Tesla Model S – Page 2 – My ActiveE Made Me Accidentally Environmental

A little “life hack”… Amazon Echo Dot in our Tesla Model S

So, like many people, we received an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas.

I actually ordered one for us when we decided to GIVE an Echo Dot to my Father-In-Law for his Christmas gift. I wanted to get familiar with the technology before taking on the role of “Alexa Tech Support” for him. We also decided to get an Echo Dot for my techie sister, but I didn’t need to train myself to be her “Alexa Tech Support.”

As a result, we now own multiple Amazon Echo Dots. [As I was writing this post, I realized that Amazon has an affiliate program, so many of the links to Amazon on this post is signed up under that program.]

For those unfamiliar with the Echo Dot, it’s basically a stripped down Amazon Echo integrated high fidelity speaker and voice “assistant” that Amazon created to help stream music and is configurable with many add-on “skills.” It’s basically Siri for your home. However, rather than wake her with the phrase Siri, you call her by her name “Alexa”, (or configure the trigger word to be Amazon or Echo). (On a side note, Google saw what Amazon has done and created the Google Home as a response to Amazon’s Echo. However, the Echo Dot is the less expensive alternative, using a basic speaker as opposed to the high end speakers in the original Echo and the Google Home.) The Echo Dot’s price point without the integrated speakers make it a less expensive way to get into the genre. In lieu of high fidelity speakers, the Echo Dot can be connected via a 3.5mm plug or Bluetooth.

To get the full audio entertainment possibilities for Echo and its eco-system, it is best to have a full Prime membership and the new add-ons that Amazon now sell (Amazon Music which unlocks a whole world of music, in addition to what is already included with Prime Music) I have yet to take that plunge and am currently working with just Prime Music. The base system comes with basic TuneIn included and I find that I Heart Radio can be easily accessed with a free account, the other supported music providers are Pandora and Spotify, neither of which work on Alexa without a premium account, so I don’t use those. Now, with the original Echo, the sound quality is superior and the little speakers on the Echo Dot will do for the indiscriminate listener, however, if you wish to use better speakers, that’s entirely possible by just attaching them to the 3.5mm or pairing via Bluetooth.

With Prime Music, coupled with my own library of albums, I am able to stream music randomly by genre or artist by default. Such as when I ask “Alexa, play Sting” when she responds by “Shuffling songs by Sting” or a specific album, “Alexa, play The Police, Ghost in the Machine” and she responds “Ghost In the Machine, Remastered, by the Police” or my favorite, “Alexa, play New Wave music” and she says “Here is a Station for New Wave music, New Wave.”. I believe that the Amazon Music that I currently don’t subscribe to just expands the universe of albums available. I like to listen to music in complete albums. I’m “old school” like that. I believe that it’s the way that the artists intended for us to experience their work, so it’s great to just listen to albums that I purchased from Amazon directly or the ones provided on Prime Music.

As I started playing around with the Echo Dot, I was amazed at all the little things she can do using voice control. The audio entertainment options are pretty good, but I found that I like having Alexa with me as my voice assistant in my office. I can keep writing and just have her read Wikipedia articles, tell me the weather, tell me a joke, give me my Daily Briefing, give me the latest scores for my favorite sports teams, start or stop my lawn sprinklers, etc.

In the meantime, my techie sister received her own Alexa, and we were chatting about “her” to my sister and we briefly talked about the possibility of integrating Alexa into the car. Considering that Alexa’s Bluetooth capabilities, we thought to give it a try. (Apparently, we were not the only ones thinking about this, here’s a thread on TMC on the same exact thing.)

So, yesterday, I tried driving around with Alexa as my co-pilot.

So, what did I bring with me.

1) Amazon Echo Dot (or “Alexa” as we now call her in our family.)

2) A wi-fi hotspot device

A) A Novotel Mifi Hotspot that I have that uses 3G

B) Enable my mobile’s hotspot function for 4G/LTE.

3) Re-use an existing Micro-USB charging cable in the car.

That was it. Granted the Amazon Echo Dot that I set up in the car was previously configured at home, so we’re skipping that setup, we’re just moving the device from the office to the car. (One of the nice things that Amazon has done is when adding an additional Echo device to the home, it already inherits the Skills learned on the account.)

Step 1

Since we’re starting out with an already configured Echo Dot, we have to get it ready to reconfigure. So, after we plug it into the car, we press the Action Button for Five seconds until the Orange Ring comes back on and go back to setting it up for the new Wi-Fi.

Step 2

This setup assumes that you’ve already configured the Echo Dot at home, so I already had the Alexa App downloaded to my iPad.

We connect to the Echo Dot via Wi-Fi so that we can use the Alexa App to configure its Wi-Fi to

After connecting to the Echo Dot, it will ask you for a few things on the setup screen, the important thing to get everything running is the setup for WiFi, find the mobile hotspot and enter the password OR if it’s hidden, enter the information.

Step 3

For the next step, I’m assuming that you want to use the Echo Dot as a Sound Source for your Model S. I initially started this process on the Alexa App. I went to Settings, selected the Echo Dot that we brought with us and started the Bluetooth Pairing there…

…then decided mid-way to just use the Model S Bluetooth option…

and selected the only Amazon BT that was broadcasting in the parking lot…

and voila… it worked…

Pay attention to the grayed out Phone and highlighted Media section… This means that to switch to this input, you lose Phone access. (one of my early complaints about the Model S is the fact that the car only connects to ONE Bluetooth device at a time, my old Active E can connect to several and designate one BT as primary for phone calls… But I digress.)

Step 4

Next comes placement of the device in the car… At first, I placed my Echo Dot in the cup holder.

But as ANY Tesla owner can tell you, Tesla cup holder locations are a premium in their vehicles (the Roadster has ONE). So, I ended up relocating Alex down on the base of my car, right beside my Mifi box.

We’re now all set to use Alexa for streaming music while we drove. This worked fine, but I make a lot of calls when I’m out and about and this was not a “safe” way to use it, so I disconnected Alexa from the BT and used her independently of the Model S speakers.

One thing to bear in mind is in EITHER configuration, I had to tell Alexa to go to Volume 8 (maximum) so that I can hear her and the streaming on the Model S Bluetooth can be equivalent to content on the Model S infotainment system.

So, how was it?

Here are a couple of quick 30 second demo videos that I shot. The first one shows Alexa playing the music through the car speakers… One thing that we lose is the display of the music that is playing, it’s no problem, but we have to ask Alexa for the song title, etc if we want to know what is playing. Convenient at home, but on the road, I like the Model S Infotainment display information.

In this second video, we have Alexa as a co-pilot/companion on the drive. So, she has her own speaker, she’s a little faint, but I use the car’s infotainment for the music and Alexa can tell me things that I don’t have to look away from the drive. Things like what the current score is for the Laker game or tell me a joke. One thing that I tried, but didn’t shoot on video was to see if Alexa can independently tell me what music is playing nearby (a la Shazam)… She doesn’t understand that skill. So, I guess I’ll have to see if Shazam will build that skill for Alexa.

