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Bay Area to Voltageville (and beyond...) epilog
CARB meeting epilog
There were some interesting discussions to note as EV'ers
were gathering up to hit the highways for home. Some took
Highway 99 or Highway 5 south toward the LA and San Diego area.
One gentleman was looking at the RV parks along the way to
scout out charging facilities. Some people were going to
SFO Bay Area while others went via SFO area to get to
for example San Luis Obispo. The net net was a smaller group
headed caravan style towards Voltageville for dinner.
One item that is really useful for long distance runs on
the EV1 was their ability to set their cars on cruise control
at 60mph so maximize range, without being embarrassingly slow.
(Bruce claims he uses 50% more power doing 60 than 55, but had
some power to burn so kept up with them, arriving with the group).
They arrived, plugged-in and got ferried to a restaurant where
they ate and hung out for a couple of hours, during charging.
The day's workshops were more attended by others than Bruce, as
he was busy securing charging, and hearing the words of the
outside people on what they thought of all the electric cars. ;-)
There were some very significant statements made, running over
by nearly two hours, and at least they were not cut off.
(They asked them to speed up near the end, however). All were
beautifully and eloquently spoken and well articulated, but
unfortunately not recorded.
Andy Staley (SJEAA) and his wife and kids came from San Jose
area and another couple drove their Honda Plus all the way from
San Diego (~700 miles?). Both had two kids in tow, totally
dropping what they were doing just to attend. (That latter
couple was the unfortunate victim of the rear-end crash, in
which their rear hatch was kept from opening.) They spoke
poignantly: "I don't know if I am going to be able to lease
this Honda EV Plus again. you're going to make my children
breathe this exhaust?" (Kind of like: "my God you're killing
my children"!) These heartfelt comments expressed will help
to fortify the CARB folks for the onslaught of "wear down" that
the automakers will subject them to in the near future, with
lies and distortions. Kind of odd that CARB should realize
our honesty and sincerity in this way. The last thing the CARB
folks asked (after all the statements were made, after they
allowed that extra two hours to gather input from all) was:
"and how many of you really came in on your own? EVERYONE
stood up and raised their hands!
Bruce notes that in the past the automakers had bought, err,
brought in a bunch of retirees, bussed them in, and asked them
to say a lot of things, giving them wrong information and hyperbole.
So while at the dinner, they discussed plans and what the May 2000
workshop would involve. There won't be another opportunity like
this one for two more years. The crux of this one was to help
drive the point that there are a lot of EV'ers out there. There
were a lot of cars and drivers present; Bruce thinks probably
less than 1% of California drivers were represented. In May
they will address marketing advertisement and public awareness
aspects. Not everyone will be able to attend that one. As time
goes on the automakers will continue to put their feet in their
mouths.
At dinner they also talked at length about the slow change in
the charging infrastructure. It was a good cordial and
communicative session, with good networking connections being
forged for the future.
Finally Bruce was going to a hardware store for another cheapo
white Zip cord to melt, just so that the ICS-200 EVI box
wouldn't complain, and allow him a lower level charge of 15 Amps
with one charger. Better than nothing! Bruce will be heading
back into the Bay Area during the day Thursday.
BR,
Ron Freund
83 Jet escort Los Gatos, CA
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