Show Off Your Roadster at Tesla Takeover - Aug 2024

[smorgasbord]

For a few years now, some of us Roadster owners have been showing our Roadsters at the annual Tesla Takeover at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The 2024 event is happening on Saturday, July 27 & Sunday, July 28. We've gotten a great reception all years. With the event now being two days, however, it's been hard finding enough owners for the Sunday portion, so if you're willing to bring your Roadster down and hang out talking to folks about it, especially on Sunday, register for the Takeover and fill out this form to show your car:

X Takeover 2024 EV Showcase Registration

Note that you'll still need to register and pay to attend the event.

 

[Earl]

How is charging for this EVent, given that waiting for a Supercharger is not an option for a Roadster? Is there any way to reserve one somewhere nearby?

 

[Timothy]

How is charging for this EVent, given that waiting for a Supercharger is not an option for a Roadster? Is there any way to reserve one somewhere

 

[Timothy]

Charging is very, very difficult for roadsters. There are level two chargers at the Madonna Inn, but often they are taken by new cars
That should be using the supercharger. I think they should be reserved by the club and have the roadster owners contact each other when they are free so we can charge one after the other and not have this spot occupied by a car that is not appropriate for is not charging.

 

[Earl]

Charging is very, very difficult for roadsters.

There are a lot of free J1772 charging stations in SLO. This is great when one is the only EV driver but I figure with all of the S3XY drivers, most of whom have to pay for Supercharging, the J1772s will be practically impossible to get the necessary hours on one even to get started heading back home. Then, of course, I'd need to stop midway for some time as well.
I'm afraid it just doesn't make sense for Roadsters. I've done some difficult things in EVs - I drove to Paso Robles many times in the early Roadster days. I even drove through there in an EV1. However, fighting over scarce free resources against a bunch of self-entitled ex-BMW and Prius drivers isn't something I relish - even if I would be one of the belles of the ball.

 

[Timothy]

What if we asked the Madonna Inn to hold the J1772 charger for Roadsters only and asked those charging to call the next Roadster in line when they are finished charging?

 

[Earl]

Reserving the Madonna chargers would handle a few cars: Assuming ~25 mph charging speed, that's 6 - 8 hours of charging per car. With 2 chargers, that could handle about 12 - 16 cars over the 48 hours (6 pm Fri to 6 pm Sun). Beyond that, it will take a plan-B.
The only other problem I see is that we'd have to ensure most of these cars don't arrive empty, needing to plug in upon arrival. This would require a few hours of top-off before converging on SLO. I suppose there are a bunch of public Level 2 chargers in King City and Paso for folks arriving from the north as well as Santa Maria and Santa Barbara from the south. Although a bit more risky because of fewer options, Cuyama, from the east might also work.

As I figured, this is possible but will take some work. Those poor guys who draw the straw for the 2:00 am charging sessions will have it a bit tougher of course. There also isn't a lot of margin for the inevitable flub-ups.

If you hear of a credible plan for such a reservation for cars that can't Supercharge, I'll look into signing up.

 

[Timothy]

Reserving the Madonna chargers would handle a few cars: Assuming ~25 mph charging speed, that's 6 - 8 hours of charging per car. With 2 chargers, that could handle about 12 - 16 cars over the 48 hours (6 pm Fri to 6 pm Sun). Beyond that, it will take a plan-B.
The only other problem I see is that we'd have to ensure most of these cars don't arrive empty, needing to plug in upon arrival. This would require a few hours of top-off before converging on SLO. I suppose there are a bunch of public Level 2 chargers in King City and Paso for folks arriving from the north as well as Santa Maria and Santa Barbara from the south. Although a bit more risky because of fewer options, Cuyama, from the east might also work.

As I figured, this is possible but will take some work. Those poor guys who draw the straw for the 2:00 am charging sessions will have it a bit tougher of course. There also isn't a lot of margin for the inevitable flub-ups.

If you hear of a credible plan for such a reservation for cars that can't Supercharge, I'll look into signing up.

In the past, there have been about four roadsters that want to use the charger at Madonna Inn. We have had problems because there are newer Teslas that are using it instead of the supercharger and blocking it for our use. Could we ask Madonna Inn to reserve it for the roadsters? We could then leave a note on the car charging and ask him to call the next person in line when they are finished.

 

[Earl]

I don't know how reliable that would be. Please announce it here if you hear something.
Looking at the EVent webpage, I don't know that the organizers are particularly interested in old guys like me driving old cars. There aren't enough merchandising opportunities around them.

 

[hanknum]

Hey Tim/Earl,

If we can figure this out, I might come up. But, as you guys already know it will take a lot of coordination. I've got OVMS so I can monitor my charging remotely. Would like to try and make it, but the trouble might be more hassle than it is worth.

Henry

 

[Timothy]

Madonna Inn is 94 miles from Santa Barbara so you should be able to make it without a problem. Charge once in SLO or in Pismo Beach on the way home and you will make it fine. Not much trouble-hassle so I hope you can make it!

 

[hanknum]

Yeah, maybe. But, I wasn't planning on spending the night...

 

[Timothy]

Well, when you leave the event stop in Pismo Beach on the way home for dinner and a charge and you should make it fine!

 

[hcsharp]

Twice I have participated in the WAVE Trophy rally. Once in a Roadster and once in a Model X. More than twice per day we would roll into a small town in the Alps with over 100 EVs, and they would all start charging at once! We used almost no public charging. We did this for 8 or 9 days in a row, at least 2x per day. In comparison, your problems at the Madonna are a piece of cake.

Having said that, you would need some equipment. But it really wouldn't take much for 3 cars at 30 - 40A continuous. The WAVE would get businesses to sponsor them in exchange for publicity. The business would supply a tap (or several taps) into their panel with a 3-phase outlet rated for 64A. That would be enough to charge up to 12 cars overnight. In your case, a 40A tap would charge 3 Roadsters simultaneously at 32A each using common Tesla mobile chargers. The cabling and 207v outlets would not cost much over $200 if the cars could park close to the source. It would take the host's electrician less than an hour to wire one of these up. I've seen Tesla do this at multiple events. Maybe it's too much work but having seen this done at the WAVE and other events, I felt like I should mention it.

 

[Timothy]

Sounds like a great plan. I think the organizers of this event should look in to it--especially if they want Roadsters in the future!

 

[Earl]

it really wouldn't take much for 3 cars at 30 - 40A continuous

I appreciate the suggestions. But this is tourist-central, high-rent
CA, not New England or Europe.
You weren't competing with ~1,000's of Models S3XYs who all wanted the cheap charging [most Level 2 chargers in SLO are free :-( ]. I'm sure that if someone took the a couple of days surveying SLO for a willing business, it could be done. Maybe even the Madonna Inn would reserve a space. I'm too far away and don't have the time
The La Quinta Inn is $376/night with 3 stations, meaning it would cost over $1K just for lodging for the weekend with some hope of being able to charge (1st come, 1st served on chargers).
As far as sponsor support: old cars that don't have thousands of potential customers spending many $$$ customizing them, whose owners don't have millions of inter-tube followers don't really constitute the target market for these organizers. Most of their target audience don't even know that the Roadster ever existed.
Also, SLO is very spread out, unlike quaint european villages where everything is in walking distance. I'm too old for multiple 3 mile hikes after midnight like I used to do.
If someone manages to identify a reasonable place where I have high confidence I'll be able to get a charge upon arrival, after arriving on empty, I'll look into it.

 

[Timothy]

Well we will do our best when we get there.