As previously mentioned, the Model 3 designs that everyone has been discussing are prototypes. As such, I expect them to be close to what will be released, but don’t expect the cars to be exact. Remember, the Model X prototypes had cameras rather than side mirrors. Additionally, the Model X prototypes also had the same front nose as the now classic Model S design. (black nosecone).
Long-time readers will remember that I preferred the Active E to the Model S. It was all about the size of the car. I have since gotten used to the size of the Model S and it doesn’t bother me anymore. However, I still prefer a smaller format vehicle. My wife’s Roadster is great, but it’s her car, and it is smaller than I’m comfortable driving regularly (should she even let me borrow it to drive.) Though I haven’t seen the Model 3 in person, I surmise based on the pictures and information that this Tesla will be closer to the BMW Active E size and definitely outperform my old, beloved BMW Active E.
So, is the trunk and frunk too small for me? Well… Let’s see.
I drove the BMW Active E for two years. It was a great little car, full battery electric and a range between 80-100 miles. As for the trunk, there was a reason that I used to drive the car to do our Costco Wholesale shopping.
Here is a picture of the BMW Active E Trunk. The Active E labeled portion of the trunk is the motor for the car. Beside the motor is a full laptop/briefcase and that was pretty much it for space. So, when I shop at Costco, I saved money.
The trunk had a little more space and there are two shelves under the floor. One fits several tools and the like and below that is space for the emergency Level One EVSE (110V.)
Here’s the one for the Level 1 EVSE.
Though the car seems to have minimal space, I proved that back in 2012… Looks can be deceiving. So, a “small” Model 3 trunk, probably not an issue for me.
Just to remind folks, the Model 3 isn’t the only Tesla with a small trunk. Check out the Tesla Roadster trunk below, it’s big enough to carry a set of golf clubs… For the driver OR the passenger.
Folks are disappointed in the Model 3 trunk size because they have the Model S to compare it to.
With the classic Model S with a single motor that we have, the frunk has a LOT of room as well. So much so that we now carry a spare tire in it when we do our roadtrips.
For a comparison, the Dual Drive Frunk on a Model S 70D loaner that I used in September 2015 is markedly smaller than the frunk on our classic Model S.
Since we didn’t opt for the Premium Sound package, we get side storage on both sides of the trunk. I’ve always found it the best place to bring home some flowers for the better half.
So, yes. I can see both sides of this. Tesla knows how to make a hatchback, but should they make the Model 3 a hatchback? Perhaps they will, perhaps they won’t. At the end of the day, it’s a PROTOTYPE, so Tesla can still change things. Personally, I’m fine with the trunk space. It’s not what attracted me to the car anyway. Besides, if they keep the trunk as is. I would probably save a lot of money at Costco. 😉
Now, if they can make the Model 3 a Coupe… Or better yet, a hardtop convertible… That’s an option I would love.
It’s been exactly a week since we placed our reservation for a Tesla Model 3 (the wonders of scheduling the publication of a blog post.) Since we already drive Teslas, the long wait is bearable. The wait in line to reserve one, however… Let me share our experience and you can decide for yourself.
Before the stores were even open to take reservations, I tried to give Tesla our money…
Still, we left home early for a 10:00 AM launch, but later than many.
My mom has decided to upgrade her recently replaced Leaf (the original one was totaled by an SUV) by the time the Model 3 is launched and we were not going to have her camp overnight.
We arrived at our first nearest Tesla sales center – Buena Park. The Buena Park location is one that took over a former auto dealership location and is a consolidated, Sales, Service, and Delivery (and soon a Supercharger.)
The line at this location was long and was out the door and down the street. As we drove up to it, we estimated it to be closer to 120+ people in line. The parking lot was full and all the street parking near it was taken. The nearest place to park was quite a ways from the location and I had my mom with us. So, we proceeded to our backup store – Brea Mall.
We arrived at Brea Mall and found parking and walked throughout the mall, past the Apple Store which was having its iPhone 5SE launch.
The line at Starbucks was longer than the one for Apple:
And then there is the Model 3 line:
(thanks to Mark Z for this next picture)
Here’s mom with the LONG line that we stood in:
We walked past the Tesla store and start of the line and got to the end of the line by 9:15 AM. We didn’t know what number we were in line until about 30 minutes later when our friend Mark Z swung by and was counting people in line and notified us that we were 240-242 in line.
Here’s Mark Z catching me in line at 242… (thanks to Mark Z for this next picture)
On his loop back on his way to another store, he had completed his count at 320, many more added to the total as he left.
We spoke with the folks immediately before and after us in line for the Model 3 and found out that everyone around us are new to EVs and currently in ICE cars. We got to know them as we ended up spending many hours with them. The Brea location started the order process on time at 10:00 AM Pacific. During the wait and before the start of the order process my mom asked the guy in the front of the line what time he got there and he said he arrived around 3:00 AM Around 12:15 PM, we were still pretty far from the store and I shot this video:
Around 1:30 PM we finally have the store and the roped part of the line in sight.
We still had a ways to go, but at least we can see the store.
Remember our friend Mark Z? He returned to our location after driving from Brea to the Costa Mesa Delivery and Sales Center (up the block from the Service Center.)
He took this picture of the line around 2:00 PM.
Apparently, he was 220 in line in Costa Mesa when he arrived at that location at 10:15 AM and was done with his reservation in time to catch us as we continued to stand in line.
Near the front of the line, Tesla provided some FAQs (thanks again to Mark Z):
Here we are finally in the front of the line:
And Mark Z taking the picture as we were being called into the store…
When we got back into the store we were sent to another line. Apparently this store had three employees taking orders for those in line. We sat in the same line as my mom as I was there to assist her if she needed some clarification.
If you squint you can see us on the right side.
While waiting in the store for our turn, three more Tesla employees showed up with computers and iPads to take orders, they were augmenting this store from the Buena Park location that we had originally skipped in the morning. We were among the first of three in-store folks that “got the benefit” of a 100% increase in order takers. 😉
And so, we’re finally taking mom’s order (picture courtesy of Mark Z again).
and this next one too.
We were all set to order one Model 3 each. But when mom was filling hers out, she figured to reserve for two. Not sure what she’ll do with two, but that was good. Perhaps she might just gift a Model 3 for each of my nephews (her grandsons) or perhaps she’ll cycle through three EVs.
Rather than have the employee have to go through my long Tesla email, I asked if I can just go ahead and fill out the web page quickly and he let me go at it. So, I started filling out the form, and the drop down said 1 or 2 Model 3. I looked over to my wife, and she said to go for two. Who am I to argue?
Finally… success:
From the time we jumped in line at 9:15 AM and from the time that the doors opened at 10:00 AM, we didn’t complete our last reservation until 2:16 PM. That means for the approximately 4.25 hours since the line opened, this store was processing 1 order every 1.06 minute.
The email to confirm our order popped up in our emails (my mom’s and mine) approximately 18 hours and 20 minutes later. And for those of us who are already Tesla owners, it was in our My Tesla account another day later. People have been tracking what Reservation Numbers they’ve been getting to see if there is any pattern (on teslamotors.com forum and for UK ones at SpeakEV.) For the sake of privacy folks have been deleting the last few digits for the RN and I have provided the following information:
Folks around the forums are trying to figure out a pattern. I can share that Mom’s two reservations are about 4200 apart from each other.
Having a week between the reservation for two Model 3 and over a year and a half (at least) wait for taking delivery of one or two Model 3s, I’ve justified to myself what a second 3 would be equal to. It’s roughly the same cost as upgrading the Roadster to 3.0. However, unlike the Roadster 3.0 battery, if we’re early enough, we could apply for the Tax Credit for the Model 3.
It was a long wait in line and an even longer wait for the “configure your Model 3 email.” I guess the blog content is going to increase from Model S and Roadster to include Model 3 (unless we happen to pick up a CPO Model X in the meantime.)
