SEVA Meeting Minutes – November 2023
Seattle Electric Vehicle Association
Nov 14, 2023 meeting minutes
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The Nov. 14, 2023 membership meeting of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association was in the social hall of First Church of the Nazarene in Wallingford. Former Scribe Kevin Boze issued the cry, and President Jay Donnaway called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.
NEW ATTENDEES: Dwight from Redmond is thinking about doing a conversion and looking for advice. President Emeritus Steve Lough brought his neighbor Bill, who recently acquired a red Chevy Bolt.
SPECIAL GUEST – Ethan Esch, a former Rivian employee who now serves as a senior account manager at Seattle City Light consultant ICF, shared updates about the city’s electrification projects.
- Fleet electrification – They are making new connections at outreach events and helping small businesses identify rebates they can take advantage of for going electric.
- Fleet Advisory Services – They help businesses create a schedule for transitioning their fleet to electric, and they provide charging installation rebates for businesses.
- Multi-family charging – They provide advisory services and free site visits to multi-family housing complexes with at least five units to help them find the best way to install charging.The also provide training and certification for EVSE installers.
- Public charging – The city’s goal is to ensure equitable access to public EVSEs. The city’s goal is to install 2,000 charge points between 2024 and 2030. The pilot project to install curbside Level 2 charging stations now has nine units online, with the other 22 scheduled to be operational by January 2024. The cost for Level 2 charging is 21 cents per kWh. Next year, the city plans to add 58 charging stations at 31 sites. The city is taking comments now about where to install new charging stations here.
- Plugs – City Light continues to support CHAdeMO plugs, and they are included with CCS plugs on new DC fast charge station installations.
- SEVA members suggested that the city should not install signage about charging at each station until it is operational, to avoid confusion.
- Other concerns were shared about the curbside boxes being mounted at a height of three feet instead of the initial 12-foot height concept, to prevent vandalism to cables. Ethan said City Light is focusing on lighting, cameras and thicker cables to discourage theft.
- The curbside charging stations will be demonstrated at the Seattle International Auto Show this weekend.
- In response to a question about electricity demand, Ethan said City Light has not seen a surge of new energy needs, partly because of people working from home during the pandemic. A good discussion about electricity demand at the utility level ensued.
- For more information and to contact Ethan, e-mail scl_publicevcharging@icf.com.
HEVF UPDATE – Philip Skoog encouraged SEVA members to join the Historic Electric Vehicle Association for $25/year and support its efforts to build a world-class EV museum in Kingman, AZ. In addition to the virtual battery capital campaign, the foundation needs to raise funds for ongoing operational costs. Founding members will get a pin, membership card and decal. The foundation will continue to mount an EV exhibit at the annual Route 66 Fun Run in May. Learn more and contribute here.
SEMA – SEVA Treasurer Charlie Tsai showed lots of photos and reported on his trip to the SEMA convention Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Las Vegas. He said that after smaller shows during the pandemic, the event is back to being one of the largest auto conventions anywhere, and the New Tech section was mostly about EVs. Some new companies are producing conversion kits and battery modules to turn a conventional ICE car into a plug-in hybrid, similar to the Blue Dot Motors concept presented at last month’s SEVA meeting. This year’s SEMA included vehicle sleds displaying all the electric components, the E-Cobra and lots of other custom builds. SEVA’s own Stephen Johnsen and Pat McCue gave a presentation about conversions.
EVSE DISSECTION – Jay exhibited the components of several deconstructed EVSEs in his collection, including an antique Clipper Creek outfitted with the precursor to the modern J1772 plug. A modern EVSE is twice the size of the older model, although the circuit board and contactors inside don’t need more space. Because it uses 40-amp service instead of 20 amps, it has to look bigger, Jay said. Chargepoint claims their boxes are not repairable, and they use proprietary connectors, but they should be able to replace broken components instead of the whole machine. The new Tesla (NACS) Level 2 connector integrates a J1772 plug, but Tesla says the cable is not replaceable if it gets cut or damaged, making it a bad choice for public deployment by utilities, Jay said.
NEW VENUE NEEDED – Vice President Grace Reamer said SEVA was informed just before the meeting began that the church no longer will be available to host meetings. The building has been sold and the sale will close in December. The buyer plans to tear down the old building and redevelop the property. Longtime SEVA members remembered when meetings moved from Chuck Benson’s house to the church in about 2006. Several members volunteered to check on other locations, and SEVA friends are asked to contribute suggestions for meeting locations by e-mailing president@SeattleEVA.org.
BOARD UPDATE: The board positions for Vice President and Secretary are open and up for election at the annual SEVA meeting in February 2024. Candidates can volunteer to run for the open board positions by sending a message to president@SeattleEVA.org.
HOLIDAY PARTY – We have a lot to celebrate after a busy year of activities! The next SEVA meeting will be a holiday party on Tuesday, Dec. 12. Please bring something to share to the potluck gathering, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Vine Baptist Church, 7750 21st Ave. NW in Ballard.
NAME CHANGE – Further discussion about expanding SEVA’s scope and changing the name was delayed until the January meeting as time ran out. Jay said he favors Puget Sound Electric Vehicle Association, or PSEVA.
Jay adjourned the meeting at about 8:35 p.m.
Minutes drafted byVice President Grace Reamer.
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Zoom Meeting Recording(s):
: Did Not Stream Meeting