Issues

1) The way I had it set-up, Alexa would turn-off and restart everytime I leave and get back in the car. This creates a delay.

2) On 3G and on LTE I got hiccups on the streaming and answers. So, I chalk that up to network providers. As this didn’t matter whether I was on Bluetooth or on Alexa’s own speakers.

3) Not an integration issue, but a syntax one. Alexa currently is pretty picky with syntax, so if you don’t phrase it the same way that Alexa expects, she doesn’t do what you want.

Fixes

1) Get a battery for Alexa. (luckily here’s an Amazon search for Amazon Echo batteries).

A) I haven’t selected one yet, but I’m leaning on getting this one –
Evo – an intelligent Battery Base for 2nd Generation Echo Dot. (“Alexa” unlimited) (EVO Black)

2) The LTE connection that I had was better than the 3G one, but I wanted to try it out and having multiple providers is useful to see the effect. In the end, a 3G network will suffice. However, it is important to get a better network connection. Also, it will be important to know that Alexa, like the car’s streaming infotainment does require that a network connection be available. Something that may or may not be available on longer drives.

3) Skills, skills, skills. And further enhancement of the product.

Future

In the end, it was novel to have Alexa with me on my drive and errands yesterday, but there’s still a way to go before she becomes a fixture on our long EV trips (like our Here, There, and EVerywhere or Long Way Round trips.) Let’s hope that more skills are developed for Alexa that will tie in with the Model S better. I find myself tempted to buy some Electric Motor Werks chargers because they HAVE an Alexa Skill built for the Juicebox… Maybe some other time…

Besides, if Tesla ever removes Slacker from the Model S, an Echo Dot with Alexa paired might be a good alternative…

Are you in the market for a Tesla Model S or Tesla Model X? Please think of using my referral code. I need one more for luggage and you save $1000 USD or £750 GBP (or whatever currency equivalent is in your country.) Referral purchases are what powered our Gigafactory Party invite and our jacket and overnight bag.

A few things about those Tesla Referral Links…

Some of you may be getting tired of all the Tesla Referral codes being published by Tesla Owners for $1000 USD / £750 GBP (or whatever it is in your currency) off the purchase of a new Model S or Model X. (In case you’re not, here’s our referral code – http://ts.la/dennis5317)

Well, it’s because Tesla has a referral program for owners to get their friends and acquaintances into a Tesla Model S or Model X. The original iteration of the program had provided cash rewards (service credits and the like) for each referral that purchases a Model S or Model X. That was cool, but felt kinda “funny” and it was actually a disincentive for me to participate when the reward program was for cash. Here is a link to the current program.

Subsequent programs provided a prize pool for each referral and the one that has been the most successful for me had been the referral program that led us to an invite to the gigafactory party and our main 2016 Roadtrip that took us the Long Way Round to the Gigafactory.

Aside from the party, we got a few other items…

What did we get here?

Whatever it is, it comes in the nice Tesla bag.

It’s the Tesla Moab Leather Weekender.

The bag is supposed to be for a weekend, but it was pretty full for the overnight trip we took to try it out.

And here it is in the trunk of our Model S.

So, we took the weekender bag on a trip and caught a nice sunset at the Barstow supercharger.

A week after the trip, we got something else in the mail from Tesla.

It was the personalized Tesla Owners jacket. They even put our last name on the jacket.

The back has a nice standard logo on it. So, beware when wearing this jacket at a company event, folks might think that you’re an employee.

Your author now ready for a Southern California winter…

Or as others call it… Summer.

Now, this current program that runs until January 15 is actually pretty cool. After seven referrals, Tesla will provide the referrer with a Signature Red Powerwall 2 that is signed by Elon, JB Straubel, and Franz von Holzhausen. That’s my goal and need a LOT of help before then.

So, if you’re looking to order a Tesla Model S or Model X before the end of the year, you get $1000 USD or £750 GBP off (or equivalent currency) AND be eligible for free supercharging for the life of your vehicle. Our Referral code – http://ts.la/dennis5317.

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.

Tesla Solar EVent

On Friday, October 28, 2016, approximately a year and a half since the original Tesla Energy launch EVent on April 30, 2015, Tesla improved upon the PowerWall and PowerPack, Tesla revisited Tesla Energy with the launch of the Tesla/Solar City product launch for the Solar Shingles.

Tesla Energy 2015 Launch

I did a bunch of tweets during the original Tesla Energy, PowerWall and PowerPack launch event from April 30, 2015…

(Here’s a link to the Flickr album from the Tesla Energy event.)

Some selected tweets from the original Tesla Energy Event:

Still waiting for Elon to show up at PowerWall Tesla Home Battery #TeslaLive https://t.co/C24NB1RnB9

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) May 1, 2015

The @TeslaMotors Home Battery solution in a nice red! #TEatTesla https://t.co/LMbj1gecE5

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) May 1, 2015

The Home solution is slightly wider than an iPhone 4s #TEatTesla https://t.co/2odpKLpbkE

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) May 1, 2015

#StackedPower #TeslaEnergy RT @dennis_p: Close up of the Commercial @TeslaMotors 100kWh pack #TEatTesla http://t.co/N5iJGyO4hG

— Anthony Nanas (@dhuDz) May 1, 2015

Your correspondents for @Teslarati @danielsparks on left @dennis_p on right #TeslaLive https://t.co/D8GCzbz9Cj

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) May 1, 2015

Tesla Solar Event

The focus of the event held by Tesla this past Friday, October 28, 2016, at Universal Studios Hollywood was on the newly unveiled Solar Roofing products that were developed in conjunction with Solar City. As impressive as this product line is, the Solar Roof is definitely not a financial fit in our current configuration. Many who follow this blog will note that we just achieved our break-even point this past year (the fourth year of our twenty year agreement for Solar power) and paid less than $20 for all of the fourth year of energy (not counting taxes.)

One could say that neither the PowerWall nor its succeeding product, the PowerWall2 really makes economic sense for our use case either. With net-metering still in effect in California, the economics of the PowerWall2 is not the reason to go ahead and purchase one. However, coupled with time-of-use, and the whole-house backup capabilities of the PowerWall2, it looks like a great solution for a whole-house backup system. With our summer peaks generating power at 40 kWh, two units may be all we’ll ever need. I intend to recharge the system during the super off-peak time of day and get more bang for our buck by feeding back our solar production to the grid at a higher rate. Southern California is known to be very seismically active, and a whole-house backup system might just be something that would be really cool to have.

I was involved in tweeting out details for the event this past Friday through both my own account and my friends at Teslarati’s as well. The guys at Teslarati had family commitments to attend to during the event and I was approached to see if I could possibly cover their Twitter feed for them, so I embed those tweets that I sent out here. Hope those of you that follow Teslarati and my Twitter accounts enjoyed the coverage.