So, last week’s EV Week has gotten to be pretty epic.
For those that need a refresher, a hybrid garage is one where some of our cars are EVs and the others are internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. As a family that is a part of the rEVolution, why do we still have ICE cars, it’s because we’re not as good as those that have gone to an all electric lifestyle. Hats off to them, but there are just times that I like to use vehicles that happen to use gasoline.
This winter” was supposed to be better than any of the previous “winters”, but we did not brave the mountains with our fifteen year old BMW X5. The X5 lets us go to the mountains around LA when there are restrictions to drive when the snow is fresh. Additionally, when we need to buy large items to move, we’ll use this same workhorse to help us move them. Granted the Model S does have a LOT of space, but we prefer to beat up the X5 with hauling stuff rather than put the Model S to work.
That being said, I understand the costs of our addiction to oil and gas and we continue to try to minimize our gasoline use.
In preparing for the last article on Celebrating Four Mostly Electric Years, I noticed that I had transposed some statistics and noticed that I had overstated the EV miles by 36,000 miles, so I wanted to make sure to correct that.
Three years ago, I started tracking the number of miles my household used ICE vs. EV to see what percentage of our private car travels are electric and what part are powered by internal combustion engines. Our methodology was to count the miles driven in rental cars to this spreadsheet and the miles that we’ve lent our ICE vehicles (and EVs) to our friends and family when they visit Southern California. This is why I created some tracking spreadsheets and tracked mileage for a year. The results year over year are still impressive even with the mileage transposition error in year 2.
In the first year of the study, we drove EV a total of 81.20% of the time and ICE 18.80% of the time.
In the second year of the study, we drove EV a total of 92.64% (vs. what I thought was 94.78%) of the time and ICE 7.36% (vs. what I thought was 5.22%) of the time.
As a whole, the household (as defined earlier, my wife and I and when we lend the cars to family and friends) drove about 46,000 total miles (both EV and ICE in the previous period) in the first year, about 40,000 miles in the second year, and we drove a total of approximately 41,000 total miles in this third year. That’s approximately the same number of total miles between years one and year two. Even though a good number of those miles were the 8,245 miles of coast-to-coast driving from our Here, There, and EVerywhere trip in May 2015.
Because of the error in Year Two’s calculation, I thought that we would be close to 150,000 EV miles this year, but still at 126,000 All EV miles since we started driving EVs. For the study, we’re closer to 112,000 EV miles and 14,000 ICE miles for a study average of 88.7% EV vs 11.3% ICE three year average. Definitely an upward momentum.
Looking at the monthly figures, for the third year shows a big blip in the ICE use for month 34 and that is mostly December 2015 and my sister and her husband was visiting us and most of those miles on the X5 was because we had lent them our ICE car for that month. The approximately 1400 miles of ICE that was driven that month is more than half the total ICE miles for the year. Until we have an EV to lend out to family, we’ll have to take those spikes.
Here’s to hoping that this next year’s study will have a greater EV momentum. And we continue to look forward to seeing what else we can achieve with our hybrid garage next year. Perhaps another coast-to-coast EV journey.
On February 23, 2012, we joined the rEVolution with the addition of our BMW ActiveE.
This was one of the first pictures we took of our ActiveE when we picked up the car at Long Beach BMW. Shows a very happy, young rEVolutionary:
Brought it home and plugged it in… We didn’t even have our Level 2 installed at the time and had to charge a BEV with an 80-100 mile range on 120V.
Granted, my commute at the time was 70 miles roundtrip if I took the most direct route, and the “fastest” route used the carpool/HOV lanes and that was 100 miles roundtrip.
BMW’s friendly policies for ActiveE Electronauts meant that I was able to charge at Pacific BMW (a 10 minute walk from my office) J1772 station and ensure that I recovered my miles that first week.
Once you go electric, it’s hard to look back. At the time that we picked up the Active E, we had a few ICE vehicles in the garage. The Active E was outnumbered by ICE vehicles and we figured to keep the ICE for our hybrid garage.
After taking delivery of the Active E, we we sold our Honda Civic Hybrid. There was no real need to keep it since we originally purchased the Honda as a commuter vehicle and the Yellow HOV stickers were expired by the time we picked up the Active E.
The two year lease of the Active E meant that there was pressure to see what “the next car” will be and we decided to place a deposit for the Model S. However, at the time, the plan was for my wife to get the S and for me to look for a replacement for the Active E.
We received our “configure your Model S” message in the beginning of 2013. However, we still had another year on the 2 year lease on the ActiveE and we didn’t think we would run with 2 EVs concurrently, so I took the time to test out other cars for me to use when we decide to become a 2 EV family, after all, the Model S was going to be her car. Since I wanted to ensure to get the Federal Tax Credit in 2013, we delayed the delivery of the vehicle to the end of the year. The ideal delivery would be December 31, 2013, however, understanding the Tesla process and to ensure that I get the vehicle with some “buffer” we settled to take delivery in November 2013.
Long time readers of the blog and participants of the now defunct Active E forums will remember the many test drives (a few sample test drives: Coda, Fiat 500e, Smart ED to name a few) and discussions over what my next car will be. I was really hoping to love the i3 and my wife was “under protest” if I went with the i3. At the end of the day, we skipped the i3, a decision that I discussed on a previous posting.
To make November 2013 delivery, we figured that we needed to start configuring our Model S on August 2013. It was at this time that we noticed a bunch of Tesla Roadsters being sold as Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) and my wife fell in love with her Roadster. So, it was at this point that we decided to pick a Roadster up and the Model S became my car.
Here is the Roadster on our pick-up day:
And here I am with a rare (driving my wife’s baby) picture:
After the early start, factory tour and pickup of the Model S, our first recharge for the car…
…was for the driver. Needed Starbucks.
Though we started the year thinking that we wouldn’t need to drive 2 EVs, we ended up with 3 EVs from November 2013 until the return of the Active E to BMW on February 2014. The second year anniversary was a bittersweet one.
The following year of EV ownership strengthened our positive impression of Tesla Motors. The BMWi debacle in the launch of the i3 in the United States made us adjust back to the original plan of 2 EVs for daily use. Originally we wanted to get a third EV so that we can minimize the miles in the Roadster, but my better half was having too much fun driving her Roadster and didn’t feel like swapping it out on daily drives. So, we saved some money and skipped the third EV.
I didn’t even write a 3rd EV Anniversary post.
So, from February of last year to now, we’ve settled into a life with our two EV, one ICE hybrid garage.
This past year, we’re really just living the rEVolution on a day to day basis. We took our Model S on a Roadtrip Coast-to-Coast and back, and it was a blast. With over three years of EV driving, we don’t suffer from range anxiety, however the trip solidified our “can do” attitude as far as driving our EV for distances and this past year we took more roadtrips than we’ve done the previous years.
I would have loved to say that we hit 150,000 miles of all electric driving, but I will just have to settle on 148,404 electric miles vs 14,194 ICE with a little under 3 hours from the time we brought our Active E home 4 years ago (9pm Pacific vs. 9pm Eastern (6pm Pacific right now)). [EDITED 2016-March-5, Looks like I had an error in my tracking spreadsheet… We’re closer to 125,000 EV miles… I had transposed numbers in Month 16 of our tracking spreadsheet that overstated total miles by around 20,000 miles for totals. I was preparing for the Year 3 of our EV vs. ICE posting, and found the error…]
So, what’s in store for our EV future?
To begin with, we’re about 2 weeks from the third anniversary of my ICE vs EV statistics that I’ve been tracking and we broke 90% EV vs 10% ICE use after almost three years. But that’s another post.
