Drive Sustainable!

Drive Sustainable!
Our club members drive all kinds of EVs (Teslas, BMWs, Jaguars, Leafs, Bolts, Fords, Audis, electric bikes...)

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Leaked photos!

https://electrek.co/2018/07/30/tesla-model-s-x-interior-refresh-exclusive-first-look/

First Saturday's Car Show this week!

The First Saturday's Car Show off Powers Blvd. in Colorado Springs has become quite a large event. It's a great show for all our club members as it's free and it's local - any EV owner can participate. There is always a food vendor (Chic-Fil-A) so you can get breakfast & coffee there.

Due to the show’s growing size, we are no longer able to expect that we'll have "our spot" at the event. For all our club members to park together, we need to enter the event together. Perhaps an individual parking spot can be reserved but it's difficult to do so and frowned upon by the event promoters.

So far, the weather looks good this weekend (August 4, 2018), please consider coming to the event. Let's all see if we can enter the show no later than 7:30am behind the Holiday Inn near the Cinemark Movie Theater at the First & Main Center on Powers Blvd. and Constitution in Colorado Springs. I'll be there before then, waiting outside the entrance in my blue Model S. We'd love to have you there!

Visit their website for more information. You don't need to RSVP, just show up by 7:30am and we'll all proceed to our assigned parking spots.

-Wilson Hitchings

Monday, July 30, 2018

New Member, Janna Six

Please welcome our newest member, Janna Six from Lakewood, CO. She knows another member of ours, Tom Mealey, and he sent her one of our newsletters. Janna has a 2018 Silver Model 3. Welcome, Janna!

Hydrogen Vehicle at Rosie's

This past Sunday I attended the Rosie's Diner Car Show in Monument, CO. This is an annual benefit show for the Monument Police Department. I exhibited my dinosaur-goo car that day but was fortunate enough to be parked behind the only Toyota Mirai I've ever seen. It's apparently owned by NREL (Department of Energy). I learned quite a bit about the vehicle from the company employee that drove it, although I knew more than he did about some things. I took home some of the NREL brochures on hydrogen fuel cells, I'll be happy to share them at a future event. In brief, creating/extracting hydrogen for fuel cell use isn't clean - it either requires lots of electricity or the biomass methods create greenhouse gas. The brochures provided were clearly portraying EVs and hydrogen vehicles as complimentary technologies, but several were over 5 years old and didn't account for battery advances (such as Tesla's 100 kw battery pack). Interesting vehicle, however. My displayed car is the last photo.
-Wilson H









Saturday, July 28, 2018

Bishop Castle trip

Here are photos, thanks to Dan Rosenblatt and Mac McCauley, of our clubs' trip to Bishop Castle.


















Monday, July 23, 2018

New Member Troy Weingart

Our newest member is Troy Weingart who has a Tesla Model 3 on order. He's from Colorado Springs, CO; let's make him welcome!

Phenomenal wh/mi!

On my recent 3,000 mile trip to the Tesla factory in Fremont, I got 302 wh/mi at 80 miles per hour on a flat road. Think that's pretty good for a 5,000 lb car. I saw no appreciable head or tail winds, this was on Interstate 80 near the Great Salt Lake, absolutely flat and straight road. Beat that, Nick Lundberg!

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Bumper test for a Model 3

Here's an email I got from our club member:

Hi -  I have a Performance M3 on order-- bit am concerned that it may scrape on our steep driveway. Do you know anyone in the club with an M3 that might be willing to drive up our driveway? I have a Subaru WRX that sometimes scrapes on the muffler but otherwise is ok. Our home is on Daltry Lane--

Thanks! Rob Hoyer
719-304-4144 (cell)

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Fremont Factory Tour a success!

The Tesla factory tour was completed today by noon - everyone seemed to like it. Enjoy the pictures! My bandwidth in my hotel is quite low so I'll post what I can and update later.

Check out John Tompkin's drone video of our last lunch together here: https://youtu.be/IEnlVvDzs8g

-Wilson Hitchings








Wednesday, July 11, 2018

It's open season on Model 3s!

It looks like Tesla is allowing deposits on Model 3s directly from its website, not using the reservation system anymore (those with existing reservations will be honored). Check out the news here.

Should our club attend a car show?

There is a great car show on Sunday, Aug. 19, in Old Colorado City, CO at Bancroft Park. It's an all-day show, has good attendance and has lots of shops and restaurants nearby. The entire downtown area of Old Colorado City is blocked off for this large event. Formerly known as the Good Guys Car show, Ace Entertainment has revived it and they like car clubs to exhibit their cars.

If any club members would like to attend, we need to enter the show all at once in order to park together. It would be a great event for all our members as it's local to Colorado Springs, so we should be able to get a variety of vehicles. There's a $35 entry fee prior to the day of the show and you can register online here. We need to go as a group if we want to park together, so if you register early let me know. We would all need to arrive at 7:00am when they start staging the cars. You have to stay at the show until 3:00pm, so be aware that this isn't a "cars & coffee" event where you can leave at any time.

If our club is interested, we can send out an email with more details. Please contact me at info@csevc.com if you think you might want to go. We've already had a few say yes!

-Wilson Hitchings


New Member Paul Karagas

Going to car shows helps us spread the word and meet new people. One of our folks met our latest member, Paul Karagas , here's what he tells me:
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I saw some of your club member's Tesla S cars at the First Saturday auto show in the Springs earlier today, where I talked a bit with others about the Tesla cars and EVs in general.  I have a silver 2012 Chevy Volt that gets it's juice from a rooftop solar array on my house in Pueblo.  Sometimes I have to fill it with dino-juice when I drive to Denver, the mountains and a return trip to Pueblo from Colorado Springs, but I rarely run the ICE while driving in and around Pueblo.  I became interested in electric vehicles when I bought my first electric bicycle over 10 years ago and still use one quite frequently, along with my regular bicycle.  Like my Volt, I have considered an ebike to be a hybrid vehicle, only with 2 wheels :-)

I have made a few EV believers by introducing some friends and family members to my Chevy Volt.  Hopefully some of them will choose an EV for their next vehicle!  Looking forward to meeting some other members and share everything EV!

Paul Karagas

Saturday, July 7, 2018

New member Sean Leveille

Our most recent member is Sean Leveille from Colorado Springs; he drives a 2015 Red Nissan Leaf. He met one of our club members, Jim, at his son's baseball game.  Good job, Jim, at spreading the word about us. Please make Sean welcome when you meet him.

Newest Member, Lance Bartling!

Our newest member, Lance Bartling, met several club members at the First Saturdays Car Shows in Colorado Springs, CO today. He joined our organization today and lives in Black Forest. Please make him welcome when you see him. He sent us the following information:
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Misc information - I got into Teslas after becoming friends with one of their electrical engineers on CA.  The concept, and integration had me very interested in making the investment.  One test drive had me hooked, before we even had the car up the onramp to I-25.  After getting my Tesla, it became obvious that electric is so much better at moving a car than a fossil engine.

We bought the car in September, 2017, and we have already done a handful of road trips, to include 2 to New Orleans, demonstrating not only the feasibility of traveling by EV, but we found it preferable over listening to a fossil rumble along for 20 hours.


Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Don't forget First Saturdays Car Show!

The First Saturdays Car Show at First & Main (the Cinemark Movie Theater complex on Powers and Carefree in Colorado Springs) has become quite an event! There are hundreds of cars there and we EV owners usually get a large number of visitors when we park together. 

If you can make it, our group arrives fairly early and we'll hold a spot for you if you let us know you're going. I'll be there about 7:00am this Saturday.

-Wilson Hitchings
Car Show Professional