Tesla Owners in Alberta

[3s-a-charm]

TOCA EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Join us Sunday, June 24th for the 3rd Annual Tesla Owners Club of Alberta AGM Meeting and Show & Shine. Everyone is welcome to attend but only TOCA Members can vote and attend the meeting portion. If you are unsure of your membership status, please contact [email protected] to inquire.

Attendance is free but we ask that you RSVP so we can ensure there is enough food/drinks for everyone. Register online here: TOCA 3rd Annual AGM and Show & Shine

We hope to have at least one Tesla Model 3 in attendance!

Note: As we will be voting on a new Board of Directors, please let me know if you would like to volunteer for a Board position for the 2018/19 year so I can add you as a Nominee. There are 8 positions and each year we nominate from the available Members who wish to be a part of the organization. We are a registered Society (similar to a non-profit).

Thank you to our "Ludicrous Level" sponsors this year including Refine Auto Salon and Aviva Insurance - businesses interested in sponsoring the upcoming year should contact us for a sponsorship package or visit Sponsors - Tesla Owners Club Alberta

We hope to have a great turnout of Members at this event - and may even break an attendance record for number of Tesla's in one Alberta Meetup!

Just a reminder about the AGM and meetup coming up June 24th - register today - it’s free and fun! We have almost 50 people registered - hoping to make this the largest Tesla meetup in Alberta to date!

We also encourage you to become a member of the TOCA to participate in the meeting and support the Club efforts and initiatives - details at www.teslaownersalberta.com - even if you just have a Model 3 reservation but want to join in the activities you can become a member today.

 

[Lon12]

Ya. I've been surprised at how quiet the new Model 3 owners have been in Alberta. Now that we have a store and service centre I guess there is no need to visit TMC. Personally I don't know if I will ever lose my TMC addiction.
I saw my first one in the wild yesterday.

 

[Zapped]

I was in Edmonton with my blue Model 3 on Monday evening. Aero wheels with the covers off. Wonder if it was me you saw?

I saw the blue M3 at the Woodvale Community League parking lot at around 6 pm Monday but I thought the wheel covers were on. Was that you ?

 

[bpjod]

I saw the blue M3 at the Woodvale Community League parking lot at around 6 pm Monday but I thought the wheel covers were on. Was that you ?

Nope. That night I came in from the South on Hwy 2. Dropped my MTB off for repairs at Pedalhead, then went to a meeting at the Sheraton on the corner of Argyll & 75th St. After the meeting I headed South out of town on 75/50th Streets through Beaumont. I was also in Edm last night for the concert at the Winspear.

Sounds like someone else in Edmonton or nearby also has a blue Model 3.

 

[M3AB]

Ya. I've been surprised at how quiet the new Model 3 owners have been in Alberta. Now that we have a store and service centre I guess there is no need to visit TMC. Personally I don't know if I will ever lose my TMC addiction.
I saw my first one in the wild yesterday.

I think it's a testament to the "normalcy" that Teslas are approaching. Build quality has been fairly good, no major issues. Range is more than we'll probably ever need (at least its summer now so less of an issue). Some occasional quirks I've run into but nothing that couldn't be solved by Support or TMC/reddit research:
- Jerky wipers on Auto (was just the initial "oil" wearing off the wiper or windshield) works perfectly now (after about 10 of initial use)
- Had "AEB & Traction Control disabled, contact service" alert one time on start-up. Called support, they read the car logs (amazing) and basically told me there was an error in the startup routine. Power off, power on, fixed. They said the next firmware would have a fix as it's a known bug, no mech. issue. haven't seen it since
- Can only occasionally seek in podcasts, other times it will start from the beginning again (which is annoying, but not the end of the world, need figure out what the trick is...)
- Some delay on start up of radio or backup camera (1-2 sec), again annoying, but hopefully firmware will fix this eventually
- Phone key sometimes doesn't work, probably the most annoying quirk, but i always carry the card and use airplane mode on/off to fix it (iPhone 6). If it worked 100% of the time (which I hope someday it will), I believe it's the right move to go phone-entry similar to keyless entry/start on any other car.
- 0.5A phone charging (which I think was fixed in the last firmware update? because it's seems to have gotten faster, but maybe placebo)
- Wish they kept the trunk "first push unlock" to allow for waking up & unlocking the charge port, now have to open a door every morning (letting cool/hot air out of the cabin)
- We need more charging/priority spots in parking lots in YYC, for example CPL could follow EPL and put chargers at every library w/ EV only spots (all Malls should have destination chargers), Downtown could have free street parking for EV vehicles at any time, HOV/EV lanes on Deerfoot & Crowchild, but then again I'm probably just being greedy as realistically we can charge at home and EVs are perfect for stop-go traffic