My Thanksgiving 2015 post gives a good hint of what I’ve been up to. Additionally, I am happy to report that my client, EV Connect, Inc., was selected for three of the nine Electric Charging Highway Corridors for the California program. This project, when completed will allow all EVs equipped with CHAdeMO and/or CCS DC Fast chargers to complete the travel from the Mexican border to the Oregon border with Level 3 charging stations.
Additionally, the Model 3 reservation process will be open on March 31st for a $1,000 deposit. We’re trying to see if we’ll take advantage of this or not.
Lastly, we’re thinking of expanding our long EV roadtrip plans. We are tempted to do another coast-to-coast trip using one of the newer routes. Perhaps we’ll finally join the Teslaroadtrip folks on one of their cool get togethers. This year, they’re planning on something at Colonial Williamsburg, and we’ve never been. We’ll have to see if things work out for this trip.
Here’s to hoping that the Model 3 and its competing EVs become massive successes and we transition from ICE to EV at a faster rate.
In the meantime, time flies when you’re having fun.
The following experience with various Model S was before the release of 7.0 and Auto Pilot. It was drafted and the experience was in September 2015.
In the beginning of September we brought our Tesla Roadster in for its second annual service. We scheduled the service far enough in advance to ensure that we would have access to a loaner.
The differences between each iteration of the Model S is quite subtle. From the Sig P85 to the P90DL, the car looks pretty much the same. Most stock Model S that have spoilers are Performance models and without the spoiler, usually a Standard model. Additionally, most of the Model S with Red Calipers are also Performance models, but that’s not necessarily a guarantee.
The P85 that we initially received for my wife’s Roadster scheduled annual service was Blue and had a Vin number almost double ours (in the 40XXX) and had 19,276 miles when we took delivery of that loaner as they took her car in for service. It was a CPO vehicle that the previous owner traded in as was evident when the car was lent to us with “regular” California license plate and not the typical MFR or DLR plates that is indicative of an “inventory” Model S.
It had the same blue as our Model S, but had both the Spoiler and the red calipers. As a newer P85, it drove very quickly and performed well while we used it in lieu of the Roadster or even our own S85. As our car was close to the 50,000 mile initial warranty limit and I wanted to delay the inevitable “buy a warranty or pass on it dilemma” I wanted to delay that decision as long as I can.
Her vehicle was taken into service on September 8. We had hoped to get both the Roadster and Model S in for service the week leading up to National Drive Electric Week (NDEW) 2015, but there were some issues found on the PEM and some of the wiring that connected the PEM to the rest of the car that we had the loaner with us as we participated in the first weekend’s activity for NDEW 2015.
Here is the loaner P85 at the LA NDEW2015 event.
Aside from the power of a P85 vs an S85 to clue me in that I was driving a loaner and not my own vehicle, the loaner P85 had cloth seats and black gloss interior versus the Obeche Wood Gloss that we had.
The P85 Model was nice and clean and served as a nice proxy as we attended NDEW 2015 events in Long Beach, Diamond Bar, and Los Angeles CA.
The vehicle was a lot quicker than our vehicle and was more of an electricity hog as it was equipped with 21 inch wheels and had a bigger motor. Into the second week of our use of the P85, it started to have some systems fail. The first was the driver’s side door handle started to get stuck and we would be unable to let ourselves into the car via the driver’s side door handle. We had to enter in through the passenger door and open the driver’s side from there. The service center was quite busy and did not have a replacement loaner at the time. The day after the vehicle developed this door handle issue, my wife had used the loaner to go on an errand. While out and about, she stopped to charge the car and the car started to fail. It displayed some sort of low-voltage error and stopped charging. We called Tesla and it appeared that a 12V fault had occurred. Lucky for us, there was another loaner available, and Tesla drove out to her to swap out loaners with her and wait until the tow-truck arrived to take away the P85 that had issues.
The second loaner that she was provided was a Grey P85+. This P85+ was another one from the CPO inventory as it also had regular CA plates, 17,551 miles on the odometer when my wife took delivery of the vehicle. We had driven over 423 miles in the Blue P85 loaner and would add 333 miles to the Grey P85+ loaner that took its place.
I could not tell much difference between the P85 and P85+ as they both had the same motor and the enhancements to the plus were negligible. The VIN # on the P85+ was in the 19XXX and is thus older than our vehicle and it did not have the parking sensors and other enhancements that came by the time our vehicle was delivered to us in November 2013. It’s amazing to see how low the mileage was on the P85+ that we were using for a few days. Tesla had to reclaim that vehicle from us because it apparently sold online to a soon to be new CPO owner and they were still working on my wife’s Roadster.
They quickly located another vehicle for us to drive while the Roadster spent its time getting repaired and the like. Tesla brought us another Grey Model S. This time, it was practically new. The car was a grey P85D with only 228 miles. It was an Inventory model and didn’t have any plates on it, yet. The inventory vehicle came from a store that just took delivery of a P90DL, so the P85D as moved to loaner status.
The P85D was equipped with the latest sensors and the like. It had the active cruise control on, not auto-pilot, but at least the hardware for it. As I mentioned in the beginning, all these experiences was in September 2015, before auto-pilot was released.
Aside from the label on back, we know that the vehicle is a P85D because it was equipped with Insane Mode and not Ludicrous Mode.
Thought to do a little recycling with the P85D.
Thought to try out the CHAdeMO adapter (ours) on the loaner.
One of the deficiencies of the D is the small Frunk (for a Model S, big if comparing it to the i3.) They had to make room for the second motor, so that takes the place of where a large frunk would be.
After several weeks with the various P85 models, we finally got our Roadster back and the P85, P85+, and P85Ds were all returned to Tesla… But that’s just part of the story…
Since the Model S was scheduled for service as well, we got a 70D to try out while the Model S went in for service. But that’s another post… (perhaps in a week or so…)
On the morning of September 21, 2015, I received an email from Tesla.
It was an invite to the Model X Launch Party.
It is a surprising invite as my wife and I do not have a reservation for the Model X. The event was going to be held at Fremont and I figured to go ahead and RSVP positively as Tesla events tend to “sell out” quickly. I figured that we could always cancel a positive RSVP if it turned out that we would not be able to make the 350+ miles from our home to the party.
We decided to go.
The trip to Fremont is approximately 350 miles and through a minimum of two superchargers for us (assuming a good charge at home to start.) However, it would turn out that this trip will be using a Loaner 70D and not our S85. I will write about the trip in a later blog post and focus this post on the actual Model X Launch Party and our impressions of the car itself.
So, the start of the party is at a Fremont location that used to be the Solyndra headquarters. This is the same building that Tesla was recently in the news for Tesla’s expansion into the space. It’s nice to see Tesla re-purposing a new asset for this party before they re-furbish the location for their expansion. We’ll start this post with our arrival at the location.
Tesla expected a lot of people to the event that they secured off-site parking and provided shuttle services. We had expected to be directed to these overflow lots, but lucked out and parked in the event parking location.
With a happy Dennis at the end of the line for the event. Tesla was pretty well organized at the early portion of the event and the line was winding in an orderly manner. However, the line was longer than the barriers and folks were asked to line up without the guiding barriers very soon after.
There was a drone taking pictures.
I was preparing to report on the event for my Twitter followers. So, I had my mobile reporting devices/phones at the ready.
However, soon after the doors opened and the second set of folks in the line got into the building, the crowd descended into chaos and those of us following the queue were at a disadvantage. What had once been one of the more orderly starts to a Tesla event, morphed into a free-for-all.
Knowing how late Elon usually is for these things, we knew that as late as we may be, Elon will be later. As we entered into the building, we were greeted by a Big X… which obviously marks the spot.
There was a cool “red carpet background” off to the left of the entrance which makes for ideal photo opportunity.
Once in the building, we were in a large room for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
Since we drove to the event, I made sure to have my usual “virgin” Rum and Diet Coke… We parked ourselves in the back of the room, in an elevated stand so that we can have a good view. Walking around the room, I spotted a garage door in the main room.
