SEVA Meeting Minutes – February 2021

Minutes for the 2021 Annual Meeting on Feb. 9

President Jay Donnaway called the Zoom meeting to order at 7:14 p.m.

BOARD ELECTION – Secretary Billy Kreuter reported that at the January meeting, Grace Reamer was nominated to continue in the office of Vice President, and Charlie Tsai was nominated for Treasurer. Jay called for additional nominations for Vice President and Treasurer. There were no additional nominations. Billy moved that the question be called. Mark Yormark seconded the motion. There was no objection to calling the question. Jay asked for a show of hands in the Zoom tiles of those in favor of electing Grace as Vice President. There was no opposition and Grace was elected. Jay asked for a show of hands of those in favor of electing Charlie as Treasurer. There was no opposition and Charlie was elected. Both will serve two-year terms on the SEVA Board. Jay said that the post-office keys have been reclaimed. Charlie, Philip Skoog and Jay will meet up to get financial records set up for Charlie. Mark suggested that membership renewals should be updated soon.

* Clean Cars 2030 – Jay testified in favor of the Coltura bill to ban gasoline cars by 2030 (HB1204) in the House Transportation Committee, despite recent misgivings from Attorney General Ferguson’s office.

* Direct Sales – Jay mentioned the Rivian bill (HB 1388), which would allow EV manufacturers to sell directly to consumers in Washington. Rivian has asked for SEVA’s support of HB 1388. Jay asked if anyone objected to SEVA’s supporting the Rivian bill, and no objections were noted. A public hearing is scheduled for hearing will be at 8 a.m. on Feb. 10. Rivian is coordinating testimony with Plug In America. Grace will testify, talking about needing to buy the Coda in California nine years ago with an ensuing nightmare to get it registered, because Coda was forbidden from expanding into Washington.  Grace said that Ed Mills had similar difficulties last year with the Arcimoto. But car dealers have come out in force to oppose 1388, and for the hearing, more than 800 people have signed up in opposition. Legislators need to hear from constituents talking about how the bill will be better for them. Jeff Finn said that it looked like dealership employees were being “encouraged” to sign on in opposition to HB 1388. It’s an issue in small towns where dealerships might be the biggest contributor to the local sales tax. Brian Grunkemeyer, Jeff and Grace then discussed the implications for dealers when their manufacturers start shifting to EVs.

* The Washington Strong Act (HB1513) was introduced Feb. 9. This is a companion to the Senate’s carbon-tax bill. This places a $25/ton tax on carbon emissions, increasing by 5 percent per year.
* Vehicle Miles Traveled charge – A bill is expected to be introduced soon to replace the annual $225 EV fees with a Road Usage Charge based on vehicle miles traveled. Jeff Finn said they’re still working on it, and opposition from major stakeholders is developing.
* EV Charger Mapping – Grace reported that HB1287 will require the state Department of Commerce to create a publicly available mapping and forecasting tool for EV charging locations. It has been passed out of the House Energy and Environment Committee, and it’s now been sent to the House Transportation Committee. Jay wondered if this bill would have the same purposes as Plugshare and WSDOT’s own planning efforts; there doesn’t seem to be a lack of resources. Andrea Tousignant said that the Department of Commerce is looking at what other places are doing. Oregon is doing an assessment of all level 2s and DCFCs. States are examining which areas are covered and which need to be covered; future grants will go to the latter. It’s also a goal to make it super easy for new EV drivers, or drivers considering EVs, to start to make use of disparate charging networks.

* Low-Carbon Fuel Standard – Brian Grunkemeyer asked about the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (HB1091, but SEVA hasn’t taken a position on it yet. Brian thought it would be worthwhile to support. Jay asked Brian to post a synopsis for the board to consider. Grace said that an amendment now will require that 50 percent of the generated revenues be provided to a clean-fuel rewards program to reduce the cost of leasing or buying an EV in Washington.

SEVA SURVEY – Jay called on Andrea to present the survey results. Andrea displayed graphics of the responses.

* 36 of 67 respondents love the meetings.

* 28 say we aren’t reaching all of our demographic.

* 19 think that new programs would be a great direction.

* Six respondents thought we’re rockin’ it.

* Four want to volunteer.

* 55 of 67 drive EVs, four don’t, and eighteen hope to soon.

* 49 percent are over 60 years old, 40 percent are 40-60, and 11 percent are 15-39.

* Respondents represent a good mixture of members who are employed in the EV industry, employed elsewhere, and retired; some others are self-employed or unemployed due to the pandemic.

* The survey also included a mix of EV commuters, households with more than one EV, Puget Sound-area residents and Washington State residents.

* Respondents were roughly even between charging at home using Level One vs. Level Two.