Trips so far: YYC intracity, YYC-Drumheller, YYC-Canmore (no supercharging on any of the trips yet)
Planning for the summer: YYC-YVR, YYC-YEG

 

[3s-a-charm]

@M3AB the parking item is a wish of mine too however with a Tesla it’s often hard to justify other than the awesome parking spot. I’ve become more aware over the past few years as more low-range EVs hit the market that these spots should be reserved for those who “need” the charge. Kind of like the “reserved for parents with small children” parking ... if you have a toddler who can unbuckle their own seatbelt and make their way in/out of the vehicle with minimal assistance vs the person with a newborn in the back who has to get the “baby bucket” out and carry it into the building.

I wish there were more EV incentives overall in Alberta including (but not limited to):
- rebates on purchase price(!!)
- more HOV lanes and the ability for EVs to use HOV lanes
- more EV parking ... perhaps not even with charging but just as a perk/incentive for EV use
- rebates for home charging
- rebates for solar
- ability to construct a home without an electric utility (currently even if you can completely sustain your electric needs with solar/battery you MUST have an electric connection and meter and pay transmission rates)

Alberta has a much lower EV adoption rate than BC and Ontario - sure, partly because of our history with oil/gas and our sagging economy and real estate market during these critical EV growth years - and the lack of decent EV incentives in Alberta have surely been a contributing factor.

Just like cigarette smoking and the obvious danger to self and those around the user, the government can/should tax oil/gas (even more than they currently do) and utilize the funds to offer EV incentives. This might help change the mindset of Albertans ... or maybe it will just get Albertans even more pissed off about the government .

Regardless, hope to see you at the AGM in Red Deer next weekend... special parking will be available for all Model 3s!

 

[bpjod]

@M3AB
- rebates for home charging
- rebates for solar
- ability to construct a home without an electric utility (currently even if you can completely sustain your electric needs with solar/battery you MUST have an electric connection and meter and pay transmission rates)

In addition to the above, there needs to be a more fair way of reimbursing home owners with solar on their utility bills. Last year my solar system generated enough electricity to offset 67% of my family's electrical usage. That's including charging our Chevy Volt. However, our savings compared to if we hadn't had the PV system was only 31%. If rates remain unchanged, it will take 54 years to pay back our solar installation!

How does this happen? Well when the sun's shining, we're not home using electricity. The kids are at school and both parents are at work. On weekends we're at the lake, skiing, kids sports and band events, etc. We're all at home using electricity in the evenings and early mornings and our electrical cars (now we have a Model 3 in addition to the Volt) charge up overnight. The electricity we generate during the day mostly gets fed back to the grid where we got reimbursed 3.2¢/kWh on ave. for the year. This is the same as what they charge for electricity consumed. However, for the electricity we use from the grid, were also charged for transmission and distribution, and here we get no credit for putting electricity back into the grid. If you sum up the transmission and distribution charges and divide by electricity purchased from the grid, it amounts to 11.0¢/kWh for distribution and transmission. In truth there's a flat charge per day as well as a charge per kWh, but by math, in our case it works out to 11¢/kWh. So, we were charged in total 14.2¢/kWh for our consumption (3.2¢/kWh electrical consumption + 11¢/kWh for transmission and distribution) when at home in the evenings am when charging our cars overnight, but only getting 3.2¢/kWh when we weren't at home and the majority of our PV system's generated electricity was being fed back into the grid. Not a fair deal for solar microgeneration if you ask me.

