one independent of your mobile device. So, keep those phones current, charged, and in those ecosystems. This is not the first time I’ve experienced this behavior. It seems that my sister’s new Volkswagen E-Golf does the same thing. Considering your author’s primary mobile device is a Blackberry, this is not a preferred method of navigation for my vehicles. I do carry an oft-photographed older iPhone, but I don’t believe that is CarPlay compatible.

The driver’s front display is similar to the Model S in that it is also just a big screen.

On this view from the driver’s seat, you can see that rated miles for the driver and what the car estimates is your current range. This is a function of both the driver’s style and current conditions and the charge on the battery. I don’t remember how many miles of driving conditions it uses to predict for remaining range. As I’ve experienced in many other EVs, the manufacturers algorithms can improve with each iteration and the more one drives the car, the better this algorithm is at predicting its own range.

I’ve grown to like the touchscreen controls on the S, but there is something to be said about physical buttons. Remember, I still carry a Blackberry. 😲

Here is the infotainment screen on the car.

Your shifter.

A regular sized glove compartment. With no gloves (I wonder how many people actually carry gloves in their glove compartments?) (Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory doesn’t count anymore as is evidenced by recent episodes in 2016.)

There doesn’t seem to be much space in the trunk, so it’s good that the car is a hatchback. Another thing that people looking at Model 3’s had an issue with originally. (Size of the trunk/that it’s not a hatchback.)

However, like the Active E or Model S, the Bolt EV has a shelf underneath the rear floor. That’s a good place to carry cables and adapters. Something that is more critical for ex-North American market. In North America, we’ve standardized on J1772 for public Level 2 charging and the cables are attached to public chargers. In other parts of the globe, the charging posts have outlets that the EV driver has to use their own cables to attach to and the standards are not nearly as defined. So, a European driving the Opel Amper-E (their version of the Bolt EV) will need to have a different L2 cable depending on the outlet that they’re plugging into.

It’s a pretty solid build. Close the hatch, and it closed nicely. The whole thing seems fit and finished.

Here’s a picture of the wheel and tires that came with this trim.

So, what’s in the front? Because there isn’t a frunk. The motor is in the front, not in the back like single motor Teslas.

Let’s take a look under the hood (bonnet for our friends that speak the Queen’s English.)

Ooh, aah… I don’t know what that is, but lots of stuff.

I know what that one is… I have that in the front of the Model S… (washer fluid.)

The fuse box is in the front, and inside the hood. That’s interesting. This fuse box was closed, someone opened it and exposed the fuses, so I took a picture.) Looks like the 12V is a standard one too.

As we mentioned earlier, the Bolt EV we looked at had a higher trim, so it includes the CCS charging.

Now, our group of owners all were asked AFTER seeing the car, but before riding in it if we would cancel our Model 3 reservations and get a Bolt EV instead. Not one of the Tesla owners that had a Model 3 reservation raised our hand. The i3 owner, who has two Model 3 reservations, might consider cancelling one of his reservations and his reason was because he likes hatchbacks and the Model 3, as it was announced, does not have a hatchback and instead has a controversial trunk.

Here’s a picture of most of the members that attended this pop-up Orange County Tesla EVent. We have several Roadster and Model S owners in this shot. The one Model X owner who showed up had left earlier.

The folks that participated in this activity had a good time, and you can see me laughing when I was talking to our folks. (That’s me, the brown guy in the Aloha shirt.)

We shot a few videos during the event. I unfortunately forgot to save the videos locally when I did it on Periscope, so here’s hoping that those guys don’t delete it.

Periscope Video 1

https://www.periscope.tv/dennis_p/1lPKqqLzQgZKb

Here is Motor Trend getting the Bolt EV ready for the drive and recording the folks riding in them.

Periscope Video 2

https://www.periscope.tv/dennis_p/1OdKrYWwLYVxX?

Here is a view of me in the car riding off with the writer.

And here is the view from within the car for the ride.

Periscope Video 3

https://www.periscope.tv/dennis_p/1djGXYoXbzVJZ?

View from the backseat of the Bolt EV

One of the cool things that the car has is this switch in the rear-view mirror. This switch toggles between acting as a mirror and a rear-view camera monitor to provide the driver with a wider view of the rear. Watch the video above to see it placed in action.

We’ve compared the Bolt EV beside the Tesla Roadster and Model S… But, it’s really better to compare the size of the Bolt EV to a BMW i3. It was good to get a BMW i3 owner to come out and join us on this event as those two cars really look about the same size.

However, I always feel like I’m “riding high” on an i3 and I didn’t feel this so much on the Bolt EV.

So, someone with an i3 in their garage can easily move from their i3 to the Bolt EV, just have to remember that the plugs are on opposite ends of the car. The Bolt EV’s plug is in the front driver side and the i3 has it in the rear of the car.

Both of those EVs are still bigger than a Roadster.

Though you wouldn’t be able to tell from this angle.

So, what do I think of the Bolt EV? I actually think that it’s a better fit for my mom and her lifestyle. I tried to convince her to change her Model 3 reservation, or at least one of her Model 3 reservations to a Bolt EV. She quickly rebuffed me and said, “I’ll keep my Tesla.”

The challenge is those that want a Tesla Model 3 are doing so not just to drive a long-distance EV. It’s because the Tesla has become an aspirational brand. The Model 3 is to Tesla as the 1 or 3 series is to BMW. It is the “entry-level” car to get folks into the “luxury” car segment. Granted, there is a certain “relativism” in how one defines luxury, but to many in the public, Tesla is it. How many of the 300k+ reservations are going to move to GM and the Bolt EV? I believe some, just not sure “how many.”

Here’s another link to the Motor Trend article of the event.

To see more pictures of the Bolt EV that I have taken, including the shots from this day, head to my flickr album look for the same colored Bolt EV for this event.