Gearing up for #Tesla solar roof event, 1st must beat LA traffic. pic.twitter.com/iLrM4t8Ewx

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

We’re in the neighborhood. Still in traffic. pic.twitter.com/Fr57HOAP2B

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

Spotting fellow @TeslaMotors owners is a good sign that we’re headed the right direction #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/7XBtU8Bq4t

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

Waiting to park. Looks like we followed the right guys #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/ZhQ8si0J93

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

We’re waiting to park with a few of our closest @TeslaMotors friends #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/3dKgV0q1Cb

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

Hanging out, waiting and tweeting for @Teslarati today #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/tq53Hurwss

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) October 28, 2016

Top notch security at the event #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/xENAQt0Z6r

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

Elon’s not the only one with magic at this place! #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/T9Gqi39xvJ

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

We’re badged for the event. #TeslaAnnouncement pic.twitter.com/UYEy4nCtkX

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2016

The @TeslaMotors Solar announcement is hanging out at a famous set. pic.twitter.com/grYhdnFCtD

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 29, 2016

It’s a backyard barbecue at the @TeslaMotors Announcement event today. The food is good! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/gyeburUD1G

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 29, 2016

A @TeslaMotors powered neighborhood? yes please! Check out the solar shingles. pic.twitter.com/9wdicbThcR

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 29, 2016

Waiting for Elon… as usual. 😜 https://t.co/B17vTvf9gm

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 29, 2016

Since I committed to cover the event for Teslarati, I figured that we should arrive a little early. No press pass for me, but covering it as an owner was fine for them.

The valet at this event provided sent us a text with a mobile website to handle the request and retrieval of our vehicle, it’s a lot more greeen than handing us a paper voucher. I don’t remember whether they had this system at the last event we drove in for. It’s been a while that we valet parked a vehicle at a Tesla EVent since the last Tesla event for us was the Gigafactory Party that was the subject of our Long Way Round Round trip. However, we took a loaner to the event. So, I photographed the vehicle and key to ensure that I know what I’m looking for. Just in case this SMS ticket method were to fail.

We were among the first ten cars through the valet and had been asked to wait in a lounge area to the right of the check in desk until they opened the “neighborhood” area.

I think that the folks were unprepared for the number of people forced to wait in this area. It was standing room only.

Luckily, the wait was not too long before the “neighborhood” was opened for us to enjoy. Fans of the old “Desperate Housewives” set will recognize the set as “Wisteria Lane.”

Tesla’s catering services were the best that we’ve had in the various parties that we’ve attended. The neighborhood setting had enough seating, the food and drink was plentiful and did not run out as they have in the past. There was a mix of self-serve sections as well as server provided locations.

The bar lines were manageable and had a good selection of wine and other drinks.

A few panoramics of the first neighborhood, before the section with the four remodeled houses was opened for the presentation.

And right around 5:30pm, they let us into the neighborhood with the new Solar Tiles.

Here’s the stage with the sun shining brightly on it.

I was able to take one panoramic shot of the stage and the two closest houses to it. On the left side of the stage is the house that the Model 3 prototype will emerge from later in the presentation. I didn’t actually notice it emerge as I was closer to the right side of the stage.

Here’s a closer shot of the house with the Model 3 in the garage before it emerged during Elon’s presentation.

The house on the right’s shingles was more obviously solar shingles. However, aesthetically they were quite pleasing.

While waiting for the event to start, we were looking at the two houses on our left and were wondering whether they were solar shingles. Something that Elon revealed as fact during the presentation. The Tuscan Solar Tile, as this model was revealed later, is ideal for many homes in Southern California.

I even tweeted my suspicions just prior to Elon’s talk.

I wonder if these are all solar shingles! @Teslarati pic.twitter.com/ULGR2Cfubq

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) October 29, 2016

Tuscan glass tile @TeslaMotors and @solarcity roof is built for @OCTeslaClub members. Lots of those roofs in CA pic.twitter.com/hfe62DB78a

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) October 29, 2016

The Presentation

Since the presentation was a joint Solar City/Tesla Event, it started off with a few minutes with Lyndon Rive, Solar City’s CEO and Elon Musk’s first cousin.

Afterwards, Elon spoke.

Here’s Tesla’s official YouTube video of the event:

Needless to say… The Solar Tiles are impressive. However, as I previously mentioned, we recently re-roofed when we installed our Solar Panels four years ago. So, that’s just not going to happen. We paid less than $20 for last year’s power and have recently hit our break-even point for our solar panels.

We did take a few good close ups, but a lot of the pictures can be seen on our Flickr Album of the event.

Here are some of the pictures on the album above.

Even though we’re probably not going with the cool solar tiles, the whole house backup thing though is VERY tempting. So tempting that we put in a deposit for a few of them.

How many you may ask? Probably more than we needed… But here’s a hint.

Especially since the new version can be more efficiently mounted and stacked this way.

Multiple stacked @TeslaMotors Powerwall 2 can be installed on top of each other! pic.twitter.com/M5XwPW3SUe

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) October 29, 2016

The original PowerWall had to be installed side by side and mounted on the wall.

Looks really cool, but I think it’s probably more efficient to install it stacked.

One other thing about that Powerwall… It’s capacity is doubled in the same amount of space at less than double the price, considering the fact that the AC-DC Inverters are included. I also did the iPhone 4 width test that I did with PowerWall 1 with PowerWall 2.

PowerWall 1 compared to an iPhone 4.

PowerWall 2 compared to an iPhone 4.

Color me impressed.

Model 3

The surprise for me was the appearance of the Prototype Model 3 at such close proximity.

The @TeslaMotors #Model3 is at the Solar Event. This is the neighborhood for me. @Teslarati https://t.co/u5UOhwudCJ

— Dennis Pascual (@dennis_p) October 29, 2016

The album for the event has a lot more pictures of the Model 3, but here are a few more shots.

It’s bigger than I had hoped. It is smaller than the Model S, but bigger than the Active E. We got a few great shots in before security cordoned off the vehicle from closer inspection.

Still a great shot that the better half took of me with the Model 3 in the background.

We didn’t get any good interior shots, but this was the best shot of the Model 3 interior… Security was starting to cordon off and was kicking us out.

It may be bigger than what I expected, but I still like the Model 3.

A multi-Tesla neighborhood… Sounds like a nice, clean environment.

There was also a nice, blue Roadster there.

There were a few Xs there, but just didn’t take pictures. There’s just so many of them around now. 😉

It was a fun event. The food and drink was the best service of the ones that I’ve been to. The valet had a wait, but I think that it was better than previous events that I used valet in. Take that last sentiment with a “grain of salt” since I used the bus at the Gigafactory Party, and I found that to be the most relaxing way in and out of a Tesla Party. The party may have been free to attend, but I walked away with a very expensive deposit for some batteries for the house. We’ll have to see how long before we get these installed.

National Drive Electric Week 2016 – Santa Monica, Long Beach, and a wrap-up

I usually attend two or three of the National Drive Electric Week (formerly National Plug In Day) events a year. I’ve always found them to be fun and key to confirming me as a member of the rEVolution.