Apologies if the above is a confusing mess. I haven't foun clear, concise way to explain the above issue yet.

@M3AB
Regardless, hope to see you at the AGM in Red Deer next weekend... special parking will be available for all Model 3s!

I went to TOCA's website to find out information about the event in Red Deer and I couldn't find any. It it my pre searching skills or had the info not been posted there yet?

 

[TLej]

@bpjod. That’s my biggest reason for hesitation in getting solar. My house is not ideally oriented, so the only way I’ll see payback is by getting a full offset for power produced. In the meantime I just pay a little more each month for wind generation offset.

@3s-a-charm not having a PST is kind of like getting the rebate in BC, ON, and QC. A GST rebate would be nice though, at the federal level.

@M3AB I never park in EV parking unless I’m charging at the Superchargers or occasionally at a hotel if travelling outside of Supercharger range; my car has more than enough range for driving around town, no need to occupy a charger that a shorter-ranged vehicle might need. I feel it adds to the resentment some people feel towards EVs, plus it makes life more difficult for the i3, Leaf, etc drivers out there that aren’t fortunate enough to have the ability to afford an S or X. The 3 is much more affordable, but has no need for daily charging unless you don’t have access to home or work charging, so I would just treat it like a normal car and park where you would park anything else. The sooner that the idea of EVs is normalized in society, the better (in my opinion), and as long as people draw attention to them by parking in reserved spots when not needed, I feel like it still highlights EVs as needing special accommodation in order to be practical - which we know to be untrue.

 

[M3AB]

Just like cigarette smoking and the obvious danger to self and those around the user, the government can/should tax oil/gas (even more than they currently do) and utilize the funds to offer EV incentives. This might help change the mindset of Albertans ... or maybe it will just get Albertans even more pissed off about the government .

It’s interesting that the carbon tax is being used to fund the regulated rate cap (6.8c/kWh) on electricity. I wonder if people realize that this basically subsidizes EV drivers . Maybe they should be more overt about this to show they are funding the EV shift. Also we don't pay the $0.13/l Fuel Tax. I think most ICE drivers don’t realize the running cost difference vs. premium gas (the spreads of which have been increased over the last decade), to the point where I almost feel guilty not paying more to support our highways...

The electricity we generate during the day mostly gets fed back to the grid where we got reimbursed 3.2¢/kWh on ave. for the year. This is the same as what they charge for electricity consumed. However, for the electricity we use from the grid, were also charged for transmission and distribution, and here we get no credit for putting electricity back into the grid.

Even with the current rebates this is what's holding me back from thinking about solar at the moment. Until a micro-generation can out compete this (3.7c/kWh), it's hard to justify. I'd have thought that you would also save the + the ~6c/kWh variable Transmission/Levy costs brining your total savings to more of the 10c/kWh range (maybe this makes things better?). It's very interesting topic:micro generation vs. large-scale, which is more efficient or cost effective in the long-term? This is definitely a rabbit hole I want to explore.

The sooner that the idea of EVs is normalized in society, the better (in my opinion), and as long as people draw attention to them by parking in reserved spots when not needed, I feel like it still highlights EVs as needing special accommodation in order to be practical - which we know to be untrue.

Totally agree, I guess that's my view that utlimately EV infrastructure should grow at the same (or slightly faster) pace as the number of users (visitors always have a spot to charge, those that cannot afford panel-upgrades or home chargers can recharge wherever their life takes them at the Arena/Library/RecCentre/Mall/Restaurant/Office). Of all places we in Alberta should be used to "plugging" in the car if we're going to be there for a while .