As we were wondering if the X was going to be driving out of that garage, that notion was quashed when it turned out that Tesla had other ideas, as a new set of doors opened and the cars were being presented in ANOTHER great room.
We heard Elon discuss the car’s self-opening front doors. The biohazard air filtration that the Model X is equipped with.
We noticed that there was video of the event from the original “holding room.” So we headed back there to get a better view.
We had a better view of the festivities, but a poor opportunity for further pictures. (like the one with the Model X pulling the Airstream, etc.)
So, we just watched the rest of the presentation from the holding room.
One thing that we did get to do was to get in line for a ride in a production Model X.
This was through the randomized badge holders that we received when we got to the event and we got our numbers in the 600s for the ride. Which meant a long wait in the outdoor lounge area.
We got to meet people and see the cars be driven.
As we waited, kept taking pictures of folks on their drives.
Several hours later, our number was called… And we got to stand in line again.
This was another 30 or so minutes of waiting, and we were getting closer to the front.
As we got closer to midnight, we were up. As luck would have it. we would HAVE to be a Blue one for our ride…
And your author has to get a shot in front of the one we’re riding.
We did shoot a video inside the car, but we were running out of juice on our devices as we got to ride just after midnight.
We did get some stills of the car that we were riding in. But since there were two of us, we got to sit in the second row seats. The vehicle we were in was outfitted with the three row second seat configuration.
The hinge of the Falcon Wing.
The empty second row we sat in.
We headed back in to get a close up look at Elon’s Founder VIN #1.
It’s a beauty…
There is no removable nosecone on the Model X, it’s all one piece.
Headlights look different from the S
Full car, but folks seem ok…
A fine detail from the outside that tells you it’s a Founder’s series Model S.
In closer
Patiently waiting for my turn inside Elon’s car’s driver’s seat.
Finally in the front seat.
Fiddling around
Frunk space
A closer look at the Model X Frunk
Better view of the falcon hinge.
Step in.
The screens from the driver’s seat.
The Panoramic Windscreen
The sunvisor on the side
Sunvisor extended
Another shot of Vin 1 again.
Opening the Falcon Doors…
Here is the door opening in a video.
In front of Elon’s car.
We left the party late… But there were still folks in line for their rides.
We enjoyed the vehicle and the event. The event was packed and the disorganization apparent, but that has been the typical of Tesla events. It took forever to get a ride in the Model X. As I had previously mentioned, we were surprised to have been invited to the Model X Launch and appreciate it. I can say that after taking the time to experience the vehicle, we are now tempted to get one. Eventually. Perhaps in a few years when there are more CPO Model X we would pick one up.
There are more pictures at our flickr album, as usual –
It’s been three years since our PTO was approved, we originally estimated our savings on driving the Active E or a vehicle like the Active E. Since then, we moved from one EV to two EVs to three EVs back to two EVs. We’ve also driven around a lot and our mileage has grown significantly since then. I haven’t done the math, but estimated that we’re either at break-even this year or definitely in a few months.
In our first year of Solar use, we had a credit. Which, as we found out, we could not claim. Because, it turns out, Net Metering means that though we’re credited for the production at a $ rate, customers are paid out on OVERPRODUCTION of power and not on the CREDITS earned. What this means is the system produced greater kWh of energy than consumed by the end user. If this is the case, the customer is PAID OUT the power times the wholesale rate of production. Last year, we paid over $200 to SCE for the entire second year of Solar. This third year, coupled with our nearly a month of travel to Maine and back in our Here, There, and EVerywhere roadtrip, we’ve been out of the house for about a month. So, that created a month of overproduction. As a result, the annual net metering statement was for approximately $40 for Year 3.
This full third year of solar production is basically the Model S and Roadster. What is interesting is that our usage this past 3rd year probably would have cost us less than Year Two’s Annual bill. But the month off really helped. At less than $4 a month for power for the third year is greater than I expected. So, I chalk this third year as a monumental year. Considering our average electric bill prior to going EV and solar was closer to $200 a month, it is incredible to get most of our transportation and home energy use at so little.
Now, this current fourth year, I wonder what our bill will be. Most of the past three years our electric tariff was on TOU-D-EV. This was a special whole house rate with a discount for EV drivers. A few months ago, Southern California Edison got rid of that tariff and adjusted the Time of Use tariffs so that the times that start with Peak, Off-Peak, and Super Off-Peak.
Under TOU-D-EV, the Peak rates were from the hours of 10am-6pm M-F, the Super Off-Peak hours were from midnight-6am every day, and Off-Peak is any other time. This was great because Solar was credited during the peak times most days and helped off-set a lot of the costs.
Under TOU-D-A, the Peak rates are now from the hours of 2pm-8pm M-F, the Super Off-Peak hours are now from 10pm-8am every day, and Off-Peak is still any other time. Though the Super Off-Peak hours are longer, the effect of moving peak time to the hours between 6pm-8pm means that we’re no longer generating credits at the Peak rate between 10am-2pm. Additionally, we’re spending more between 6pm-8pm because we’re paying at Peak rates and not Off-Peak rates.
So, I’m projecting paying a little bit more for electricity next year… Unless we go on yet another LONG roadtrip.
A little over a week ago, we returned home from a day trip to the Bay Area and back. We didn’t set out on Thursday morning to go on a 22 hour road trip. We figured to find a place to stop overnight once we got to the Bay Area. However, we did end up on a 22 hour drive and this is the post of that particular trip. After our 808 mile day on our Here, There, and EVerywhere series, a drive of approximately 400 miles isn’t “too bad.”
We started our trip on Thursday morning after an overnight charge in our garage. Figuring to head to the Bay Area using the I-5 route means driving through the Grapevine and since I haven’t driven that route in years, I didn’t remember if the climb was both ways or if it was just one way, so we range charged.
One question that is often asked by folks waiting for delivery of their Model S is whether to purchase the HPWC and dual chargers. As you can see below, the Model S was drawing 20 miles per hour on 30A. At the time we were faced with that decision the HPWC was over $1000 (was it $1500? I don’t remember) for the device alone. Additionally, because our garage is the furthest point from our Main Electrical Panel, a 100A circuit was prohibitively expensive. So, we opted to use an existing Chargepoint EVSE that I had installed for the Active E. We opted to install 2 NEMA 14-50s and a NEMA 6-50 throughout the garage and outside to accomodate up to 4 EVs charging at the same time.
We rolled out of the garage just a tad under “full” but with enough range to tackle the drive from home to Tejon Ranch.
Moving the car out of the garage requires a bit of a maneuver and takes a lot of going back and forth.
Southern California Traffic
One of the challenges of leaving Southern California during the rush hour is the amount of time spent in traffic. The navigation does an adequate job of routing us through traffic, but it doesn’t calculate “potential frustration” with certain routes and though I-5 is the most direct route to Tejon Ranch, we opted to go I-605 to I-210 (less immediate traffic) and more. Note the estimate below of a 10:31 AM arrival to the destination through the original route.
The other benefit of the longer route that we took was access to the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle or carpool) lanes. In some parts these lanes can be as congested as other lanes, whereas in many they are still beneficial for drivers. In many of the routes, an HOV only requires two passengers or an HOV eligible vehicle with a sticker (such as an EV, PHEV, Hydrogen, or CNG.) Though I have some opinions on PHEV eligibility, unfortunately the legislature is fairly lenient about that.
Visitors to Southern California freeways might get confused by the on ramp stoplights. One of my close friends, who is British and was visiting from England, was pulled over when he just passed through one of these many years ago. The one in the photograph is between I-605 and I-210 and requires all lanes to stop and proceed with 2 cars per green. There are many on ramps in the Los Angeles area that actually only uses the on ramp stoplight for one of the lanes, the other lane is an HOV lane and does not use the stoplight. This is not the case in the one below.
