Promoting Tesla as a luncheon speaker

[johnnyS]

I know that many of us promote Tesla every chance we have. Some of you have promoted your S at car shows. All of us have spoken about the car to friends and neighbors.

This week I was the speaker at our Rotary club. I titled my talk "My obsession with alternate forms of transportation." I started with my personal journey of learning to drive during the first OPEC oil crisis back in the 1970s. I moved on to my search about 7 or 8 years ago for alternatives. I test drove a very early Leaf thinking it would be perfect for my wife. She did not like the style so I mentioned that I had heard of a new manufacturer that was planning on producing a sedan. We went and looked at Roadsters. I am 6'-3" so it was too tight of a squeeze. It was also too tight of a financial squeeze with two kids in college in the middle of the recession. We put down a deposit in the summer of 2011 and we attended the factory open house October 2011. I showed pictures of the factory tour and Elon speaking. Then I showed pictures from our delivery and the car charging in our garage last December. I presented the economics of driving an electric car.

I showed a 4 minute Motor Trend video announcing the car of the year. One of our members has a BMW M5 so I showed the video of the M5 vs model S. Then I spent most of the rest of the time on supercharging. I showed photographs of our supecharging trips around California. I showed the maps of future superchargers. I showed the video "gallons of light" with the Knapp family. By then I was out of time.

I had planned to talk about Consumer Reports and the crash test results. If I had time I thought I might talk about some of the other cars on the market. I think I covered what was important and I could see the light bulb coming on for many of our members. I had some very good questions from members. Afterwards the discussion continued with a few members.

I may have to do a part II, we will see.

 

[Paul Carter]

+1. It's always hard to judge a crowd and what you can get in when speaking like that. Usually leaving 50% of the time for going where the crowd goes is required! I think Part II would drum up and help answer more questions from your members.

Hmm... I wonder how long before we have TAP (the Tesla Ambassador Program). I would love to be a part of that. I think it could be modeled after lululemon athletica's program. Even if it starts similar to its beginning of just being a "product feedback relationship". Come on Elon, let's do this! :smile:

 

[SBerg]

Hi Johnny,
fellow Rotarian here. When we (wife &I) show up for Rotary there gets to be a little crowd with all their questions, and the nay Sayers, so it makes sense to have a program and give everyone the bigger picture. Good for you for spreading the word!

 

[martinwinlow]

('Gallons of Light'! - Tesla Model S: Commercial - YouTube ) MW

 

[johnnyS]

I was a little concerned about the attitude of the members--many (most) are ultra conservative. I was prepared for questions on the DOE loan, but none were asked. Some knew little about Tesla and had never heard of Elon Musk. Tesla uses new means of communication, most of our members do not.

A lot of our members were asking about solar panels at the end. After the meeting the discussion evolved into a discussion about Hyperloop. With a little polishing, it would be pretty easy to present to other clubs. I was surprised how good the questions were and that I was able to answer them. I have learned a lot the past couple of years thanks to many of you.