However, I do also think that 'perks' (including telling friends that you can pick up 100km for free while you shop, or making sure that the charging infrastructure already in place is being fully utilized [use it or lose it!]) are high visibility ways help us reach the tipping point quicker. That being said maybe Tesla's made a good enough product already that all of these frills would be moot and in 5 years EV adoption for new sales will be in the 50% range thanks to competitors finally brining desirable electric cars to market at reasonable prices... .

 

[bpjod]

@M3AB I never park in EV parking unless I’m charging at the Superchargers or occasionally at a hotel if travelling outside of Supercharger range; my car has more than enough range for driving around town, no need to occupy a charger that a shorter-ranged vehicle might need. I feel it adds to the resentment some people feel towards EVs, plus it makes life more difficult for the i3, Leaf, etc drivers out there that aren’t fortunate enough to have the ability to afford an S or X. The 3 is much more affordable, but has no need for daily charging unless you don’t have access to home or work charging, so I would just treat it like a normal car and park where you would park anything else. The sooner that the idea of EVs is normalized in society, the better (in my opinion), and as long as people draw attention to them by parking in reserved spots when not needed, I feel like it still highlights EVs as needing special accommodation in order to be practical - which we know to be untrue.

This is an interesting topic for me. I've owned a Gen 1 Volt for about a year and a half and now a Model 3 for a couple of weeks. I live outside of Edmonton and getting to the city for meetings, concerts, Oilers games, shopping, etc. is typically about 60-80 km one-way for me. With the Volt I tried to do as many miles on electricity as possible so I charged up every opportunity I had while on the road, even though I could easily fall back on gas when the battery became depleted. I discovered a very interesting thing while doing so. Almost every time someone would come up to me to ask questions about life with an electric vehicle. However, if I didn't plug in, it was rare to be approached and asked questions. Just by seeing me plug in, people's awareness of EVs increased and I had more opportunities to educate them and answer their questions regarding EVs. I think that is valuable.

Now that I have a Model 3, I'm not sure what I'll do. Yesterday I did plug in to charge at the Chargepoint station at MEC in South Edmonton Common just to see how fast the car charged there relative to my Volt. When I came out after shopping, there was a family with an i3 trying to plug in with the second connector. The car was new to them (one month) and this was their first time ever trying out public charging. Turns out the second connector wasn't working (mine had a green check, there's had a red X on the screen). I disconnected and helped them get their vehicle charging. I don't know if they had an i3 with a range extender, but if they didn't and I blocked them from charging, I'd have felt bad. I did display that I was convenience charging along with my cell phone, but who knows if they would have thought to look for that. The short range BEVs *really* need access to the public charging, whereas it will truly be rare for my LR Model 3 to need Level 2 charging, other than destination charging at hotels. Nevertheless, I still think it's important to educate curious ICE drivers and if that becomes less frequent by avoiding public chargers, I'm not certain that's a good thing.

 

[bpjod]

Until a micro-generation can out compete this (3.7c/kWh), it's hard to justify.

That was interesting, thanks for sharing. Nice to see they're looking seriously at wind. We sure have a lot of it! In spite of that; however, I do wish they made the payback on individual and small business solar a little better. There's a lot of blue skies in Alberta and a great many roofs with great exposure to the sun. Covering more of those with solar panels seems like a no-brainer to me but if even enlightened people here on the TMC forums, with deep enough pockets to afford Tesla EVs are avoiding solar installation, than what hope do we have for kicking our coal habit? I'm not talking plans like Ontario's, but maybe even credit for 50% of transmission and distribution charges on electricity we put back into the grid and Time of Use plans for people with solar and/or BEVs.

 

[TLej]

I think most ICE drivers don’t realize the running cost difference vs. premium gas (the spreads of which have been increased over the last decade), to the point where I almost feel guilty not paying more to support our highways...