As we were driving along, I noticed that we passed 44,000 miles early on this drive, 44,008 miles.
Grapevine
And we are thankfully out of SoCal traffic. The folks going the other direction, however, are heading into it. There is a reason that California is called the Golden State. And part of me wonders if that’s more because of the Golden Brown that the hills take rather than the “Gold Rush” of the 1800s.
In the Winter, this route can be closed to traffic when it snows. Which happens occasionally. But, we’re in a drought and it’s Summer, so, that’s not a worry.
Ooh a water tower. We have to build them lower to the ground in “earthquake country.” I do wonder how much water Gorman actually has in that water tower, we’re in the fourth year of the drought, after all.
Apparently, the Grapevine drive is downhill when heading North. So, I guess we’ll have to pay attention to what we charge on the way back for that climb.
Peering West from the car during the descent we capture this view with our camera. The landscape scene is quite stunning and in looking at the picture now, we wonder whether we can pass it off as a painting.
Tejon Ranch
The exit for the Tejon Ranch Supercharger is ahead, away from the outlet mall on the East Side of the road.
Take the West exit from the Northbound 5.
Believe the sign, that’s one weird curve coming up.
There looks to be two Starbucks in this exit, one East (probably in the mall) and one West, a free standing one with a drive through. We opted for the one up the street from the superchargers on the East side. We futilely waited in the drive through, but the line was just too long (wasted 20 minutes and gave up.) I figured that we would probably see another one on the I-5 drive.
We would have actually beat the original estimate to arrive at the charger by at least five minutes had we not decided to waste time at the Starbucks line.
Sharing the same parking lot as the chargers is a Yogurtland and Chipotle. I went to see about using their “facilities” the Yogurtland doesn’t open until 11:00 am, but the Chipotle was open.
These guys in the pickup truck did ICE the SC, but only for a few minutes. They were so excited to see us charging and had questions that he drove right up, jumped out and started to fire away. We had a good conversation and they drove off soon after we were done talking.
On the next leg of the drive to Harris Ranch, we swapped drivers, so it was my turn to take pictures of the view outside.
It’s amazing what farmers in the Central Valley are able to grow in such an arid place. Not really sure what they’re planting and my wife and I spent the time guessing what they are.
The cows that we saw on this drive were all penned up and had shade that were installed over them. They were carport like structures.
Since I wasn’t driving, I took the opportunity to play with Periscope and Twitter again. The first attempt at Periscope was about a minute.
The second video was a little longer, I didn’t get to archive the questions that folks were asking on the drive.
Is that Corn being planted outside of our window?
I wonder what those trees are? I was guessing almonds for some reason. I’m not really very attuned to farms and such.
We passed some kind of processing plant, I was guessing for the trees that we just passed.
It would seem that farming in California is a lot of water politics. I can’t verify it, but I think these signs have been around before the current drought. I swear that these were here the last time I did this drive on I-5, which is longer than the current drought.
I really wonder how old those signs are.
Harris Ranch Supercharger and Battery Swap
And just like that we’re at the Harris Ranch Supercharger. There were already two other Model S parked and charging when we got there. Luckily there are six stalls and we took one of the ones that was not paired with either of the other two Model S.
Each Model S at the Harris Ranch Supercharger was charging at one of the pairs. Reading the notes on this location, apparently we were very lucky because these stalls are often full of other Model S with many waiting for a charge.
The view in front of the superchargers is a restaurant that we ended up skipping.
We were getting quite a fast charge at the location. When one doesn’t have to share the feed with another Model S, the speed of charge is even greater than when it is split.
Harris Ranch is also the site of the Tesla Battery Swap Station. I tried contacting the station to see if we can get an invite to use it early. At $80 for the roundtrip, it’s not cheap, but it will also help save time for a very boring stop in Harris Ranch. Unfortunately I was told that there was no way to get an invite early and that I would just have to wait. So, I took pictures of the signage for the swap station instead.
Here’s a picture of the entrance or is it the exit of the Swap station. We enviously took a picture and drove off. Maybe next time.
We got enough charge to skip Gilroy and head to the Tesla Motors Fremont Factory as our first stop in the Bay Area was in Oakland.
One of the things about the Harris Ranch location is its proximity to a lot of cattle. If the wind blows a particular way, you will smell the cows from miles away. We were somewhat fortunate at Harris Ranch in the daytime as the winds were in our favor. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter because the drive through I-5 will have you pass by these cattle pens. And the cabin air filter on the Model S is no match for the smell of cow just North of the Harris Ranch supercharger.
There were lots of cows for miles.
The drive toward Gilroy has us go through a reservoir area that truly reflects the sorry state of the California drought.
The Golden hue of the dry brush is quite stunning.
The reservoir on the other side of the hill climb shows how really low the water levels have gotten. If you look at the striations on the shore-side, you will notice rings. Those rings are where the water should be. On a positive note, there seems to be an abundance of windmils on that mountain ridge.
This shot shows the water as it buttresses up on the dam on the other side.
Better shots of the windmills, why don’t we also have a solar farm out there California? Readers from our Here, There, and EVerywhere series will note a change of tone here. Since I’m a California resident, I have higher expectations of my own state. So, there.
This route is pretty well traveled.
My wife captured the scene below and it’s another that leads us to wonder, photograph or painting.
We ended up passing Gilroy, as planned and was on the 101 North going toward the Tesla Motors Fremont Factory. I was quite excited when we spotted our first Volkswagen E-Golf in the US. Had to fumble for a camera, but my wife was able to catch the E-Golf as it took the exit. (Note the white sticker on the rear bumper.)
Tesla Motors Fremont Factory Supercharger
We arrived at the supercharger at the Tesla Fremont Factory at 4:25 pm, a few minutes passed eight hours from our departure. All stalls were full when we arrived and we had to wait about two minutes before one freed up.
At this point of the drive, we’ve driven about 400 miles and have to drive another 20 miles North and then back across the Bay to make it to Sparky’s Garage in San Carlos, CA for the party this evening.
It was on the drive that we decided to see if we can just make this drive a “day” trip and head back home today as well. Our decision was solidified by the very expensive options for lodging in the Bay Area that we were seeing as we looked for places to stay while charging at the Tesla Motors Fremont Factory, so we figured to skip any alcoholic refreshments at the party.
I attached the car to the open Tesla Supercharger network that I saw while charging, the result was a strong signal, but no connection. Had to reboot the main display again and disconnect from that network.
We made it to our destination in Oakland. Turned back around and headed to the party in San Carlos. Since we were on the other side of the bay, we decided to take the San Mateo Bridge (CA-92) across the bay. One thing about traveling in our own state is we are able to use the same transponder as we do at home, so it was a lot more convenient to cross the bridge. Additionally, it seems that the bridge toll of $5.00 is half-price for carpools, so we were only charged $2.50 for this crossing.
My wife took a photo of what looks to be “old windmills” on the side of the low-tide entering the bay. I wonder if that’s what they are.
It is wildly disconcerting to have water on both sides of us at such a low point. It felt as if it won’t take that much for the water to go over the side of the San Mateo Bridge.
Sparky’s Garage, San Carlos, CA
So, the trip up to the Bay Area was two-fold. The first part involved our quick stop at Oakland, and the second was to attend a party that eMotorwerks and Wattime.org was holding to announce the launch of the first EVSE that plans its charge based upon “cleaner” energy supply.
The party was well attended. It seems that I find myself behind Jack Brown at many events, and he’s the tall guy right in front of me at this event as well. I need to either get taller, or find a place off to the side of him instead. 🙂
Jack’s Take Charge and Go tags were the giveaway at the party and it’s a great improvement over the free Plug In America EV Card that I usually use. The hang tags are attached to the charging nozzle with a red and green side to say whether it’s “ok” to unplug the car, provide the operator’s contact information, and an estimate of the time that the operator would be done charging (provided the operator carries a dry-erase pen with them). I think that I will probably be moving toward this method at charging stations, as soon as I get a dry-erase pen.
