Nice event. Took our car to show and ended up staying the full day. Lots of people came by to sit in it and ask questions and lots of interest in general among the Teslas from what I could see. Really nice of you guys that gave the test drives. I know one lady we spoke to at the end who did a test drive was struggling to decide on an S or an X. All she knew for sure was that her next car was going to be one of them. Really never had the opportunity to just sit around much without talking to someone who came up. So unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to walk around but a few times to look at cars and talk to other owners not in our vicinity. Loved seeing the EV-1 in person, much nicer than in the photos I thought. Also enjoyed the Th!nk City car. 10 Model S were registered and 5 Model X from last tally. I had hoped to see the Fisker Karma that was listed but either missed it or it didn't come. Anyone see it there?
Petra, enjoyed chatting for a while and thanks for showing me your car. Hope you have a good trip home. William, loved your gray P85. Overall it was fun even as an owner late to the game to see some of the different exterior/interior choices over the years. We get to see different color/feature variations while charging at the Superchargers on occasion but either people stay in their cars or leave for a while so miss sharing experiences. This EV event was nice in bringing people together.
Hubby and I were talking afterward over dinner about the event--things we were asked by people and things we brought up to tell them. One comment my husband made was that probably most people may not know really what a Tesla Supercharger is, never having been to one or looked on Teslas website to see the map of Supercharger/Destination chargers and how the expansion was going. We both touched on them at times during our talks, but probably having a display somewhere at the event with photos of what a Tesla Supercharge station, HPWC and even power sources like a 14-50 outlet would have been helpful to those really new to EVs. Even garage set ups I guess. A few people asked to see where you charge on the car and even took pictures of the extended open charge port. I did pull out the UMC on a few occasions to show them what comes with the car and people seemed interested in that and one person commented on how thin the cable was.
One lady was very skeptical about range and charging time. Told her about our recent trips down the coast to Santa Ynez and how we charged with our 75D. Atascadero was a convenient stop after about 2 hours of driving time and the car was charged while we ate a nice lunch at a grill nearby. Bulleton was the next charging stop and not that far so we found the whole 200+ mile trip very easy to do. Even mentioned that our B&Bs had destination chargers for use overnight. She was still concerned about running out of power and saw that as an obstacle still. Did explain that the current Teslas can have a range just over 300 miles including the long-range Model 3s and while range anxiety is common for those new to EVs we have been fine with our 75D range. I should have thought to tell her that I had once run out of gas in my Honda on the way to work. I was running short of time to stop at the gas station and was pretty sure I'd make it all the way and fill up during lunch but didn't work out that way. Really the same thing with EVs. Also didn't think to say you don't necessarily have to sit and charge for the full 30-40 minutes or longer all the time if you can get by with less charge for where you want to go and then charge later at home. This was our first time at an event and if we participate in the future will have it better thought out.
People did ask about the price. One lady said she really loved the car and wished her family could afford one because it was really something they all liked. I told her with the new 100kW battery packs that recently came out this year that owners were now upgrading and so they had the option of looking into CPO cars if they were okay with an older model but still under Tesla's warranty program. Got thanked many times for bringing that to their attention as it wasn't something they had considered.
How did everyone's day go?
. So far 28 Nissan LEAFs and 10 Chevy Bolts and 6 Chevy Volts. 1 Fisker Karma (has me wondering if I was driving behind one, and maybe the one that will be there, on 85 or maybe it was 101 today. Only saw this car from the back, very sleek and the most narrow rear window I've seen--it really caught my eye and at the time I thought "people say the view from the Model S is narrow!" LOL).