This past year’s events in Diamond Bar and Los Angeles were published on this blog pretty much as it happened. I wanted to cover the other two events that I attended in the same manner, but also wanted to share our Long Way Round Trip with readers two months from when the trip happened (and, intentionally, as a way to celebrate National Drive Electric Week.) The trip won out and so, here we are with Santa Monica and Long Beach coverage weeks later.

Santa Monica, September 16, 2016

The Santa Monica NDEW2016 event was held on Friday and Saturday (September 16-17, 2016) in conjunction with Alt Car Expo. I actually went to Santa Monica to attend Alt Car Expo, and was pleasantly surprised by the NDEW2016 event that was being held at the same time.

Drove to Santa Monica in the better half’s Roadster. We’ve been having some challenges with its charging and I wanted to test the car and see if it faults with the chargers at the parking lot in Santa Monica. Luckily (and yet frustratingly), for the test, it did not.

The City of Santa Monica is one of the most EV friendly cities and many of the municipal lots have free charging and the one at the civic center is no exception. Additionally, these Level 2 chargers were also powered by a solar carport.

At 30A, charging was going to take a while, but I’m here for the whole day, so I put my contact information on the EV Hangtag, checked into Plugshare and gave a status on when I expect to be done with charging, and went inside to the Alt Car Expo conference.

The NDEW part of the conference was set up in a cordoned off section of the parking lot.

The check in table for the Alt Car Expo was apparently where one also signs up for the Ride & Drive portion. Something which I did not fill up at the time, and turns out, I should’ve.

The Santa Monica set-up was a mix between EV owners and drivers demonstrating their EVs to the public (no Ride and Drive.)

The Coda Sedan that was at the site was owned by the same gentleman who owns and operates several Codas and Coda gliders. In talking with the owner, it turns out that he was the same Coda that I spotted at the Los Angeles event as well.

The Corbin Sparrow that was at Santa Monica is also the same exact one that was in the Los Angeles event. I guess, I’m not the only EVangelist who enjoys talking EVs with the public.

At this location, only the car manufacturers were the only ones providing Ride and Drive events at this location. The participating vehicles were more than just BEVs, there were several hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as well.

The Honda Clarity,

the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell,

and the Toyota Mirai was there too.

I was surprised to spot a Diesel Volkswagen at the site, it was part of the Zipcar car-sharing program and I suppose that Alt Car considers this to be an acceptable solution. I’m not too keen on any more diesel vehicles.

Personally, I think the service from Waivecar.com is a better candidate as it provides car sharing AND an EV (Chevy Spark EVs, to be precise) for no cost for the first two hours is quite an amazing deal.

There were other exhibitors here as well.

It looks like the same Chevy Bolt EV that was in Portland for EV Roadmap 9 was in Santa Monica as well.

The only plug-in that was at the site that I have yet to drive was the Audi A3 E-Tron. Unfortunately, I did not sign up for the Ride and Drive portion of the event in front, and I wasn’t that thrilled to drive a plug-in hybrid anyway, so I skipped it. I spent the time at the event talking to and catching up with EV friends and decided to pass on the evening reception for the conference.

Leaving Santa Monica during rush hour is often an exercise in futility. I decided to take some surface streets South through Venice. Had an interesting sighting on my drive. I spotted some manufacturer cars being driven around. Unfortunately they were not EVs, but still a thrill to spot these camouflaged vehicles on the road. I’m guessing its a new BMW 7 series, but could be a 5 series, I suppose.

Hard to see, but click and zoom in on the rearview mirror. Can’t mistake the “kidney beans” on the front grill.

I know that BMW is working on further electrification, but it would have been cool to spot a new EV on the road.

Long Beach, September 17, 2016

The following day, Saturday, September 17, I attended the NDEW gathering in Long Beach, CA. This event was the closest to the traditional NDEW events that I have attended in the past. This one had less manufacturer involvement in it and more public-facing event. It was more traditional in that we were welcomed by some politicians and spent the time just “hanging out” and talking to folks.

There were a lot of Teslas at this event because the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County had identified this particular NDEW for its annual NDEW event.

All manners of Teslas were represented.

The red roadster was for sale and is VIN #5.

Of course the Falcon Wing Doors have to go up with the Model X in the crowd.

It is the latest Tesla around.

and we had three Roadsters at this event.

There was representation from members of the EV community as well.

From other vehicles like the Zero Motorcycle and Smart ED.

To several Leafs and a Porsche 912 conversion that gets around 150 miles.

There was a Fiat 500e and a Coda (same owner as was in Santa Monica the previous day and Los Angeles the previous week.)

Even the Honda Fit EV made an appearance. Three times, to be exact.

I don’t believe many of the Tesla owners allowed the public to take a drive in their vehicle. The owner for the Red Roadster #5 did take a few interested parties out in that car, then again she was also taking the opportunity to see if anyone wanted to buy her car.

The other manufacturer’s car was different. I saw a few take rides in the converted Porsche and I believe one of the Leafs took a drive around.

Conclusion

Around Southern California, National Drive Electric Week is celebrated in many places and some get a lot of car manufacturer support, whereas others are sparsely attended by the manufacturers. It’s great to see all the participation in these events and I hope that more and more and convinced to go electric as a result of attending these EVents. As for letting folks drive our EVs, I was a lot more forgiving when I drove the Active E for this event, but when we moved to the Tesla, not so much. Besides, in California, Tesla does a great job providing folks with a nice long drive at their retail locations. Some of the events seem well attended, whereas others are more sparse. The one in Diamond Bar was much better this year, but the Los Angeles one seemed to have less people. Either way, I hope that we’ve convinced more people to go electric.

I often look forward to September because of this week and am looking forward to when it becomes every day that we celebrate Drive Electric Days.

Home Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions

We had the opportunity to upgrade and make some changes to our home Electric Vehicle (EV) charging setup and thought to share that with you.

I went back to look at my posts to see if I could update what I thought I had written about in the past. It turns out that I must have shared this information to the public via forum posts and not on the blog, so I figured to go over home charging today.

As a long-time multi-EV owner, one of the things that we’ve setup at our home is the ability to charge our EVs at the same time. This can be as simple as running several 120V plugs, but when you drive the miles that we had on our daily commute, 120V service is just not enough. As a result, we’ve made accommodations to upgrade our EV charging to varying grades of 240V service.

So, to explain what I mean by varying grades of 240V service, I need to go off on a short tangent, I’m not an electrician, but having been involved with EVs for over four years has made me understand some EV basics.

1) Battery capacity and EV range is measured in kWh of storage (your consumption rate determines what that range is in miles or kilometers.) This is why the Model S and Model X is sold with differing models corresponding with battery size.

2) The speed to re-fill this battery capacity is measured in several ways, but basically in kW of power. The higher the number, the faster that a car can charge. So, this kW maximum for a charger is the amount of Volts multiplied by the Amps of the service. Furthermore, an EV charges at 80% of the total Amperage that the circuit is rated for, so a 40A circuit can use a maximum of 32A to charge.

