SEVA Meeting Minutes – March 2023

March 21, 2023April 15, 2023 Ryan Fulcher 2023

Seattle Electric Vehicle Association

Mar 14, 2023 meeting minutes
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Meeting Minutes

The March 2023 membership meeting of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association was in the social hall of First Church of the Nazarene in Wallingford. After a spirited display of electric vehicles during nice early-spring weather in the parking lot, President Jay Donnaway, using a J1772 connector that someone had vandalized, gavelled the meeting to order at 7:06 p.m.

NEW ATTENDEES: Leanne, who is Larry Ryan’s partner, is a first-time attendee. Steve Day is interested in classic-car conversions. Paul is attending for the first time in a long time; he’s hoping to find a Bolt.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Vice President Grace Reamer reported that the Road Usage Charge got a lot of opposition from trucking interests, Tim Eyman, and the other usual suspects. Grace attended the House Transportation Committee’s hearing in support of the bill, but recommended tweaks to make EV costs more comparable to fuel-efficient ICE costs. The bill did not advance before the cut-off date, but still could be revived if it is determined to be necessary for implementing the state budget. The only non-budget bill affecting EVs that is still now alive is the one attempting to penalize sales of vandalized or stolen EVSE parts. Jay said he thought that the bill was weak.

CONVERSION PROJECTS:
Larry Ryan shared his battery replacement project on his Chevy S10 pick-up conversion, which was initially completed in 2008. Some of its cells are now degraded, but not all of them, and Larry wanted to see how best to address it without the expense of a complete battery-pack replacement. Using monitoring software, Larry found the individual cells, out of 48, which sagged too excessively under load. One showed especially bad voltage sag. Larry decided to replace eight sagging cells. This was readily accomplished with a purchase of new cells from Manzanita Micro, help from Stephen Johnsen, and a 5v, 10a power supply from Ebay to initialize the cells’ voltages. Upon project completion, which involved a month’s fine-tuning of the voltage, performance was excellent. The S10’s range has improved by 10 miles.

Ryan Fulchur described a project refurbishing a GE Elec-trak electric garden tractor. This machinery dates from the 1970s, having analog controls. Ryan displayed a condensation of four hours of video of himself and Jay overhauling the workings. The tractor is destined for use on a farm in Oregon. Jay also reported that the pusher trailer is coming along great, and it will be ready for the Greenwood Car Show.

Ryan Plut told the story of trying to buy a new Bolt. It hadn’t previously worked out with Burien Chevrolet. He called almost every area Chevrolet dealer and found the smallest mark-up price at Lee Johnson in Kirkland. But after paying a deposit and signing an agreement, Lee Johnson’s manager said that the agreement wasn’t a contract and the price likely would go up by the time the vehicle arrived. And they didn’t even give Ryan the “agreement” papers. When the car comes, Ryan will learn Lee Johnson’s ultimate intentions.

CHARGING: Jay shared a page of the Federal Register for Feb. 28, publishing a rule which specifies that the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) will not require CHAdeMO DC fast charge connections after 2024.

EVENTS:

Stephen Johnsen reported that Bellevue College will resume hosting its EV car show, starting at 9:40 a.m. on Thursday, April 20.
Three local Earth Day events are scheduled: Mercer Island Sustainability Fair has space for several display vehicles, Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue will also have an event from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., and SEVA is co-sponsoring an Earth Day event at the Duwamish River Community Hub in South Park from noon to 3 p.m.
In May, the Triple XXX Root Beer show in Issaquah is back on Sunday, May 7 from 0 a.m. to 3 p.m! And it’s not on Mother’s Day this time!
Mark your calendars for the Greenwood Car Show on Saturday, June 24.
EVS36 will be in Sacramento June 11-14.
National Drive Electric Week will be the third week of September.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Ryan Fulcher shared that a massive deposit of lithium has been discovered in Iran.
President Emeritus Steve Lough needs a garage for his Bolt in order to be able to do a tow hitch installation.
Jeff Finn was sent a virtual-reality headset by Nissan because of the delay on delivery of his Ariya on order.

The meeting adjourned in the vicinity of 8:40 p.m.

Minutes drafted by Secretary Billy Kreuter, and edited and posted by Vice President Grace Reamer.

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Live Meeting Recording(s):

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