The product announcement itself was quite interesting. As the title of the blog is quick to point out, I am accidentally environmental. We didn’t join the rEVolution to be green, we just ended up being environmental as we became more involved in electric vehicles. I am sure there are more things that we can do to be better and we’ll get there. The folks at Green Car Reports had a good write-up on the product launch and I suppose that it’s a good compromise for those that don’t have solar panels or their own windmill to try to minimize their use of “dirtier” sources of electricity.
Wattime’s Executive Director, Gavin McCormick can be seen on the shot below discussing what it is that Wattime is doing. They provide manufacturers with a method to enable the device to know whether drawing power at a certain time will force the utility to source power from power plants that were not using renewable energy. He was saying that a five minute delay could be the difference between dirty or clean power sources being on or offline.
As commendable as the goal of Watttime,org is, it is a “guess.” Granted, it’s an educated guess and it’s better than what is out there, in terms of the environmental concern. But I am also a capitalist. I am perfectly willing to use the structures in place that motivate me to charge my EV at the lowest rates available. Rather than use an algorithm to see whether we’re carbon neutral or the like, we installed solar panels on the roof of our home to ensure that we offset our usage with as much clean energy as our roof can generate (with summer peaks around 40 kWh of production.)
I suppose the next step for the manufacturer is to allow users of this algorithm to set guidelines of how much they are willing to subsidize others in order to delay their charge for “cleaner” grid power. As with most things, it’s a complicated decision and it’s at least commendable to have this information available to those that wish to make use of it. I wonder how many people will take them up on it. We have enough EVSE and plugs at home to charge four vehicles at the same time, so I wasn’t really in the market for another one.
So, after enjoying the company of fellow EV enthusiasts, and many Electronuts (former BMW Active E Electronauts), who were at the party. We headed South toward home. Our first stop was to supercharge again at Mountain View so that we can check out the new liquid cooled superchargers and range charge to skip Gilroy, again.
Mountain View Supercharger
The Mountain View Supercharger is the first new supercharger with the liquid cooled cables. Tesla announced this improvement in supercharger technology during the 2014 Annual shareholder meeting the previous month. Transport Evolved wrote an article and covered a video that was filmed at the location by another Tesla owner and I wanted to see it first-hand.
We initially picked stall 3A to charge because it and its partner stall 3B were open.
However, we saw that stall 3A had a blue note saying that it was designed for disabled access and to use it last. So we moved. Now, to ensure that we get the fastest charge, we moved to 3B, the stall paired with this one, figuring that it we were supposed to use it last, then it should stay free the longest, and thus not need to split its feed with another car until all other paired stalls were full.
I took photos of the other stalls around us.
I wanted to capture photos of the thinner/liquid-cooled charging cables.
Has the new circular proximity button for charge door and cable release.
Since the cable is thinner, it is more flexible than previous generations of superchargers.
To show the thickness of the new cable, I figured to compare it to a quarter. (A 25 cent coin for those non Americans and unaware of our terms.)
Though the first photograph of the charging showed a 197 mile per hour rate, this actually sped up to close to 340 miles per hour. It would seem that the chargers in Mountain View are faster than others and we were planning on skipping Gilroy again to get to Harris Ranch directly, we decided to range charge the car again.
So, while waiting for the charge to complete, I did another Periscope session that we archived on Youtube.
As I continue to note, Periscope doesn’t do a good job of saving the chat comments from folks, so I transcribed it below.
@Tim61588: Is that an Eaton supercharger?
@Tim61588: or roush
@Legibly: How long does that last on full?
@ThaddiusT: Insane mode!
@Tim61588: how long to charge from near empty?
[Unknown]: Is that the new P85D?
@ThaddiusT: Meh. Still cool tho. Love tesla
@Tim61588: can it do a burnout
@torfn: and your happy with it?
@DspkMsn: Please show the centre display
@ThaddiusT: Damn. That’s ridiculous. Never seen the display
@Tim61588: Have you done the battery swap program
@DspkMsn: Wow
@STenczynski: Tesla?
@Legibly: Pretty badasa
@JeremyHolleb: Does A/C use really destroy battery life???
@Legibly: Badass
@BradlyBurgundy: This thing have insane mode?
[Unknown]: [missed question]
@DspkMsn: Does it get 400 mi range?
@ThaddiusT: I see model s’ all day around Sunnyvale
@JeremyHolleb: 2.7 seconds
@Tim61588: Have you raced anything yet
[Unknown]: [missed question]
@BradlyBurgundy: How long to charge?
@STenczynski: Doesn’t one of the tesla model drive by itself?
@Legibly: Does it take gas too?
@ThaddiusT: There should be a burger joint there too. Make a killing.
@trprevett: Autopilot
@Legibly: So if you were to go for a cross country drive you’d have to find a charger station?
@STenczynski: @trprevett yes
@ThaddiusT: Meh. Starbucks. All about Philz.
@Legibly: Alright I’ll check it out cool
@tprevett: You tesla employee?
@ThaddiusT: You from around here?
[Unknown]: P85d?
@ThaddiusT: You check out the plant while your here today?
@tprevett: Gonna get a 3 when they come out
@Legibly: How long have you had it?
@ThaddiusT: Nice. Good drive
@tprevett: Any problems with it?
@ThaddiusT: Mind if I ask the final cost?
@Legibly: He said any problems with it?
[Unknown]: What’s your opinion on the bmw i8?
@ThaddiusT: I hear the i3 engine was optional
@ArguablyDefined: Talk about the gaskets. Please.
@ThaddiusT: Chassis flex?
@ArguablyDefined: That’s unusual. Thanks.
@Legibly: Can you show us outside the car please?
@ThaddiusT: They look sexy
We got a full charge and left Mountain View to head to Harris Ranch directly. Seeing that we were planning on making it all the way home from the Bay Area, my wife, and co-driver, went to take a nap as I drove us to the next supercharger.
On our way to Gilroy, the car hit a repetitive, significant mileage of 44,444 miles. We’re really racking the miles on this car with all the “short range” driving we’ve done. 😉
After passing the Gilroy superchargers and on the way to Harris Ranch, crews were doing overnight construction with only one lane open on a two-lane road.
So we found ourselves stopped for what I would estimate to be 20 to 30 minutes. We were parked on our side of the road waiting for the other side to complete their drive through the construction zone.
When it became our turn to go ahead, we were led through the construction site slowly by a pilot vehicle.
It was a dark drive, but still not as dark as what we encountered in other parts of the country. Additionally, there were no “Deer Crossing” signs to worry about.
Harris Ranch Supercharger and Battery Swap (part deux.)
And a few hours later, we find ourselves back in Harris Ranch Supercharger again. We joined another Model S charging here. The Model S was a family from Napa on the way to San Diego for vacation. They told us of pending overnight construction and possible detour. They had spoken with the CHP earlier. So, we decided to fill up the car with at least 40 miles additional rated range.
When not sharing a charger, the rates can get really fast. The one in Harris Ranch was going around 315 miles per hour. The Tesla battery swap station is closed and only available from 9 am to 5 pm local time, so that would not have helped on the return journey this evening.
I wanted to compare the Mountain View supercharger cable that we photographed earlier, so, here is the Harris Ranch one.
I wanted to give two views of the cable with the quarter, so the older cables really are that much thicker than the new ones at Mountain View.
I wonder how much faster the liquid cooled cables will be able to charge. I saw it them peak around 340 miles per hour when I was charging. The original cables are quite bulky and others have found them harder to work with.
Had my wife continue to rest while I went over to grab some “gas station coffee” from the station close to the supercharger and proceeded South to Tejon Ranch.