* For additional activities, the plurality favored additional website materials for purchasing a used EV in the Puget Sound area.
* Grace asked what would everyone like to use these results for. Jay said that the bank balance is now $25,227.43. Mark Yormark said we need to expand participation by providing an expense account for Grace and others going to Olympia, and bring on someone part-time to help Deb with the webpage and to bring in money, paid for performance. Grace said she’d start working on a job description; board members will need to contribute to this, including pay and effort levels. Jean Darsie wrote in the chat box, “Info about used EVs would be great. I’d like to share with others to encourage them to purchase. How about using an EV for your ‘town car’ as a suggestion?  It’s what I do and my Mitsubishi EV ends up being the most used. My biodiesel car I use only for long trips which are rare.”  Jay said that he agreed that buyer education could be a useful SEVA service.

DC FAST CHARGING – Steve Meginnis was concerned that there are CHAdeMO stations that lack CCS when he goes to Leavenworth.  Steve also wanted to know if there were Tesla stations at which he could purchase charging as a non-Tesla owner. Jay said that there aren’t. Grace said that Tesla CHAdeMO adapters work on Model 3s and Model Ss. Brian Grunkemeyer asked if a CCS adapter is available; Grace replied not yet, but Teslas in Europe use CCS. Brian said that Nissan has moved away from CHAdeMO. Andrea thought that the CHAdeMO standard will be back; CHAdeMO, but not CCS, can presently do vehicle-to-grid. The state is going to require that CHAdeMO-only sites bring in CCS. Jay said that the West Coast Highway was supposed to be CCS-compatible, but that didn’t happen; Andrea said that Aerovironment doesn’t do CCS, and added that money and co-location will be included in the buildout. Oregon  already  requires this. Steve asked why other cars can’t use Tesla charging stations. Andrea said that the communications protocol isn’t met by other cars. Grace said that Tesla superchargers identify the car plugging in so that the owner can be billed, or be exempt from billing if it has free charging; this is an internal Tesla protocol that won’t work with other cars. But the Tesla stations don’t have credit-card readers. In the future, it might be that other car manufacturers could buy into the Tesla charging network, although none has been interested yet. The group has discussed obstacles to creating a CCS-to-CHAdeMO adapter in the past. Jay said that he’d heard many opinions that it can’t be done. Andrea said that a CHAdeMO engineer from Japan told her a communications protocol is missing and it can never happen. Steve Meginnis wondered how EVs can be promoted given these conflicting standards. Rick Ingham thought that the rear charging port of Teslas was unfortunate, especially in his situation where he sometimes can’t get his Model X with the trailer to fit into a station at all. In Ellensburg he needed to unhitch the trailer just to charge. Pull-through charging is absolutely needed, but these are found only at camping spots. Jay said that Electrify America’s new DCFCs in Kent can be used only if your CHAdeMO port is in the right rear. Mark Yormark asked if, until this is improved, can an extension cord be fashioned. Jay thought that Quick Charge Power was doing that, but they’ve moved shop and haven’t been heard from lately.

DRIVE ELECTRIC WASHINGTON – Grace gave an update on DEWA, which has been inactive for the last year due to the pandemic, but now has been revived with new leadership. It serves as an umbrella group connecting clubs and supporters across the state. They’re working on a curriculum introducing kids to EVs and clean energy. Board member Chad Schwitters got the ball rolling. Jennifer Harper from Energy Northwest is the new president, and Grace is vice president. Steve Lough is also on the board. They’re thinking of fundraising and a database. They’re interested in best practices and outreach events. It’s all just getting started and we’ll be hearing more.

EVENTS – No events are scheduled at the moment due to pandemic social distancing. Jay said that Matthew Metz from Coltura is worried about the sharks circling the Coltura bill and he is proposing an EV parade. Jay said he hates to see fast cars driving slowly, but maybe this can look impressive with a good camera angle. Maybe a snowy drive to Olympia would be a good time to show off EV capabilities.

PROJECTS – Charlie said he has the BMW up and running, and he showed his work under the hood and around the car. He installed a 30-kWh pack from a 2017 Leaf and an upgraded 150-kW Cascadia Motion controller.  The conversion also has a liquid-cooled motor and circuitry, with two water pumps, Manzanita Micro charger and BMS boards, Chevy Volt DC-DC using EVTV’s controller. Regen has a hand control down by the gearshift.

Jay adjourned the meeting at 8:31.

In the post-meeting, Jay mentioned glitches in a 40-kWh Leaf pack. EV Works is still working on the bus and installing the Ox pack. They have hundreds of Leaf modules for sale. CCS is going into the Maxwell van.

Rick Ingham discussed his towing experiences.  EV range is really killed, more so than ICE due to the EV’s greater efficiency and better aerodynamics.

Stu Frothingham and Jay discussed mounting fittings.

Cory Tsai reported that Rad Power has received a $150 million round of funding. It will be springboard to continue their growth trajectory.  They’ve had some 300-percent sales growth months during the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic they cut back staff, but quickly ramped up when sales really picked up from customers looking for safe transportation alternatives.

The post-meeting ended at 9:02 p.m.