On a basic, common North American plug outlet, 120 Volt x 15 Amp service, an EV driver can use 120V x 12A = 1.44 kW of power. (On Model S, this is a maximum of 4 miles per hour charge rate, under ideal conditions.) It is interesting to note that many early EVs of this current generation (2011 and 2012 Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volts) had a 3.3 kW charger. Even though, I believe, previous generations of EVs (GM EV-1, RAV4 1st gen, etc.) had 6.6 kW charging. Many current EVs now provide at least a 6.6 kW charger.

Our old ActiveE was rated at 7.2 kW (originally, but by the end this was de-rated closer to 5.5 kW by software because of some issues.) My wife’s Roadster has a 16.8 kW charger and our Model S is equipped with dual chargers for a total of 20 kW charging capability.

That being said, the higher the voltage one uses the amperage of the wire has to increase to give you a quicker charge. So, to get a 16.8 kW service for the Roadster to run at full speed the Electric Vehicle Supply equipment (EVSE/i.e. electric vehicle charger) has to have a 90 Amp circuit to run at 70 Amps continuously over 240V. (Remember the 80% rule for charging.) So, to get the 20 kW charger to work on a Model S, a 100 Amp wire and breaker needs to run to get that going (19.2 kW, but who’s counting.)

I digress… Back to the point… The higher the amperage for the circuit installed, the thicker AND more expensive the wire will be.

I am sure that for my North American EV readers, many have one EV plug to provide 240V service charge their car. How many places to charge 240V do you have at home? When we first took delivery of our BMW Active E in 2012, we didn’t have a single 240V service installed in our garage.

We actually spent a few weeks charging the car on 120V. Something that those of us that follow Thomas J. Thias (the Amazing Chevy Volt) on Twitter see him espouse the greater than 1.5 Billion charging locations at this voltage in North America – 120V regular outlets (at 1-4 miles per hour, not normally relevant to me, but as Thomas reminds us, it’s a “good enough” solution for 80% of the drivers on their average commute.)

Just this evening, September 27, 2016, Thomas Tweeted the following out (in reply to a ZeroMC tweet)

@zeromc @greencarreports +20 | > 1.5B 120V AC Sockets N America. All #ElectricFueledVehicle‘s Refuel This Way. Nails 100% Range, 80% Drivers

— Thomas J. Thias (@AmazingChevVolt) September 28, 2016

We’ve even used the same Level 1 charger when we visited family…

Needless to say, that got old FAST…

So, two weeks later, we took advantage of a grant in 2012 and got a Chargepoint CT-500 (back when the company known as Chargepoint was called Coulomb Technologies.)

There was a grant program available for new EV owners/lessors to take advantage of that covered the cost of the EVSE and some of the installation. The Chargepoint CT-500 was an intelligent/networked EVSE that connected to the Internet over a mobile network (2G?!?) connection and part of the bargain was that the government and researchers can glean the information about the habits of the participants in the grant program.

Since EVSEs in 2012 were over a thousand dollars, we opted to participate in this program and had our first charger installed. We expected it to be a 32A EVSE, (80% of the 40A circuit that was installed) but it was actually a 30A Level 2 station. The total cost of the EVSE and Installation was $1,640. However, there was a state program that covered $1,200. Which meant that we were liable for $440 (plus $150 permit) for a total of $590 for the cost of our hardwired Level 2 station (plus the loss of privacy by participating in this monitored program.)

Here is the CT-500 when it was first installed.

To install the units, we had to use Clean Fuel Connection and their sub-contractors for the work and it was a pretty painless program. After signing the contract they were at our house two days later with the EVSE and our days of charging Level 1 was put in the back burner.

The charger was hardwired and the installers did a great job.

Here it is on the day we first installed the EVSE and we charged the Active E on that first Level 2 charger.

With this Level 2 setup and public Level 2 charging we were able to drive the Active E 54,321 total miles during the two years of the lease. Several years later, the intelligent features of this charger became unsupported because the mobile network that the signals rode on was being decommissioned by AT&T. So, today, we’ve lost the “smart” functionality of the charger, but it still works great with the Model S. So, our first dedicated EV charger was installed in March 2012.

A year and a half after we started driving the Active E, we purchased my wife’s Roadster and finalized the order for our Model S. Since we were already “experienced” rEVolutionaries. We had a good idea of what it takes to charge a car and how long it took to do so. We decided to install several NEMA outlets in the house, two NEMA 14-50 outlets and one NEMA 6-50. We picked the NEMA 6-50 because, in 2013, the first “plug” ready non-Tesla EVSEs were being produced and we wanted to be able to charge “anything” off that and didn’t feel the need to recover miles faster than a 50 Amp feed on either the Roadster that we took or the Model S that was soon to arrive in November 2013. The approximately 25 miles per hour that we anticipated to recover on a 50 Amp circuit (40 Amps usable) was going to be enough for our drive.

When we originally ordered our Roadster, we were unsure as to what sort of charging we would get with it that we ordered a Leviton 40A EVSE to deliver the wire speed of the NEMA 6-50 at full speed. Here is that Leviton being installed for the Roadster to use on its side of the garage. At the time of the purchase, this EVSE was selling for approximately $1200 elsewhere and Amazon sold the same model for $1050. In 2016, this same EVSE is now $699.

The EVSE powered up. However, we ended up returning the Leviton EVSE as it was incompatible with the BMW Active E and made some WEIRD noises and sounded like it was having a BAD time, electrically speaking. Furthermore, it turned out that we were going to get a Roadster MC240 with my wife’s car, so that can take full use of the NEMA 6-50 that we installed for the Leviton EVSE. (We just needed an adapter to go from NEMA 14-50 to NEMA 6-50 that we had made for us.) We charged the car on this MC240 for a short while (Tesla actually stepped down the charge from 40A to 30A on the MC240 on a 50A circuit) because we wanted a faster recharge time, so we found another Roadster owner selling their Roadster UMC and purchased that unit with a 6-50 Adapter to fit directly onto the circuit that our electrician installed for the Leviton. And used that equipment to continue to charge the Roadster until today.

Here is a photo of the NEMA 14-50 outlet on the other side of the garage from the NEMA 6-50 installed for the Roadster.

We wanted to makes sure to protect it from the elements.

When we were having our electrician wire up the outlet for the Roadster, we wanted to future-proof that location and asked to have 70A service pulled in. To maximize the 70A breaker, we split that wire to two NEMA connectors the one (NEMA 6-50) in the garage for the Roadster and another one on the outside wall of the garage (a NEMA 14-50.) This sharing of the one breaker is not really the “code” for these connections. However, as long as we manually manage the Amperage on the line when using two different vehicles on each of the NEMA connectors, we should be fine. (Remember the 80% rule, so a 70 Amp breaker means that we don’t draw more than 56A continuously on the circuit.) One of the benefits of driving any Tesla is its ability to be managed “downward” on the amount of current to draw from a circuit. So, if a newer 6.6 kW Leaf were to be plugged into that receptacle and draw 32A, we still have 24A to use for the Roadster or the Model S.

