SEVA Meeting Minutes – September 2020

The Sept. 8, 2020 SEVA meeting was by Zoom, again arranged by Ed Mills.

Before the meeting was called to order, President Jay Donnaway showed off PacWesty’s refrigerated-van conversion, which is a Dodge Ram Promaster 2500, fitted for electric using parts from a wrecked Tesla Model 3. Jay mentioned upcoming Drive Electric Week events. Brian Hughes described his new 750-watt solar array, which feeds a battery bank. Jay described solar modules he’s working on. Jay called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM.

National Drive Electric Week event: Vice President Grace Reamer proposed a Drive Electric Week cruise, to comply with pandemic restrictions against public gatherings. Grace thought we could get some cars together and cruise around Seattle. The suggested date is Sunday, Sept. 27. Philip Skoog has volunteered to help. They are thinking to start and end in parking lots where charging is available; a possibility is to start at South Seattle College’s Georgetown lot with Level 2 and 3 stations. Grace said Phil suggested an event like the Tesla Owners’ Club did a couple of years ago – a food drive at a Fred Meyer so people could donate and see EVs at the same time. Grace said they would welcome a volunteer who could step up and organize that event, probably separate from the cruise. The cruise will be a parade with banners, including SEVA’s, and Jay said he might put the SEVA banner on the van. Jay said that he’s received a commitment for a donation, which he’ll direct towards this event, of $500 from Puget Sound Energy.

Other events: Grace said that Phil is working on pop-up events. The LeMay Car Museum at Marymount has an event this Saturday, Sept. 12. The Steilacoom event the same day has been postponed, but Dick Muri will be there anyway and would welcome any cars showing up. Phil will be happy for any cars showing up between 11 and 3 at any of these events. Grace said Phil will share details by e-mail..

Legislative Updates: Jeff Finn said that after the election, some legislation regarding EV manufacturers without dealerships likely will be reintroduced. Jay said that the Rivian bill didn’t pass in the last session. Coltura also will continue working on a bill for phase-out of gasoline vehicles.

Tesla Updates: Tesla stockholders are still largely happy. Battery Day will be Sept. 22.  Grace said that the event should include some big news. Theresa Ramsdell said that the Tesla Owners have been approached for a photo shoot of a newer black Model S, and they need a volunteer. Theresa said that Tesla Owners Puget Sound is now officially renamed Tesla Owners Washington. She’s planning a supercharger rally.

City of Seattle: Mark Schiller said that the city probably will have a partial employee furlough coming up due to Covid-induced budget trouble. Jay asked about the city’s first round of Leafs coming up for surplus, and Mark said he would check on the fleet.Leaf Battery Replacement: Jay said that PacWesty is still pursuing ideas for low-income car sharing. As he reported last month, they donated a 2011 Leaf to the Lopez Island Senior Shuttle. But the battery upgrades have not proven as economical as they had hoped. The cost of good salvage batteries has risen 50 percent because people aren’t driving so much, and therefore not crashing so much, and also people are stuck at home working on hobbies. Limited-range early Leafs still have a mission on the Islands. Because the battery upgrade might not practical, they’re thinking of just having two old Leafs in service for the Senior Shuttle, one taking the morning shift, then plugging in while the other one does the PM shift.

Battery Reports: Mark said that some of his neighbors have bought E-Golfs. He said it is hard to tell about the battery degradation of this model, but Jay’s Soul EV now has 48k miles with no degradation evident.

Mitsubishi: Jay said he also has a photo shoot coming up; a photographer named Tamir is interested in “unsaleable” cars that are unique or rare, and he’ll be photographing Jay’s iMievs.

Cobrajet: Ron Easley reported the Ford Mustang Cobrajet 1400 was in exhibition runs at Indianapolis last weekend. It raced against a gas Cobrajet, which won by a little bit, though it was one of the electric’s slower runs. They’ll try for better performance.

Scooter For Sale: Grace mentioned a 2014 S3.4 Govecs e-scooter with a lithium battery and 40-60 miles of range that a friend of hers wants to sell. The owner hopes that someone can take it over and fix a bad throttle. Anyone interested can contact Janette Singley at 425-761-6923 or janettesingley@gmail.com.

Maxwell van: Jay did a show-and-tell on the Maxwell refrigerated van conversion. When finished, it will be used by the University District Food Bank for grocery runs. Model 3 battery, Model 3 drive train. Other than a few circuit boards and custom axles, it’s all Dodge and Tesla factory components. The van had been a 2019 with 53,000 miles, used by a courier service. The totaled Model 3 had less than 20,000 miles. Range is expected to be about 175 highway miles with the 75kWh battery. This conversion doesn’t have fast charging, but ones that PacWesty will start undertaking will have CCS.BMW Scooter: Brian Hughes asked about the BMW C-Evolution electric scooter, which is highway-capable although a compliance vehicle.

Budget: Grace said that Treasurer Brian Henderson would like input about how our money should be budgeted. Andrea Toussignant is still interested in conducting a survey. Andrea said she spoke with Deb about what the questions might be. They’re thinking to use Surveyplanet. She hopes to shortly post a draft of the survey questions. Jay pointed out that SEVA now has more money but less energy than in the past.  Andrea thought it would be good for the survey to include demographic data for our members when we go to Olympia.

EAA: Mark Schiller asked about any further information on the status of the EAA. Jay said it was still crickets.

Grace called for the good of the order, but nothing further was offered. Jay adjourned the meeting at 7:54 p.m..

Minutes submitted by Billy Kreuter.