I had been waiting all year for that 9/19 this EVent. Last year's http://brucedp.150m.com/2014events.html was quite good. But anyone that has been at these EVents year after year, know some are better than others, while all are still worth attending.
I decided to arrive at 10am just when they started, with a plan that I was not going to be staying too long. I knew it was going to be hot in the afternoon, and I would likely fade before then (I still had a traffic-filled drive to get home). This year's EVent http://brucedp15.neocities.org/eaasvr15/ was set up and handled differently than last year. Since I am only a guest to the EVent, I am not poo-poo'ing all the efforts of the volunteers, just noting the differences (and making suggestions). Since the eaasv.org Chapter decided to use only two De Anza College parking lots instead of last year's three, signage and yellow tape barriers would have been prudent. Also, the staff of volunteers that were helping direct traffic were not sure what was going on (clearly there was some disconnect there). As it turned out, the public were to park in the parking lot that last year was used for EV display-purposes. This turned out good as it had shade from overhead solar panels. Typically, to help pay for the costs of having this annual EVent, the EAA Chapter has methods of generating revenue (vendors pay for booths, dealers pay to show off and or give rides, or private owner that want to display their plugin pay a small fee to have the privilege). I am going to assume, those private plugin owners that were parked in the first row had paid for that privilege. Oddly, the public parking area had many privately owned plugins that the public just walked by (they likely did not know those were plugins). It might have been better to utilize those plugins so as to park them in a way that showed them off (perhaps a separate row of Leaf EVs, Tesla EVs, pih, etc.). This year the front area was empty and not used like last year for giving rides by dealers and private owners. This year's EVent put the rides way in the back. Again no signage as to what was where, etc. Rides are a crucial point of these EVents, as the public ends up using their other-set-of-brains (their butts) to know EVs are a viable transportation choice and a lot of fun. I made a special effort to chat with the public as I saw them and ensured they knew they were welcome, and that they knew there were rides to be had in the back. Being an EV charging nut (my former Blazer EV had six on-board chargers) http://brucedp.150m.com/blazer/ I headed over to the College's nearby EVSE. The EAA Chapter had already provided access by having a volunteer use the Chapter's GE EVSE rfid card (turning the EVSE on for drivers wanting a charge). Interestingly, one Honda conversion was using a level-2 (L2) j1772 adapter to convert to the old-style NEMA L6-30 twist-lock inlet that was mounted where the fuel-filler port was (rear driver's side). There was a nice mix of several types of plugins mooching a free charge. The early morning sun was already burning down on me, so I moved over to the shade under the PV panels that covered the first parking lot display area. The first row of plugins was a nice assortment of both production EVs and later models. It is like a smorgasbord of plugins. Since that row had everything from a Sparrow to a Tesla Roadster EV, there were plenty for the public to view. However not all of the owners of each vehicle were there to respond to the public's QnA about their plugin. When a plugin caught the public's attention, I spent time to let them know of how important it was to the development of EVs. Many of the public have no knowledge of the rapid development of EV in the 1990's, only know what confusing factoids the media pumps out. One of the plugins was a bright yellow 1970's Citicar (aka Cheese wedge) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citicar The owner had modified/upgraded it to a have a higher voltage 60V li-ion pack, a new motor, and controller. He said he could cruise at 40mph with a range of 40mi. Several of the older production EVs had been modified to take advantage of today's technology. That is one of the beauty's of older EVs, modifications are straight forward, and the owner can do them without worrying about voiding an automaker's warranty. The next row had individual booths of EV related companies and or clean air organizations. One of those was NRG eVgo (an EVSE company). I asked them about how NRG's eVgo and solar companies were going to spun off into another company. The NRG rep was knowledgeable, and gave me what he knew, but he said the news was so new, it was work in progress. I was left with the feeling that both eVgo employees, and eVgo EVSE users would see no changes (the spin off would be transparent). Which good because eVgo has and will install more EVSE in CA to make up for the price gouging NRG did to CA Electricity users. eVgo EVSE offer the latest EVSE tech having both a level-3 (L3) EVSE with dual couplers (CHAdeMO and SAE-combo), as well as a level-2 (L2) EVSE. An example of that was right across the street from the College at a Whole Foods Market http://www.plugshare.com/?location=45217 The owner of his customer made Electric bicycle stopped by to show off his #407 ride. He said it had a ~60VDC Li-ion pack, and a 500A motor controller which gave him high performance, but a short range. Which is fine if all you want to is to race/hot-dog to the corner market and back. I did not see an on-board charger, so the external charger was likely in his backpack. Bob Schneeveis had brought another one of his Electric creations that this time used front walking legs to pull a solar panel covered two wheel cart. Bob takes his e-creations to Burning-Man, and then also brings them to the eaasv.org Rally. But you have to enjoy them when they are there as he tends to use parts from previous creations to make the next ones. A re-seller of Pedego Electric cargo bicycles was on hand allowing rides of their e-bike that had a strong frame to carry heavy loads and or passengers. The black matte covering on the rear wheel is to keep little feet from the rear spokes. The charger is likely an external one which fairly common for e-bikes. The back row had formal automaker-dealer booths offering rides in their plugins. Ford had several electrified vehicles, and one Focus EV. Their rep acknowledged my comment that the Focus EV should offer a level-3 charging capability to be able to compete with other EVs like the Leaf. BMW and Nissan also had a formal display tent there, so all three automakers put on a good presentation, and had plenty of vehicles offering rides to the public (if the public knew they were in the back to get the rides). There was about the same amount of physical room in the rear as there was in the front where the ride were given. That makes me wonder why rides were moved to the rear? I went over to the second lot that the eaasv.org EAA Chapter had paid De Anza College to use. But it was under utilized only having a couple booths. I was attracted to the Fiat 500e that had a bicycle rack mounted on its rear. In talking to the 'Specialized Electric Bicycle' reseller at their booth, he pointed that the space that was given for allowing the public to ride his e-bikes was too small. Perhaps a route around the EVent would have been both advertising (from the ebikes zooming around) and also beneficial by allowing riders open up to full speed? That Specialize ebike offered both a 120VAC charging port on the bike frame (you could charging while it was parked, like at home), or the pack was removable with its own 120VAC charging port (this is good for when the ebike is locked up at work or school with no access to an outlet, and charging can be at your work-desk, or while in class). An Electric-board reseller was on hand, and on my request had their paid professional rider tool around on it. There are several of these e-board brands on the market for the public to buy. They are small enough to carry around (portable) and the cost is low. Perhaps a good entry level EV purchase for the young at heart? As usual at these EVents, I was having so much fun being there, that I had stayed much longer than I had originally planned (I suppose like a big-ol' kid who is having too much Electric fun, eh?). I decided to pack it in as I had talked so much my voice was giving out, and the day was getting too hot for me. As heading out, I swung by the first row again, and saw that a Mercedes Electric drive EV and a Toyota RAV4EV gen2 had parked nearby. That row had two first generation (gen1) RAV4-EVs, and now the gen2 was there to compare with. Toyota and Tesla collaborated on the gen2, but TMC stopped production on their RAV4EV-gen2">RAV4EV-gen2. With no L3, no driving modes (usually performance, normal, eco-long-range, and mountainous/high-regen), and other features sorely lacking in an SUV, TMC just was not committed enough to sell it correctly. Which is quite sad as the RAV4-EV gen1 was quite an EV in its day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV#First_generation When the drivers of the GM EV1 had their EVs ripped out of their hands to be crushed/destroyed, drivers were forced to jump ship and grab a RAV4-EV gen1, which for a very short time were offered for sale to the public (circa y2k/early-2000's). As I left heading toward my ride home, I was in awe at how many plugins were in the public parking area (intermixed with ice). After I left the campus, I swung by that nearby Whole Foods Market to look at the eVgo EVSE. Yup, it was fully used. It had plugins two-deep on either side of the EV-spots">EV-spots that were in use charging-away. It only took twenty plus years for me to see the success of plugins. I look forward to next year's EVent to see what more progress has been made :-) For EVLN EV-newswire">EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/Silicon-Valley-EAA-NDEW-Rally-pics-more-tp4677771p4677793.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