As I mentioned earlier, we lucked out when we took delivery of our Roadster, we were provided with an original MC240 (which works only with the 1.5 Roadster) and we shortly thereafter got the Roadster UMC which is the pre-cursor for the Model S Mobile Connector (MC) and its replaceable terminals. The Roadster one continues to be more flexible than the Model S MC in that it still has ten choices for different terminals for the product, we bought the NEMA 14-50 and NEMA 6-50 adapters to work with the plugs that we have in our garage.

We also ordered Quick Charge Power’s Jesla, however this was before it was even a QCP product. Tony Williams worked with me to customize a Model S MC to be a Jesla. I wanted something that would work with ANY EV out there and the Jesla would plug into any of the other outlets in the garage and in the exterior of the house for when we have visitors, like my mom and her Nissan Leaf.

Here’s a picture of the Roadster charging on one of our exterior NEMA 14-50 outlets.

We had the same protective enclosure for the NEMA 14-50 that we installed on the exterior side of the house. Additionally, should we ever decide to get an RV, we can plug an RV on the side of the house as well since this plug is dedicated to its own 50 Amp circuit.

Here is that outlet without the Roadster plugged into it.

That is the MC240 that the Roadster originally came with. It has a hardwired NEMA 14-50 plug on the end of it.

It’s just on our driveway, but away from blocking the garage. This was convenient, but not the ideal place for the Roadster, the noisiest that a Roadster gets is when it is CHARGING, so we make sure, in the interest of keeping the peace with our neighbor, to have an outlet ready for the Roadster in the garage.

During the months between November 2013 and February 2014, we kicked the Active E out of the garage and it ended up charging on the driveway.

Here are a couple of pictures I took when we used to have all three cars, all plugged in and charging.

The J1772 EVSE that is plugged into the Active E during this duty cycle is the Jesla that I had asked Tony Williams of Quick Charge Power make for me. It is great to see all the business that he has since built from the time that he made this product for me.

So, for several years we’ve had a great set-up at the house that allowed us to charge four EVs at once and not sure if we’ve ever have needed to do this… I do remember my mom visiting with her Leaf and charging it. The Model S was already charged, so I could just plug her Leaf into that J1772 (the original Chargepoint CT-500 from 2012). This photo was from Thanksgiving 2014, and the Active E was already back with BMW for at least 9 months at this point. You can see the Roadster UMC plugged to the wall beside the Roadster (using a NEMA 6-50 at this point.)

That’s a long way to catch you up to what we just had done this past weekend… in 2016.

Well, a short while ago, we’ve had some charger challenges with the Roadster. During testing, we kept swapping chargers to see the effects, and as a result of one of these tests, the MC240 that came with our car died and was not repairable. Our service center provided us a replacement as a result of this failure because we still had our CPO warranty in effect. The MC240 is quite rare, so the service center provided us with a second Roadster UMCs.

When we took the “new” UMC home and plugged it in, it turned out that the new one was “flaky” (or, I suspect that there’s something with the Roadster, but we’re still figuring that out.)

Now, it has been difficult for Tesla to track down the UMC to begin with, and they are quite pricey, so, instead of trying to find ANOTHER Roadster UMC, I asked if they could just replace the dead MC240/flaky Roadster UMC with a new Model S/Model X High Power Wall Connector (HPWC.)

My point was that they were producing more of these HPWCs, the price for the unit has dropped significantly and is about a third the cost of another replacement Roadster UMC. The retail price for the Roadster UMC is $1,500 without a NEMA 14-50 connector, and adding that connector is an additional $100 for a total of $1,600, and the Model S/Model X HPWC is now $550 for the 24 foot model. Luckily, my logic was deemed to be a sound one, and we were able to get a 24 foot Tesla Model S/Model X HPWC (ver 2? (the one that can be daisy-chained)). I figure that between the Roadster UMC, the Jesla, and our CAN SR and CAN JR, we have enough portable Level 2 capability for the vehicle.

Several weeks later, mid-last week, we get word that the replacement Tesla Model S/Model X HPWC was at the service center ready for pick up.

We went to pick up the box from the service center and take it home. It wasn’t going to fit in the Roadster, so we took an S (the service center’s loaner as the Roadster is in the shop for its annual service) to bring this box home.

One thing about the Model S/X High Power Wall Connector is it is glorious and aesthetically pleasing EVSE.

Unboxing the HPWC…

In order to install the unit, it had to be hardwired, and I’m not an electrician, remember. I scheduled our electrician to do the work this past Sunday, September 25.

As I mentioned earlier, we ran 70A service to the garage for the Roadster and the two shared NEMA outlets (the NEMA 6-50 and NEMA 14-50). I figured to have him use that feed for the HPWC. Since it seems that we’re now predominantly a Tesla family, I also had one other change that I requested. Between our Tesla bias and the fact that there are now more EVSE providers that are selling NEMA 14-50 plug-in EVSEs, not just NEMA 6-50 ones, I went ahead and asked our electrician to replace the NEMA 6-50 outlet for the Roadster with a NEMA 14-50 one.

The new HPWC can go to 80A on a 100A wire, but it was cost prohibitive to run that wire three years ago. I was glad that we ran 70A because we are now able to take advantage of 56A power for charging (when we’re not using the NEMA 14-50 outlets) we’re able to charge a Model S (with dual chargers, or enabled for greater than 48A for the newer ones) at 34 miles per hour. The Model S normally uses the old reliable Chargepoint CT-500 at 30A and approximately 18 miles per hour of charging. So, if we’re in a hurry or if the Chargepoint “misbehaves” we now have the means to “charge quicker.”

Besides, the nearest supercharger to us is Fountain Valley and though it is a supercharger, it is easily the busiest one in the area as is evidenced by this photo around 1pm on 9/27/2016.

That’s six cars waiting and eight charging (there were seven cars waiting just before I took this picture.)

Additionally, we still have the NEMA outlets (now all 14-50s). We just have to manage the load effectively, and safely. I could use the advanced features of the new HPWC and daisy chain them in the future, but I think we’re OK with the way we’re set up for now. In the meantime, we just have to do the math and run a total of 56A on the feed. One requirement currently is that all these vehicles will have to be Teslas because it’s difficult to limit each feed to only 16A… We can, conceivably charge two Teslas at 20A and a Chevy Spark, Chevy Volt, or 2011/2012 Nissan Leaf on 16A of power. As we mentioned earlier, many EVs now run at 6.6kW or higher and that’s 32A of power on 240V.

So, in 2016, we are now able to plug in five vehicles to charge at 240V service in our home…

Looks like we’re ready for the rEVolution and hosting an EV meetup…

Or to have family visit us… My sister and her husband just added a Volkswagen E-Golf to their garage a few months ago and, as expected, my gearhead brother-in-law has been “digging” driving electric. (I think that he’s garaged his Porsche ICE and taken to driving the E-Golf places.)