The construction zone that we were warned about ended up being a non-event, though at times, we found ourselves on the “other” side of I-5 at times as they were working on the Southbound side of the freeway.
Tejon Ranch
You know what happens when we show blurry pictures. Normally, it’s time to stop and find a place to sleep for the night, but we were so close to home from Tejon Ranch. We plugged in and charged up. We only need to go a little under 120 miles to home.
My wife felt rested from our drive from Mountain View to Tejon Ranch, so we swapped drivers and she proceeded to take us home, after we got a charge. She took the tough climb up the Grapevine and decided to just drive all the way home, skipping all three superchargers on the West Side, Culver City, Hawthorne, and Redondo Beach.
At that time of the morning, if we had stopped at any of the superchargers, we could have gotten stuck in traffic on the freeway, besides our bed was calling us home.
After nearly 22 hours on the road, we were home. That was a LONG DAY. Of course, we did do a few things, attended a party, and such. And another interesting mileage pattern in our garage – 44,800 miles. The 852.9 mile journey actually felt shorter than Day One of our Here, There, and EVerywhere trip, perhaps it was the long break in between each half of the drive. Either way, it’s good preparation for next week’s TMC Connect 2015.
After being in the Model S for 23 days straight on our Roadtrip 2015. I felt like it’s time to “shift gears” and write about the Roadster.
It has been a while since I’ve written (and ridden) the Roadster.
Soon after our return from our trip, I took the picture below, but I was in my “usual” seat in the Roadster – the passenger seat, or as I call it, Batman’s seat.
I had an appointment last Wednesday and asked my wife if I can borrow her Signature Green Tesla Roadster. We purchased her car under Tesla Motors’ original Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) program. With all the hoopla over the CPO Model S program it’s important to note that it isn’t their first CPO Rodeo.
As I understand it, the current Model S CPO program adds another 50,000 miles and 4 years to the warranty of the vehicle at delivery. The Roadster CPO program is 37 months and 37,000 miles from the car’s delivery to the CPO owner. They chose the Roadster numbers to be one more month and 1,000 more miles than when the car was sold brand new. The Model S warranty is an improvement over the Roadster’s CPO program In that you get 23 more months and 23,000 more miles, however the CPO Model S warranty is similar to a new Model S warranty in that Tesla warrants it for 50,000 miles and 4 years. The battery warranty on the car is lock-step with the drivetrain warranty of 8 years and infinite miles (for 85 kWh cars, I believe that it was 150,000 miles for 60 kWh versions.) It is important to note that Tesla remains consistent with its own practice of not including any battery degradation in its warranty.
Unlike its competitors at BMW and Nissan, Tesla does not warrant the pack to maintain a certain level of use for a certain amount of time. This issue continues to be one of the things that I find irritating with Tesla. Granted, as others have found, the degradation seems to stabilize after 30,000 miles our max. range on the Model S has stayed firm close to 255 rated range miles (a ten mile loss from factory pickup, the Model S community reports its range loss in rated range miles) and our Roadster now is consistently around 179-180 miles of ideal range (the Roadster community reports its loss on ideal range vs. rated range, go figure.) Our current ideal range numbers is actually an improvement from last July’s Roadster Battery degradation panic (Post 1, Post 2, Post 3) where the car was reporting as low as 172 ideal miles range that improved to 175 after a few weeks of testing.
I wanted to compare and contrast my experience while driving the Roadster and broadcasting the experience on Meerkat and Periscope. Being an active Twitter user, I’ve noticed the competition between the Meerkat App and Periscope. Each product brings live streaming to the masses via app extensions to Twitter. Furthermore, both applications provide realtime engagement between the broadcaster and his or her audience. I figured to experiment with this further and see if the previous test during our Model S Roadtrip 2015 cross country video has improved in a little over a month since I last tried it out.
This time, I wanted to bring viewers with me on a drive around in my wife’s Signature Green Tesla Roadster. So, how did i do it? My initial plan was to take viewers with me around surface streets in the Roadster. There have been more Model S videos out there and thought that folks might be interested in the Roadster.
My first streaming video experiment was on Periscope. Since neither app lets users store the video ad-infinitum, I stored the archives on Youtube.
Drive through Beverly Hills in a Tesla Roadster
We had some active users, and they were fairly engaged. Periscope overlays viewers questions on the video that the broadcaster sees and thus provided the broadcaster with the ability to verbally answer the questions posed. When I archived the video, the questions and interaction disappears, so I transcribed it below. (no timestamps, you can see the logical flow for the folks that I did get to answer.)
@Baderj57 – hi
@AdamClistWynant – Love the sound of the electric motor
@meier_audrey – People like to hear their sports cars 🙂
@AdamClistWynant – How is your range?
@ILushYouM – you’re in SoCal?
@ILushYouM – Omg 😍
@ILushYouM – I can’t wait to live in LA
@ILushYouM – I’m in Maine
@ILushYouM – 😮 !!
@AdamClistWynant – In SD and LV
@AdamClistWynant – Go to Cafe Gratitude while you’re out there.
@AdamClistWynant – Have a good day. Peace
It was a fun few minutes of driving. However, I had to use Youtube’s tools to fix the “herky-jerky” nature of my hand-held filming of the event. (Not a steadicam operator.)
I did do a good job parking the car on the surface streets.
The next experiment was later that morning on Meerkat.
Drive through Culver City – Meerkat
It is important to note that on Periscope, I had viewers pop in rather quickly. I gave Meerkat the same amount of time, and no participants joined the stream. So I quickly ended that session.
Drive through Culver City – Roadster
I was having some fun with the live streaming video thing that I decided to do another Periscope session, and again we got a bunch of viewers right away.
And again, I partially transcribed the questions on this short drive below. Now, I took the liberty of editing out the handle of a participant with a handle that others may find offensive.
@Unlock_Success – Hi from the UK
@f[edited]inglawn – Is that a Porsche Panamera
@f[edited]inglawn – I think I’m Behind You
@f[edited]inglawn – Oh Okay I see you
Later on the drive home in the freeway, I was behind a White Model S in the HOV lanes. Not on video, but always a fun sight to have in front of me.
I wonder whether the driver noticed that another Tesla was behind him or her.
What can I conclude by this quick drive and test? It’s definitely a load of fun to drive the Roadster.
My other takeaway, on the live broadcast of streaming video front, at least for those that follow and find me in public, it seems that Periscope has more participants than Meerkat. I don’t know if Meerkat does enough to promote the broadcaster’s feed more or if there are more subscribers to the app, but it definitely is more fun and engaging to stream in Periscope.
As for the apps themselves, they seem similar from the broadcasting perspective and I would like to have the archive function allow the broadcaster to save the chat overlay with the video. In the meantime, enjoy the ride in the Roadster. I did.
2) Living in Southern California and not being a “nature” dude, I am always amazed by the many beautiful pictures that have been published on the Model S Nature thread on teslamotorsclub.com. I wanted to post a few shots that is worthy of that thread.
3) Meet some of the folks that I’ve known via social media, forums, and the like “in real life.”
4) Talk EVs/Tesla/Renewable Energy to as many people as I can. Let people know about the resources available to them in the EV community, sites like Transport Evolved and Teslarati. Groups like Plug in America or Adopt A Charger (though I think the latter is more California-focused.) I wanted to also let folks know about the Napkin Math (series that I wrote a few years ago post 1, post 2, post 3, and post 4) and the $0.0085 per mile it costs us to drive EV with Solar on our roof vs. the $0.22 to $0.25 per mile on our SUV.
With those plans and goals in mind, we packed with the idea of being on the road for about 2 weeks, give or take.
Observations and Lessons Learned
One of the things that really stuck out to me on this drive is the dearth of motorcycle traffic on our drive coast to coast. In Southern California, I often notice the multitude of motorcycles that buzz by on the road and in traffic. Additionally, California specifically provides motorcycle riders lane splitting rights. Having grown up as a driver in California, it is second nature to me to be constantly on the lookout for a motorcycle rider to be beside me in my lane. Now, this was not such a challenge in the Active E or Roaster, but it is definitely a little more difficult with the Model S.
