SEVA Meeting Minutes – January 2022
Seattle Electric Vehicle Association
Jan 11, 2022 meeting minutes
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The January 2022 monthly membership meeting of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association was conducted at Seattle First Church of the Nazarene in Wallingford, adjacent to Dick’s Drive-In. Former Scribe Kevin Boze gave the call to order at 7:01 p.m.
NEW MEMBERS – Among nearly new attendees were Colin and Linda Keeney, though not for the first time. They are awaiting their Tesla Model Y, the delivery of which has been pushed back to March. New attendee Sarah Fischer works for the Electrification Coalition, a non-profit supporting conversion of public fleets; she just moved to Seattle from Ohio.
ANNUAL MEETING – Election for the two-year terms of Board Secretary and Board Vice President will occur at the annual SEVA meeting on Feb. 8, 2022. Nominations are now open and can be made by e-mailing your interest to president@seattleeva.org. Current Secretary Billy Kreuter will accept nomination for re-election to the position, but will welcome other candidates. Current Vice President Grace Reamer invites other candidates to fill the position.
POLICY UPDATE – Grace reported on the Jan. 10 opening of the 2022 Legislative session, which will be a short session this year. Governor Inslee has proposed an EV direct purchase incentive to be applied at point-of-sale. The proposal is a $7,500 state rebate for taxpayers earning under $500,000 per household, and $5,000 additional for those earning under $60,000. This will be in addition to the partial sales-tax exemption and any federal incentives. Used vehicles also will get incentives. Additional bills under consideration include:
HB1644: electric school buses
HB1731: autonomous vehicle testing
HB1792: hydrogen production tax exemption. SEVA members expressed widespread disapproval of this at the meeting.
SB5526: Senator Fortunato’s requirement for a state report on the availability of certain materials used in EV battery production. Discussion consensus was the bill is a diversionary non-sequitur, given that EV batteries are not manufactured in Washington.
SB5543: rebates for new all-electric landscaping equipment that replaces petroleum-fueled equipment
HB1831: EV Infrastructure Electrician Certification Program
HB1793: prohibits unreasonable restrictions by owners’ associations of residents’ installing EVSEs
SB5444, the Road Usage Charge bill from last year, is now in the Senate Rules Committee
Coltura is interested in bringing back the Clean Cars 2030 bill, but prefers to keep it “under the radar” to avoid arousing opposition.
HISTORIC ELECTRIC VEHICLE FOUNDATION – Jeff Finn reported that the City of Kingman, Arizona has purchased a facility that is being renovated for $3 million to house the collection of the Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation. An announcement is expected on April 23 to show what the project will look like. It will be hands-on and interactive, like the San Francisco Exploratorium. A fundraising campaign is in progress, which at this time has a $500 match for contributions. Former SEVA member Roderick Wilde is the executive director of the foundation. Read more at hevf.org.
CHARGING UPDATE: Jay recounted that Electrify America was supposed to be “standards agnostic” – offering CHAdeMO and CCS plug standards equally at its public stations – but 80-90 percent of their deployment is CCS-only. This fact, together with the pricing structure that makes the EVSEs with the highest power capability be the most expensive, has caused waiting lines at the stations that do include CHAdeMO. Although this appears to violate the Dieselgate settlement, CHAdeMO is getting discontinued by Electrify America and others, and CHAdeMO support apparently is going away. Therefore, Jay introduced a resolution that he and Grace authored, requesting that Electrify America be compelled to maintain CHAdeMO capability at its stations. Discussion ensued. Suggestions included adding a headline and a preamble and more data.
UPDATES:
President Jay Donnaway announced that he is moving on from EV Works to become Resource Conservation Manager at Tacoma Power. Scott Vandivort will become EV Works’ Chief Engineer.
Mark Schiller and Jay discussed electric aviation, including a project at the Arlington airport, the “Alice” made by Eviation.
President Emeritus Steve Lough talked about the Chevy Bolt’s software upgrade, addressing the battery-safety issues, which will let owners park in garages again, charge indoors overnight, and run their vehicles below the 70-mile range threshold. Steve thinks this upgrade should be declined.
FUNDRAISING – Grace moved that the monthly raffle to collect funds for use of the church be discontinued after the meeting. The church will be paid instead from the SEVA treasury. There was no call for a second, but the motion passed by acclaim. Dave Larson won the raffle with a $35 payout. Mark Schiller won the toy Tesla.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30 p,m.
Minutes drafted by Billy Kreuter, secretary, and edited by Grace Reamer, vice-president.
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Zoom Meeting Recording(s):
: Did Not Stream Meeting