However, I do also think that 'perks' (including telling friends that you can pick up 100km for free while you shop, or making sure that the charging infrastructure already in place is being fully utilized [use it or lose it!]) are high visibility ways help us reach the tipping point quicker.

I certainly see the difference in running costs; my wife has a Volvo XC60 (I hope to change that when the Y comes out) and it requires premium. Holy Moley, gas ain't cheap and premium is worse.

Free charging is something I'm conflicted on; I don't emphasize it as I don't want to give the impression it will be free forever, but it does make people's thoughts churn when they find out how many businesses offer it now.

I also appreciate your point about people asking questions when they see you plugging in, I think you're right and there is value in that.

I hope you'll share your thoughts on the 3 vs the Volt once you've had a little more time with the 3, I'd be interested to know what you think about the convenience of life with a BEV compared to a plug-in - charging at night vs. range anxiety and so forth.

 

[3s-a-charm]

I went to TOCA's website to find out information about the event in Red Deer and I couldn't find any. It it my pre searching skills or had the info not been posted there yet?

Fixed! Sorry about that... oversight. www.TeslaOwnersAlberta.com

 

[bpjod]

I hope you'll share your thoughts on the 3 vs the Volt once you've had a little more time with the 3, I'd be interested to know what you think about the convenience of life with a BEV compared to a plug-in - charging at night vs. range anxiety and so forth.

Is that directed at me? No question, I far prefer the Model 3 to the Volt. That said, I really like the Volt and we're keeping it for our about town car and for our kids to drive (oldest is scheduled for his driver's test tomorrow after school). However:

• 40 (winter) to 50 (summer) km range is really not enough for us and on principle I really dislike when it kicks on the generator to charge up the batteries. It also needs premium fuel so that is quite expensive. When running on gas it gets much worse fuel economy than our VW Sportwagen TDI got (7 vs 5 l/100km, so about 40% more fuel burned).
• The Volt is very peppy in town, but sluggish when passing on the highway. Not so the Model 3!
• The Volt's million buttons on the centre dash are dreadful compared to the Model 3's screen
• The Volt's sound system sounds decent, but for playing music from my phone there are a few issues:
  • no Bluetooth so have to play music through a cable
  • that cable does not provide enough amps to charge my phone if I'm using Waze or simply want to keep the screen on to select music.
  • When I want to disconnect the phone, I have to wade through the menus to eject the phone. There are stories on the internet of people who didn't bother to do that and their phones did get corrupted. Not sure what to believe so I try to play it safe, but it's a bit of a nuisance
• The Volt has a hard drive for music. I copied most of my collection to it. The menus are so slow that by the time I've found what I want to play, I've already gotten to my destination, unless it's a long highway trip! Furthermore it's really distracting having to drive with one eye on the centre screen and one eye on the road when the screen isn't instantaneous (unlike the Model 3)
• I like the Model 3's interior much better ... and the exterior even more so!
• For taller things, I like the hatch of the Volt. For everything else the trunk/frunk/under trunk storage is actually a lot more useful and spacious.
• Can sit 3 in the Model 3 rear seat rather than just 2.
• Model 3's ride, handling, comfort, etc. is on a whole other level.
• No worries about charging the Model 3 during the day yet. Unplug in the morning and no charging necessessary for the rest of the day. No long trips yet, but as long as they're along Supercharger routes, I'm not at all worried about that either. My family all lives about 380 km away and there's only a couple L2 chargers along the way, no Supercharging. We make that trip about 10 times per year. I'm confident about the trip in summer, but still a little uncertain about what it might be like during the winter. Not a problem with the Volt. Time will tell how the Model 3 handles it in winter.

Overall I'd say the M3 at $72K is a better value than the Volt at $54K (which I think it retailed for when new, too lazy to look up). We only paid $17 for a used one though, and as an introduction to the EV lifestyle, with a gas backup plan, it's a great car. I've very much enjoyed ours and keeping it as our 2nd vehicle is a no brainer for us.