Furthermore, once we get our Model 3 reservations delivered, we’re ready for those as well. We might need a bigger driveway and garage!

The Long Way Round – Summary and Lessons

With a hat-tip to the 2004 TV mini-series from Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. This is the thirteenth day in a series of posts written about our 2016 EV Roadtrip written in the same manner as our 2015 trip. Here, There, and EVerywhere Trip – Day 01, i.e. summaries written for each day of the trip, published each day, this time two months from the day of the trip. It may seem funny to some to have a summer trip published at the start of the Fall, think of it as some daily entertainment for those that are back in their offices thinking about their past summer trips that could have been or thinking about their next trip.

Missed the previous day’s post, click here to read Day 13 of this trip.

Looking for the start of the trip, click here to read Day 1 of this trip.

The Long Way Round – Summary and Lessons.

Many readers know that we took the long way round because we got four referrals on the Fourth Tesla Referral Program (May 30, 2016 to July 15, 2016) and we expected to get an invite to the Gigafactory Party. Rather than just go from Southern California to Reno, we wanted to combine that trip with a trip to the the Pacific Northwest (about a 1600 mile detour) and attend the EV Roadmap 9 Conference in Portland, visit family who was attending camp in Seattle, WA and visit family living in Vancouver, BC before turning back for the party.

So how did this trip look on the map?

It looks like we went pretty far to go someplace a lot closer. That’s the “fun” of driving a Tesla powered EV. The Tesla Supercharger network enables travelers to go, wherever they want to go.

So, how did we do? Well, as is the goal for any long road trip. We arrived home still happily married. So, that’s always Goal #1.

After 13 Days on the road, we’ve made it to all our intermediate goals on this trip.

1) We made it to Portland and attended EV Roadmap 9 Conference.

Even got to ride the BYD e6 and write a quick review of it.

2) We made it to Seattle and had spent a day with our niece as she spent time away from home in a camp.

3) We visited our relatives in Vancouver and got to hang out with them.

Had great dinner at Ask for Luigi.

And got to visit Electra Meccanica…

And pondered why they didn’t just make an EV version of this little car.

4) Met with friends that we made on the Internet who are EVangelists in real life some for the first time, and others as a catch up.

In Washington State…

In Oregon…

In Reno at TMC Connect 2016

And in Reno at the Gigafactory

5) And we attended the Tesla Gigafactory Grand Opening Party.

Throughout the journey, we ended up with two other mini-obsessions…

1) Look for that darn PASTA Truck…

After all we saw the Garlic Truck…

and the Tomato Truck

We felt incomplete and left “hanging” looking around for the pasta truck to complete the set.

AND

2) We looked at the “logging industry” life-cycle…

Starting with those darn bald spots in the mountains…

Then followed the raw logs

cut and shaped wood

and finished products.

So, what are some key takeaways with this journey?

1) It’s good to get food recommendations from a Chef. The restaurants that we experienced from the recommendations were superb.

1A) It’s also good to listen to locals for their recommendations for such things. We enjoyed the Dutch Bros. coffee and didn’t know about them before we were introduced (especially the Iced Caramelizer.)

1B) This one is not always reliable, but give it a try anyway, our sushi in Vancouver area this trip was good, but not spectacular. Considering the spectacular Dim Sum we had at brunch, we’d forgive this.

2) Budget lots of time when crossing International Borders. Try not to schedule anything too tight from when you assume to cross the border. Or at least take the commercial crossing instead.

3) Continue to be fearless with taking off highway routes, you never know what you’ll see and experience

Considering that the travel is its own reward.

4) Continue to have backup charging identified. Even when picking hotels that are destination chargers, sometimes it won’t work as expected. When you have a backup, it’s no big deal to go to the alternate.

5) Read up on notes that others have made on the various charging apps, i.e. Plugshare or Teslarati or others.

6) There might be a benefit to reserving your hotel ahead of time (i.e. Our Day 13 plans was extended by our “winging it.”

For example this map on Day 13 should have been a lot shorter…

We ended up home at least a day, if not two days sooner than we had hoped.

That being said, what was our final statistics. 3,388 miles driven and 1021.3 kWh consumed and a direct energy cost of $16.82 from one overnight charging session in Bellevue, WA.

Looking at our statistics, the trip average is around 301 Wh per mile (or approximately 3.32 miles per kWh). That’s below my normal driving of 308 Wh per mile since we bought the car. The Model S is definitely an EV energy hog compared to some of the other EVs (i3, for example.)

Additionally, the $16.82 that we spent on energy for the trip means that our direct cost was $0.005 per mile directly spent on fueling our car for this trip. It was cheaper for us to fuel our car on the road than it’s been on the computed $0.008 per mile that we fuel at home on our Solar power.

Thanks for joining us on 2016’s Tesla Roadtrip, The Long Way Round…

…I wonder where next year’s “big” trip will take us. (Perhaps we’ll spot the pasta truck that’s been missing since Day 1!)

Why not subscribe to my blog or follow me on Twitter to find out…

As for what’s coming up on the blog…

…I still have two National Drive Electric Week stops that I attended in the past month…

…Just got to ride the Bolt EV this weekend, I might have my impressions on that car sometime soon…

…Spoiler Alert… …It’s not a Tesla.

It’s important to note that our Gigafactory invite would not have been possible had folks not used our referral code. So, I have to thank those that were convinced to pick up a Tesla Model S or Model X and decided to save some money by using our referral code. So, if you’re as inclined as those that took us up on the offer, and in the market for a Tesla Model S or Model X, you can save $1,000 USD/$1,200 CAD/£750 GBP (and whatever the equivalent is in your market) if you use our referral code – http://ts.la/dennis5317.

The Long Way Round – Day 13

Missed the previous day’s post, click here to read Day 12 of this trip. You’re just joining us on this trip? Click here for Day 1 and start from the beginning!

So, why the long way round? Well… We got four referrals on the Fourth Tesla Referral Program (May 30, 2016 to July 15, 2016) and we expected to get an invite to the Gigafactory Party, so we thought to start our trip and go to Reno (a nearly 500 mile direct drive from home) via the Pacific Northwest (about a 1600 mile detour) with the intermediate goal of attending the EV Roadmap 9 Conference in Portland, visiting family who were spending time in Seattle, WA and family in Vancouver, BC before turning back for the party.

So, what do we have in store today? We had no real plans, hang out in Reno to help open the Reno Supercharger with TMC and then head South, our initial plan was to head to Napa Valley area and check out the new Napa Supercharger and possibly do some wine tasting.

Day 13 – Reno, NV – Southbound. July 30, 2016

We headed to Atlantis Resort to have our final goodbyes at the TMC Connect breakfast. It was an opportunity to say hi and goodbye to friends and join them celebrate the Grand Opening of the Reno Supercharger.

As we headed out of breakfast from TMC Connect, we passed by one of the most NON EV vehicles made and I couldn’t help but take a photo.

