A few days ago, I noticed a blue Leaf parked a couple of parking spots over as I got out my ride. It was well kept, and possibly a newer model, but the owner left quickly before I could talk to him. I could see where he was headed, to a popular busy restaurant next door to my destination store. I was hoping I would be able to talk with him, before I left.
As hobbled my way through the parking lot toward a store, I noticed a fingernail-red Tesla-S 60 EV parked in the front row (near the stores' entrances). It was gorgeous and glorious to see, parked there right up front for everyone to view, with its shiny washed and waxed appearance. It particularly stood out against all the unwashed cars parked along side it (remember there is a severe drought condition in CA, so it is sort of a 'thing' to show your water-conservation support by not washing your car as religiously as was done in the past when rainfall was normal. Back then neighborhood kids would finger write 'wash me' on your car if it was dirty, but today its hardly done). As I was admiring the bright red Tesla-S from a far, yet close enough to talk to a woman helping her elderly mother out of a van parked next to the Tesla-S (I am careful that my large-size appearance doesn't spook the public, before I can get a chance to yak with them). I smiled and asked the woman as she paused to wait for her Mom to start moving out of the van, "So, that's your bright red Tesla?" (pointing to it. I do not stress the EV, or model part, as most people would have walked by the Tesla with nary a care as to what it is, let alone that it is an EV). She smiled back for a polite quick moment and said, "Yea sure, ... I wish ..." and then she went back to focusing on helping her Mom. That's all the time I knew I was going to be allowed to yak with her (she had a task to do), but I figured my words would carry in their minds (and likely they would now look at it more as they moved to and from the stores. And that thought of a Tesla would stay longer in their minds if I would be seeing them inside the same store I was headed to (us old people, her Mom and I, have the same interests). Later, when I was done, and heading back to unload my purchases into my ride, I remembered what I had forgotten to buy, and had to go back to the store. I took solace in that the beautiful blue Leaf was still parked there, so my chances of talking to the driver were still good. When I was leaving my store again is when I saw the Leaf driver heading out with his bag of grab-a-quick-bite to-go food. I spoke from a far to him and said. "You must be the Leaf driver ... (?)" He smiled and looked up. I asked if I could have brief minute for a question about his EV (suddenly he was less focused on getting back to his desk at work to eat his food, and wanted to talk about his Leaf). It turns out this was the second Leaf he was leasing. He had just leased another one, after his first lease had expired. This was a newer model (so he was happier about that and possibly why he is leasing rather than buying, so he can continue driving newer models). He did not know what kW charger he had on board, but said it was the least-expensive trim (likely his was 3kW). At that point, I figured I had take enough of his time, and left him with the thought of him looking up plugshare (yet another plugin driver that did not know about plugshare: how it shows all the EVSE brands, has comments from drivers keeping its listings up to date ... yadda, yadda, yadda ... ). We parted with him happy his chat about his EV was quick, so he could Leaf his way back to work with a still-hot lunch. As I was heading back to my ride, there were three senior gals getting out of a Corolla (ice) that looked like they were heading to a nearby fabric store. I quickly stopped and stood looking at them with my hands a little out stretched, saying "Now you look like the type that should be driving a bright, fingernail red Tesla!" ... (then doing a little head slide, I said) "You're too hot to be seen driving around in that" (pointing to the Corolla). They giggled (like young girls), looking at each other. One said "A Tesla, where is one?" I slightly leaned over down to her height so she could see down my long arm with finger pointing at the Tesla-S, and I said, "That one there looks like your car". She exclaimed, " I want to see it" and headed toward it. The others quickly followed after her (like girls walking together). As they were leaving one asked, "How much are they?" I said, "They're on sale now for 66,000. That's cheap, you can get two!" They giggled off following the curious one that just had to see a Tesla. [ref http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/09/new-lower-cost-tesla-model-s-60/ ] I had just used someone else's EV for my EVangelizing purposes without causing any harm to it. Just being parked there was a very useful tool for me to EV-enlighten some people that have only heard the word 'Tesla', but had never even seen one up close. And isn't that really the purpose to all these NDEW rallies/shows? But getting people to come to a NDEW EVent is not easy. With all these EVs parked around me in the lot, I can get the public to begin to notice them. On a later day, after I had gotten some walking exercise, I stopped by to a Whole Foods Market with NRG L3&2 EVSE installed, to park and mooch some WiFi briefly for some app updates. While they were updating, I noticed a Spark EV charging at the store's EVgo EVSE, see https://13dd3533ebd96a38e097-ffd458871468d7801be60d93d5d79b26.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/152348.jpg (Spark EV) When an e-golf came up next to it (like so many bees swarming over flowers in bloom, so are EVs coming in to drink from the L3 DC the store had). The e-Golf driver mentioned to his buddy that the Spark's charge was finished, and proceeded to disconnect the Spark. Less than a minute later the Spark owner came out of the store while looking at his cellphone (possibly an app was telling him either his charge had completed, or that his EV had been unplugged). As he came close to his EV, he looked up to see his EV had been unplugged (the look on his face was displeased, like 'you touched my car', but not angry enough to start a fight). The e-golf driver said to him, "Your charge had finished". While the e-golf driver could read the Spark driver's displeasure, and made the after-the-unplugging-fact token-effort to assure the Spark driver, he gotten a full charge, the Spark driver drove off still displeased. The two guys from e-Golf went inside the store, leaving their EV to charge (or be disconnected by the next EVSE-hungry driver), see https://13dd3533ebd96a38e097-ffd458871468d7801be60d93d5d79b26.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/152345.jpg (e-Golf EV) That wasn't a comfortable situation. but was only a mild form of EVSE-rage ... My drive back home saw several Tesla EVs, and other plugins on the road. On other day, I needed to pick up a replacement 12V ice starter battery, as mine had gone flat too many times to not have me worried it would leave me stranded in the future (ice starter batteries' thin plates just do not recover well from being completely drained, 0-SOC). I remember that part of town wrong, and ended up taking the long way around to the store. Oddly, I got to see a first hand Auton-Google-crash. It wasn't the Goog-nEV, but their hev, see http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/09/23/google-self-driving-car-involved-in-mountain-view-crash/ Ared-light runnig human-driver had bashed the auton-goog-mobile. The traffic was somewhat impeded, as the MTV police had blocked off part of the road traffic with their PD cars, while driver details were being exchanged. On the way home, I took the major Goog turn off and checked out a Tesla Supercharger Station that was behind the Computer History Museum: https://api.plugshare.com/view/location/65838 Wow was it crowded (all 12 slots were charging, and 4 EVs were in line in the road queued next to charge). But that is about normal for that site, see https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+super+station+mt+view You'll see off to the right, that mid-day is its busiest times. With Silicon Valley property at a premium (not much left unused, and quite expensive), getting another Tesla Superstation nearby or even expanding that site, it not going to happen. I found it interesting, that even in the heart of Silicon Valley, yelp was behind the times, they listed that Tesla EVSE site under a Gas & Service Stations category: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tesla-supercharger-station-mountain-view ... ::bizarre:: For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.0catch.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVangel-about-Leaf-Telsa-S-60-Spark-e-Golf-mild-EVSE-rage-Goog-crash-Super-EVSE-tp4683827.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)