I can count on our fingers, and not even having to resort to our toes, the number of random motorcycle riders that we have seen on our journey. Heck, even if we add Zero Motorcycle riding Ben Rich to our list, we still don’t need to use our toes to count the minuscule number of motorcycles that we’ve seen on this journey. Perhaps it has to do with the transition from Winter to Summer or just the time and roadways that we were on. I found it strange.
Additionally, when we did share the roadways with motorcycles, the riders that we encountered behaved differently from what I expected. They stayed in the lane, and would pass like cars but with some really tight distance between cars, almost pseudo-lane splitting. For that matter, I suppose a Public Service Announcement (PSA) for those visiting California from other states is to expect our California riders to take full advantage of the multitude of motorcycles and expect them to pass you in between lanes while you sit parked in traffic or even moving at a slow pace. Remember to give motorcycle riders some space.
Another observation that we had on the trip is that emergency numbers for mobile telephones in each state changes. It’s not just 911 -*NHP (*647) is an example of what is used in Nevada. We did not need to report any issues throughout our ride, thankfully, so didn’t test to see if 911 ALSO would work. However, typically these reporting numbers are on signs as you enter the state and throughout the journey. So, make a mental note as you enter various states that the reporting number
One thing that we carry on our person, as a general rule, is service with three different mobile networks for our voice and data use. We’ve found that this policy is especially useful when traveling cross-country. We have devices from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Virgin Mobile (Sprint). This diversity of providers have proven quite useful for ensuring that we are connected “with the rest of the world” throughout a majority of our drive. Since we cancelled all hotels after Day 1 and planned to “play it by ear.” This carrier diversity ensured that we’re able to book lodging throughout the drive. I suppose we could have taken this one step further and swapped out AT&T for Verizon since the Model S comes with access to the AT&T network, but we didn’t do that.
We spent a lot of time paying attention to weather along the route. This gave us a good gauge of what to expect and plan accordingly. Aside from the built in weather apps on our mobile devices, Twitter is useful, the Weather Channel or CNN have dedicated Twitter feeds for this.
We didn’t check the message boards (either TMC or Tesla’s own forums) and this could have been helpful. After we returned from the trip, there was a posting on Tesla’s forums about the roads to and from Lusk being washed out on June 5, 2015 that would have put a big stop to the whole trip had it happened while we were traveling there. I think that Wyoming way be in the process of repairing the damage now, but it just goes to show that there are many places for information.
Speaking of Lusk, we remind travelers to remember to allot time for construction zones. Especially when traveling on warmer months. Much of the country try to do their road repair during the warm months, so that means what would be a high speed route can be slowed down by construction zones.
One thing that you could lose by being a traveler and not a local is emergency alerts and amber alerts on mobile devices tend to go off for those devices in their home area only. When we were at dinner in New Jersey on Day 15 a bunch of the mobile devices went off with what sounded like the Emergency Alert tone. We found out later that a tornado warning was issued for the Morristown area. So, there’s that. (And remember, we are carrying three mobile provider devices.)
Absent planning to spend the night at a destination charger or at a supercharger location, one of the common places that we look for lodging in are college or university towns. When doing this strategy, pay attention to the particular school’s calendar, i.e. graduations, football games, and the like do tend to increase the cost of staying at particular locations.
When you do stay the night at a supercharger located hotel, plan to just charge the next morning while you get ready for your day (and remember to put your contact information on the car, in case the SC gets filled up (like the EV Card from Plug-in-America or the cool handy dandy “hotel” inspired charger tags).) Figure with the overnight vampire loss, you’ll make up for it in the morning.
Besides, we like to be able to charge with more range so as to provide ourselves with the flexibility to not only make the next supercharger, but also to do things, like “get off the the Interstate” or just go to a location that is not necessarily “along the way.”
Pack some thank you cards. Especially when planning on “crashing” over at people’s homes. A little consideration goes a long way.
Lastly, bring coins. You never know when you’ll need to use it for either tolls (Garden State Parkway automated toll booths, anyone?) or parking meters.
Back Home
Since Southern California service centers are pretty full, we made a note of all the things we wanted our local service center to look at and made our appointment on the road before we got home.
So, what did we have our local service center do when we returned?
A bit, actually. Here is the list that we sent them, followed by their response.
1) We had them replace the gasket (again) on the front passenger side (which shredded on trip and was replaced by Syosset Center) because it was bubbling up.
The original problem looked just like what happened when we picked up the car from the factory.
Service Center Response: The service center replaced this gasket again.
2) Aside from the issue in St. Louis on Day 20, there have been numerous out of service (no Edge or 3G when there IS AT&T service (we have an iPhone 4 on same network). It seems that the modem going out). We had to tether to my T-Mobile)).
Service Center Response: They also replaced the modem.
3) As we mentioned on Day 20, the St. Charles, MO location, the frunk got stuck numerous times and we had to use manual release.
Service Center Response: Frunk adjusted.
4) We had the wiper blades replaced.
Service Center Response: Wiper blades replaced.
5) The latch on the bend of the rear center console is broken.
Service Center Response: The service center took the broken one back and a replacement was drop shipped to our home.
6) The water condensation in the rear lights was happening again.
Service Center Response: The service center applied the “new” fix. apparently the original fix was flawed.
Service Center Response: Tires checked. We purchased the Tire Tote (see below.)
8) The steering wheel has a “rash” on the bottom part of it.
Service Center Response: Steering wheel replaced.
9) There looks to be a water spot in the rear driver passenger side corner. We went through some inclement weather and wonder where the leak came from. (see picture, it’s more evident in person).
Service Center Response: They performed a leak and water test and could not figure out where the stain came from. They did clean the stain.
10) The air conditioning does not seem to cool as quickly as it used to.
Service Center Response: Coolant recharged.
When we set out on the drive, we originally packed the car with our spare wheel and tire. The good folks at our local service center put the wheel and tire in a plastic bag and we put that in the frunk.
It looked fine, but didn’t really “show it off.”
So, one of the things that we picked up from the service center was the Tire Tote that we found out about during one of our supercharging stops
It is so much easier to stow and remove the tire and wheel with this tote.
Additionally, one thing that we should have rolled out with is a small set of our car wash kits, towels, etc. We brought some of our towels, but forgot the car wash fluids at home. We did get stuff drop-shipped when we were visiting family, so that came in handy, but it was still something we should’ve planned for.
Plans achieved
How did we do on executing our small list of non-prioritized plans?
Result: Though we turned quite a few heads, had our own “Random Model S” sightings (where we’re the ones to spot and post the other Model S), our car was never someone else’s “Random Model S” on TMC.
2) Living in Southern California and not being a “nature” dude, I am always amazed by the many beautiful pictures that have been published on the Model S Nature thread on teslamotorsclub.com. I wanted to post a few shots that is worthy of that thread.
Result: I think we did a good gradual set of posts here. With plenty of photographs that we can now share.
The goal that I (Dennis) have every day and is usually strained by the stress of a long trip is “stay married.” 😉
Result: I am happy to report, and is usually the first thing we answer to our friends when they ask, how did the trip go? – We’re still married. 😉
We finally got that Pacific Ocean view with the Model S that we tried to do on our return.
Where are we off to next? We don’t know and I will continue to post sporadically on the blog. Best plan is to either just subscribe to the blog and be notified via email (there’s a choice to do so in the sidebar) or follow me on Twitter, I tend to auto-tweet new posts there.
We have a few “short trips” to the Bay Area planned. After missing the first two years of Teslive/TMC Connect, we’ll be in Santa Clara for this year’s event, so stop by and say “Hi.”
