SEVA Meeting Minutes – August 2025
Seattle Electric Vehicle Association
August 12, 2025 meeting minutes
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This was a PotLuck meeting at SEVA monthly meetings are held at: The Bowman Building
Summer Potluck Meeting Minutes
The August 12, 2025 meeting of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association took place at the Bowman Building, 4451 14th Ave NW, Seattle. Approximately 38 people attended and at least 12 EV’s were on display in the building parking lot (including two early Tesla Roadsters) with many more on the street
This event was a pot-luck dinner meeting with no shortage of food. Thanks to everyone who contributed food and drink.
President Stephen Johnsen called the meeting to order about 7:00 pm.
The first speaker was Kent Bakke, who was hosting our event. The Bowman building houses part of his EV collection. Notable vehicles include; a VW Beatle conversion, originally powered by lead-acid batteries with a 25-50 mile range and one of the first lithium conversions of the club, a gray 1961 Cleveland Electric Vehicle Company van with a fiberglass body. a Red 2008 Tesla roadster and a 2011 Meyers Manx 2.0.
New and returning attendees included: Devin who drives a Ford Lightning for work, Mark who hopes to do a manual transmission EV conversion someday and Chris Brune EV Pioneer of Cascadia Motion Systems who converted a car in the mid 90’s and has been driving electric ever since.
Pat McCue, has a lot of EV parts and batteries for sale:
Check out MLeRaceCars.com.
Pat has set a number of records racing EVs including driving the Super Cobra Jet 1800 Mustang, 7.63 seconds, 182 mph.
Chad Schwitters shared details of his recent trip in a new 2025 Brightdrop EV camper. His has 1 kW of solar on top charging the 20 kWh house battery, that is a separate system from the drive. He picked up the vehicle in Detroit, went 2400 miles in six days, used Superchargers the whole way and spent $504 charging. His normal speed was 60-67 mph, getting 625 Whr/mile. They did hit 80 mph. His Brightdrop needed to go back to the factory so he was showing a demo unit given to him while his is in the shop.
Tom Gursky of Blue Dot Motor Works showed his Narwhal conversion which will allow a one day conversion of an ICE vehicle to hybrid. The system has about a 35 mile electric range, a 15 kWh battery pack that weighs 300-450 pounds.
Mark Yorkark brought his newer Tesla Model X with impressive self-driving abilities.
Frank and students from the University of Washington showed their ElementTrailer. The goal is to extend the range of an EV tow vehicle and trailer combination by adding electric propulsion to the trailer. They have a control system that senses forces at the hitch, driving the trailer wheels to reduce drag or using regen during braking, transferring energy to the trailer battery.
The meeting adjourned about 8:30.
By Eric Eskilson, SEVA secretary.
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Zoom/YouTube Meeting Recording(s):
: Did Not Stream Meeting