The Hummer must be the nadir of all personal vehicle production and it is always important to note where we came from to see where we can improve to.

Many of those Teslas that were parked here for the weekend were still around this Saturday.

And there were also some new Teslas to join the party.

Some came to Reno from even farther locations than we did…

Some Non-Tesla EVs were there to join in the party.

And there was a small festival atmosphere.

All stalls were full and there was a wait in line.

The Supercharger grand opening in Reno had no official Tesla presence. The closest thing to an official presence is the user community from Tesla Motors Club.

Nevertheless, it was well attended.

One thing to note is how the supercharger in Reno is constructed.

The equipment supporting the superchargers are in a locked shed.

This would be a great if the shed was air conditioned. I did not notice any such air conditioning or ventilation in the shed, so I wonder how this would affect the reliability of this site.

After the Reno Supercharger Grand Opening, we decided to head South and our plan was to see if we can head to Napa for the weekend. We had no hotel reserved at this time, and went on our way.

Before we left Reno, we saw a new icon on a supercharger on the route and decided to check it out. It was a warning sign to expect reduced service at Tejon Ranch. The 395 Route through the mountains also had a supercharger with the same warning sign. Since we were planning to head to Napa, we’re more interested in the US-101 or I-5 route.

And we head back to California… After all, Napa is the plan of the moment.

We opted to stop off at the Original Truckee Supercharger for a quick charge and coffee.

Truckee Supercharger (Donner Summit)

Needless to say, it was quite full this afternoon.

We took the last stall. And quickly marvelled at how clean the car looks from a few days ago.

There were still several more in line when we started our charge.

I was craving coffee… So, we went to the first Starbucks that we spotted… There was one inside the grocery…

Well, if you don’t care about earning your stars from the Starbucks reward program, or paying more for the coffee, this would be ok… However, there was an actual Starbucks location on the other side of the grocery location.

We get back to our car to see that there is still a line. Welcome to California, we have supercharger congestion.

We didn’t really have a destination, but the GPS thinks that we do, and it says to slow down to get there with enough charge.

Roseville Supercharger

Our third stop today is at the Roseville Supercharger.

We were a little patriotic with our charge at the Roseville Supercharger. Heck I think FRANCE would be happy with how those Model S look! (oops, quick Google search and France goes Blue, White, and Red…)

The stalls were pretty full here too, but it’s at a shopping mall, so that’s sort of expected on a Saturday.

It was hot around us, so we made sure to keep the air conditioning cranked up.

While charging at Roseville, we tried to see if we can find a place to stay in Napa for the night. It looks like many of the hotels we would consider were either sold out or very expensive. (READ: $100 hotel rooms for $450 a night). Furthermore, the very helpful agent (we decided to call as well) found us a room… an hour North of where we are now… We’re not back-tracking…

So, we thought to head South and try our luck with other destinations… Perhaps San Francisco, or Santa Cruz…

As we headed South, we see another BMWi i3 chasing us… It seems that we’ve been spotting a lot of these on our West Coast trip.

We decided to continue the drive and encountered some “excitement on the drive.” There was a small brush fire started on the other side of the freeway.

We drove through the smoke and slowed down.

That looks like the start of a brush fire on a very hot day.

We decided to head toward the Vacaville Supercharger as we’ve never been there. So, we took some back roads to get there.

Back road routes in California definitely feel a little “dryer” and “dustier” than the ones in Washington State.

Vacaville Supercharger

But the handy, dandy GPS in the car directed us well and we find ourselves at the Vacaville Supercharger.

This supercharger is also located at a shopping center. This time at some outlet stores. Still a pretty full lot, and we were still looking for places to stay. So far, we’re headed INLAND and away from “fun communities to visit.” This is one of the drawbacks to “winging it” on a Summer Weekend in California. Based on what we were seeing at this point of our drive, we consider heading home.

We were sort of “out of position” to head to Harris Ranch safely that we decided to traverse over to Manteca Supercharger first, and then resume our “usual” Interstate 5 route…

…perhaps we’ll finally catch a Pasta truck on this drive.

Leaving Vacaville, we can see why the town was named as such when a ton of cows appear on the side of the road. Though, I suppose from the cow’s perspective, we appeared ON the road.

The city is full of cows.

We’re definitely taking the “back roads” to get to Manteca.

Looks like some sheep or goat join us on this road…

Even more cows…

And what do we spot in the distance? Are those windmills?

Yes, they’re windmills, say the cows…

The windmills keep getting my attention.

It’s a good thing that my better half took over this portion of the drive. I was getting tired and was supposed to take a quick nap between Vacaville and Manteca… HOWEVER, she said to do so once I get her on the freeway… umm… This is a BACKROAD drive, and has been for a while. I’m not getting that nap on this leg.

Here’s one I call windmills and cows…

And a close-up of both.

And we leave windmill country and get closer to Manteca.

We cross some vineyards…

I really am not getting a nap on this part of the drive. I think we found the parts of California with no freeways.

At least it’s not a one lane road.

Oh, thank goodness… A freeway sign!

Back on the freeway.

There’s a port in Stockton… I thought Stockton was inland.

A nice, wide freeway…

…but the GPS takes us off it again as we near Manteca.

Manteca Supercharger

And back at the Manteca Supercharger. The better half still doesn’t know about my apprehension for this location because of the July 3rd entry on Teslarati, it’s one of a few comments, so could just be a one-time thing.

Yup, we’re committed to head home now… Better half decided to keep driving to Harris Ranch, and we’re NOW on a freeway, so I can actually take a nap while she drives.

Pretty uneventful drive to Harris Ranch with the exception of the GPS doing some “weird routing”.

We decided to just stay on the “usual route” we check our device maps to see if anything pops up that would force us to take the weird route, and just plodded through with no incident.

Harris Ranch Supercharger

We’re back at Harris Ranch Supercharger.

It was pretty lonely here on a Saturday night…

Everyone else must have booked their rooms ahead of time.

We switch drivers and head to Buttonwillow. Late night driving on Interstate 5 is pretty boring and I’m sure one of those times that one wishes an Auto Pilot version of the Model S. Perhaps when we get our Model 3 our drives will be in that instead.

Buttonwillow Supercharger

We’re alone at Buttonwillow at nearly 1:00 AM on Sunday morning.

This is our last supercharge before we get home.

After being on the road for almost two weeks, It’s always good to get home.

And that’s why we charge up in Buttonwillow. We get home with 67 miles left “on the tank.”

There’s a software update available that downloaded while we were driving.

Set the update to complete later in the morning…

Go to sleep around 3:30 am and wake up to a fully charged car.

Oh, with new software too…

So how was the trip? Give me a few days to rest and digest and come back tomorrow for the wrap-up, trip statistics, and lessons learned. (one quick one from today, there is a benefit to planning ahead for lodging. It would have been more fun to be in the Wine Country, but am glad to be home in my own bed.)

The next post of this series is the wrap-up and available here.