 

[bpjod]

We only paid $17 for a used one though

Edit: Make that $17K.

Also I should mention that ours is a 2012. A number of those issues were addressed for the Gen 2 Volts.

 

[Lon12]

My spies say there are two model 3s at Coachworks already. Red and white. Anyone know why? Would be super upsetting to already have fender blenders. Maybe the delivery truck scratched them.

 

[Footbag]

My spies say there are two model 3s at Coachworks already. Red and white. Anyone know why? Would be super upsetting to already have fender blenders. Maybe the delivery truck scratched them.

I've been told that both Coach works and Doug's Place have been told to be prepared for work on new model 3's right after delivery.whether it's scratches or paint mismatch or something else, I wasn't given a reason.

 

[Footbag]

For any Edmontonians headed to the Tesla meetup in red deer tomorrow, if you want to convoy together, Im meeting up with some folks at gateway Park around 10, departing by 1045am.

 

[wildm011]

Phone key sometimes doesn't work, probably the most annoying quirk, but i always carry the card and use airplane mode on/off to fix it (iPhone 6). If it worked 100% of the time (which I hope someday it will), I believe it's the right move to go phone-entry similar to keyless entry/start on any other car.

Hey @M3AB , i might have stumbled onto something with my phone that has helped out quite a bit: Proximity. I got to thinking about how the card needs to be close to the 'reader', and when my phone failed to unlock the car (in my back pocket when I walked up to it) I found that if I turned and pointed my butt to the B pillar where the reader is, it unlocked right away. Since figuring that out, it's worked very consistently for me. Try it out and report back!
wildm011

 

[M3AB]

Try it out and report back!

Actually, "walking by" the driver-side might have helped (I'm usually putting our little one in the car seat so go to the opposite rear door first often)! But it could be a placebo or even the 24.1 update .

A few ownership updates:
- Didn't know that the card would work through my wallet (kept on taking it out before), but this makes it very convenient now to unlock if the Phone fails
- Noticed and read about the driver side DRL issue so decided to take it in for service and get the "rising" shifter stalk label fixed as well
- Fantastic 1st service experience (best I've ever had at any "dealership"), they were able to squeeze me in the same day and put me in a loaner for the afternoon, completely paperless except for signing the loaner out
- Was given an S 100D , first time driving one, impressions:

* Expected it to be much bigger than the 3, but the interior felt a little more cramped probably due to the dash design + front visibility and the sunroof vs. glass roof
* Car handles and drives very similar to the 3 (never driven other EVs, but I felt right at home after about 2 seconds). Even feels the same size when parking, which I found odd
* Rear visibility is worse than the 3, which is already not the best
* 100D was fast, but now that I'm used to the 3 it's not that much faster (used now to spaceship acceleration)
* Regen definitely less aggressive in the S and needed to use breaks more often on similar routes
* Found it difficult to transition away from the centre screen back to the instrument cluster (especially for Nav, as I kept looking at the centre screen)
*Tried autopilot for the first time and glad I didn't buy it. It just wasn't for me given all the speed changes in the city. I can see the appeal for longer distances, but if you need to hold the wheel all the time anyways and be ready to take over, what is the difference? a few times I preferred a different lane placement which cause it to kick off
* Sound system in the 3 is better
* 3 feels like a steal now at ~1/2 the price​

- Refreshing to not to be upsold various extra "services" (I now hope the dealership model dies (company-owned for the win!)), Washed my car, charged me up and pushed 24.1 to the car without me even requesting

Hats off to the Calgary SC, they are amazing, and I'm so happy that we have such a great team (let's hope they can keep it up as more owners come onboard)!

By the way how was the TOCA AGM? Any pics that can be shared? Baby ended up needing a nap so it was a no-go for us .