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Hawaii Tesla Owners
- Thread starter Dublin
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dsmith2189
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Me, Safe? I'm worried about the people in the other cars pointing and staring.
Guy in a Maserati just kept looking at me when we pulled up to a stop light. He didn’t pay attention to the light change. He was still sitting at the intersection when I looked in my rear view (monitor)
HAHA!! He was probably fumbling for his camera, looked across, and *poof* without a sound the Tesla S was already gone :biggrin:
Welcome ski bum! LOL! I've spotted 2 myself, and get a lot of false calls when I see a Jaguar XF drive by :biggrin:
Just read through this entire thread in detail now that I've finalized my order and have to give a big thank you to all the contributors, especially JKam for the instructions on getting the car legal here in Hawaii.
Of the two that I've seen on the road (well, actually parked) neither had the front plate mounted. Has anyone gotten tickets for this yet? And for any owners that had their front plate mounted, what method did you use to secure it?
Early on in the thread I saw that the Tesla Personal Delivery charge was not cleared up and now that I have the MVPA just wanted to state that the charge is NOT higher for Hawaii. $990 anywhere in the U.S.
One more question for Hawaii owners; Did you use Solar City for your Nema plug installs? How was your experiences with your installer? Which institution did you use to finance (I see PenFed is popular on the general forums)? And were there any hassles with getting insured with the companies available here (Farmers, State Farm, Geico?) or any other general experiences. I'll share as soon as my situation progresses.
Mahalo in advance!
Thanks for all the welcomes everyone!
JKam mentioned that the front license plate was required in order to get the safety check done. Bummer since it looks a lot better without. When I brought my car in from SF a couple of years ago, the safety check guy actually installed my new plates for me. Don't know the work around for that.
Interested to find out Hawaii insurance rates for the Tesla too.
Thinking I will check out PenFed too since the rates appear to be the best around. They have an office locally but the rate is for online applications only.
dsmith, I would have loved to cheer you on at your delivery. Sorry I missed it. Hope you are still on cloud 9 driving your new toy! look forward to seeing pics.
Just sent in my MVPA
so will be researching insurance rates and financing soon although delivery not expected until May/June. Will share with you what I find.also, my tint guy is researching the car so will have a better idea how much paint armor will cost for more coverage. He's going to let me know how much to cover the whole car too in case anyone's interested.
There are ways to get the safety check done and not have the front license plate mounted. You have to be creative. It can be done.
Allstate does my home insurance and my car insurance so I got a discount. On top of that I raised my deductable up from $500 to $1,000 (I think those were the limits. I'm kind of fuzzy on the exact numbers.) and it lowered my premium by a large amount. I pay about $1k a year for insurance.
dsmith2189
Active Member
My quote for a NIMA 14-50 plug is quite a bit higer, but mine is for a condo parking structure with about 125 feet of Conduit, separate meter for the circurt and associated electrical boxes.
You can always say "Its Backorderd"
Seriously, I thought that Tesla forgot to include the floor mats and license plate bracket. I looked in all the pukas yesterday and didn't see anything. I double checked today and found them in the rear storage area. All I can say is that they are Dark black carpet floor mats on dark black carpet in a dark black hole. the bracket was underneath the floor mats. addreneline and low light levels in a parking structure may have contributed.
I purchased two battery LED lights and some velcro to provide some additional light when needed. In my old car I always had a flashlight, so I'll have one of those too.
I am also thinking about trying one of the "no holes drilled" methods mentioned in other threads. They attach the license plate bracket with Zip-ties or another uses some modified toilet bolts to hold the bracket in place.
I was with State Farm with my old car but just switched over to Allstate. the quotes from each were similar to each other but Allstate seems to have better customer service. I ended up spending a few extra $ to get the new car replacement option. If you total your car in the first three years you get replacement instead of the depreciated value. not that I plan to take them up on that.
I stopped by today and let my Allstate agent Deanne take a look at the car. she loved it and may end up making a reservation.
Wow!! I always thought that living in a condo would take an EV out of the equation! I would assume that you would need approval from the condo's association to have such work done and I can only imagine the cost to have a line installed and specially metered for you. Mine is very straightforward in a garage with the sub-breaker box literally 2 feet away from where I need the new 240v outlet to be (there's one currently there but of a different plug configuration). I figured I might find someone to do it for less than $450 but perhaps this is a fair price.
Thanks for the tip on the location of the front license plate bracket in the trunk! Time to explore the other threads to see the cleanest way to mount it.
dsmith2189
Active Member
That's the Volta chargers at Ala Moana. Congrats, dsmith! Looks beautiful! (Same color scheme as the Model S that we ordered so maybe we're biased, lol)
dsmith2189
Active Member
My friend snapped a pic of your car while you were charging and put "Tesla sighting!" in his Facebook feed
I was at Ala Moana yesterday and today trying to get a good charge. I ended up keeping a safe distance, I got tired of "Tesla time" with everybody. I did show the car to a friend who is trying to decide between a Tesla and a Porche Panamera. before her daughter suggested Tesla she had never heard of it and wanted to see it live before making her decision. Her main reason for a new car is the expense of gas in her Mercedes. She has solar panels on her house so I think it would be a good choice for her to get the tesla.
I was planning on doing a circle island jaunt but with the reports of high surf on the north shore, I decided against joining the north shore traffic jam opting for the traffic jams arround town to show the "Tesla Colors"
I am still waiting for the installation of my NIMA 14-50 plug at my condo. I actually went to home depot today and bought one to bring to my condo association meeting on wendsday. A little show and tell to let them see how unobtrusive it will be and that will hopefully appease them enough for the go ahead without too much back and forth. Solar City finished their installation survey and said they would have something to me by Wendsday before the HOA meeting. I am going to email them a reminder and ask for the numbers they collected during the survery and pics of the meter and electircal box they are installing at my parking space.
Since I have to wait for the Solar City install, I've been scoping out the area's charging stations. here is the link to the HI Public EV sites I also signed up for a chargepoint card to access some of the free city chargers. A good idea to do before you get your car, so you'll have it when you need it. There is no need to get their full account since the city's chargpoint chargers are free, all you need is the $5(each) swipe card. I think you can also enable the charger using the phone app, but I haven't tried that yet.
Aloha everyone. I just happened to find this thread and was pleased to see the dialogue between fellow Hawaii residents. Got my email to finalize last week, just dwelling on the battery size (probably 40 KWH) and color (probably silver) before I take the plunge. Looking forward to meeting you all sometime!
Aloha RodF! Welcome. Oahu is probably one of the few spots on the planet where a 40 kWh Model S will likely serve one's needs nearly all the time even figuring in battery degradation after a number of years. If money is a factor in your decision by all means consider it. We are not in the same situation as the folks posting on the forums about driving on the mainland.
The fact that our maximum speed limits are 55 mph on H1 / H2 and 60 mph on H3 caps our going-fast excess energy loss plus our total driving distances are limited and we do not need to use climate control excessively. There are also quite a number of J1772 public charging stations around the island should you need to top off in a pinch.
These factors make a 40 kWh Model S extremely practical for the average Oahu buyer for whom money is a consideration. A coworker of mine is getting a 40 kWh car and has calculated it will easily meet his needs past 100,000 miles. (Personally, I more than occasionally have significantly high mileage driving days originating in Pupukea or I would have ordered one myself. I nearly did anyway.)
Of course if you are not watching your wallet, the larger batteries will give you higher performance which is very cool. There are debates about larger batteries holding a higher percentage resale value, but on Oahu those arguments are not as strong as on the mainland. And total dollar depreciation will likely be less with a 40 kWh battery than a larger battery simply because the car is significantly less expensive to begin with. So total cost of ownership should be less than with larger batteries. If you do not have charging at your home and must charge elsewhere only a few days a week, that is of course an argument in favor of larger batteries.
Bottom line: IMHO a 40 kWh Model S will likely serve most people on Oahu completely satisfactorily.
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