SF BayLEAFs - e-NV200 Ride & Drives and Showcase May 28

[Phoenix]

We have a conference call scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 13th at 2PM to brainstorm what can be done to get an operational QC somewhere in northern California. The phone number to call is:

559-546-1000
Participant Access Code: 812272#

Ideas so far:
1. Get the Vacaville QC functional for the public by Thanksgiving 2011.
2. Get Chargepoint, AE, EVProject or other companies to have a demo QC at their property for MNL users.
3. Site and source a coop QC.

I have notified 350Green.com and Sacramento's George Parrott to see if they have any interest. Spread the word and let's get some "critical mass" on this.

Phoenix
510-839-3175

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Side note: I don't know if the topic of the meeting time came up. (Me not being a Leaf owner, yet) I decided not to come partly because it was so early in the morning. I'm not a morning person at all and wasn't too motivated to drive from south San Jose early enough to be on time. Perhaps it's more convenient for some folks or even preferred by most w/me being the outlier...

I'll second that. It's taken me two days to recover from getting up six hours earlier than usual Saturday morning.

Incidentally, Union City was 43.6 miles from home (Morgan Hill), mostly freeway. I did make it back, but it was a close call -- the last two miles were with flashing bars on the guessometer (i.e., after the Very Low Battery warning). I drove 55 mph both ways, but after getting the first Low Battery warning I dropped off the freeway for the last 8 miles, and took it at 45mph.

Ray

I'm definitely not a morning person, but having the meeting start earlier, say at or before 9am does make it an easier sell to the rest of my family since I can get up a little earlier zoom to the meeting and be back home in time to do something with the family in the afternoon. Of course, no matter when we schedule it - time is precious!

Hmmm... 240V pig tail for the Horn Mod... I LIKE IT! though it's a little at odds with the quietness of an EV... Maybe if the horn was blasting out AC/DC, or Sammy Hagar's "I can't drive 55!", Radar Love, Wall of Voodoo's "Mexican Radio", or Highway to Hell, then I could see it as one of those high energy EV moments!

 

[ElectricVehicle]

We have a conference call scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 13th at 2PM to brainstorm what can be done to get an operational QC somewhere in northern California. The phone number to call is:

559-546-1000
Participant Access Code: 812272#

Ideas so far:
1. Get the Vacaville QC functional for the public by Thanksgiving 2011.
2. Get Chargepoint, AE, EVProject or other companies to have a demo QC at their property for MNL users.
3. Site and source a coop QC.

I have notified 350Green.com and Sacramento's George Parrott to see if they have any interest. Spread the word and let's get some "critical mass" on this.

Phoenix
510-839-3175

Is there a particular EVent or deadline you're trying to achieve - "Get the Vacaville QC functional for the public by Thanksgiving 2011." - or is the idea just to get a quick charger operational anywhere in the bay area as soon as possible?

I'll venture that the prirority is to get at least one in N. CA operational, and then a few at key places, say to start with, Vacaville, Gilroy, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento. The priority of the locations is something we can work out based on our collective potential usage.

At any rate - I plan to join your call.

 

[Phoenix]

The Vacaville QC is already in place, permitted and in a public location. It has not been functional since at least 4/25/2011 when it was posted to call PG&E Electric and Natural Gas Vehicle Helpline at 800-584-4648. As of 7-23-2011 someone else posted (all on EVChargerMaps.com) that the "imported CHAdeMO requires a different voltage than what PG&E is providing. So when the input voltage spikes a bit, the charging unit detects a problem. It's really sad that PG&E can't resolve this". Have we waited long enough for the repairs? Thanksgiving 2011 is when many of us can use this corridor to get to family reunions etc.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

The Vacaville QC is already in place, permitted and in a public location. It has not been functional since at least 4/25/2011 when it was posted to call PG&E Electric and Natural Gas Vehicle Helpline at 800-584-4648. As of 7-23-2011 someone else posted (all on EVChargerMaps.com) that the "imported CHAdeMO requires a different voltage than what PG&E is providing. So when the input voltage spikes a bit, the charging unit detects a problem. It's really sad that PG&E can't resolve this". Have we waited long enough for the repairs? Thanksgiving 2011 is when many of us can use this corridor to get to family reunions etc.

Sounds like a priority / funding thing for PG&E now, if the UL certification problem is out of the way and the only issue is supply voltage. They can pick different taps off a transformer to get lower voltages or put in an additional transformer that lowers the voltage, though anything they do probably costs thousands of dollars. I don's know what the Tepco OV limit is set at / by. If it's a software limit and the limit is well balow the level where damage occurs, it might be possible for Tepco to update the software to allow for a little higher voltage. It would probably be good for Tepco to tweak the unit, and all their US units, for the electrical voltages of the American market.

Evchargernews.com links to status on this charger:
http://www.evchargernews.com/regions/95687_6.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.evchargermaps.com/?SiteID=95687_6&Want=SPI%20LPI%20AVC%20OC&Zoom=17" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[LEAFfan]

BTW: If anyone found a pair of reading glasses with a case in the Union City Library parking lot or in the meeting room, they are mine. Let me know.

Orient, I believe your lost reading glasses is a hint that you may want to consider LASIK. For $299, I had LASIK Enhancement (had PRK) on my distance eye (monovision is awesome!) I've had no need for reading glasses since '95 and no enhancements yet to the reading eye. And the surgery is so much better and safer now since they don't have to cut the cornea cover.

 

[Phoenix]

"...if the UL certification is the problem....

Disappointing news from Adam of PG&E. Vacaville QC was only experimental to allow automakers to test their vehicles. Since the CHAdeMO unit is NOT UL certified, unlikely we will have it up and running any time soon. Oregon & Washington uses the Eaton CHAdeMO which is apparently UL certified but not sufficiently to California standards. Mitsubishi's QC in Cypress is up and running because the auto manufacturer assumes all responsibility and is using it to test their vehicles. They have contract to assume all liability so power provider is not liable. Tesla in Fremont has some kind of QC to test their vehicles. Can Nissan set up a QC to test usage in California (a la Mitsubishi)? I am willing to volunteer my Leaf for all EV (Tesla, Nissan or Ford) QC testing.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

"...if the UL certification is the problem....

Disappointing news from Adam of PG&E. Vacaville QC was only experimental to allow automakers to test their vehicles. Since the CHAdeMO unit is NOT UL certified, unlikely we will have it up and running any time soon. Oregon & Washington uses the Eaton CHAdeMO which is apparently UL certified but not sufficiently to California standards. Mitsubishi's QC in Cypress is up and running because the auto manufacturer assumes all responsibility and is using it to test their vehicles. They have contract to assume all liability so power provider is not liable. Tesla in Fremont has some kind of QC to test their vehicles. Can Nissan set up a QC to test usage in California (a la Mitsubishi)? I am willing to volunteer my Leaf for all EV (Tesla, Nissan or Ford) QC testing.

Getting Vacaville operational sounds like it's going to be a long process... (if ever). But if the Vacaville Tepco falls thorugh I imagine we'll find some way to get a quick charger from another manufacturer their, though not in the near future.

The most immediate promise may be Quick Chargers at select Nissan dealers. I just got off the phone with Premier Nissan of San Jose. They expect to get a Quick Charger at the dealership by the end of the year, possibly as early as November. There may be 2 quick chargers in San Jose and 3 in San Francisco at Nissan Dealers. I would treat this all as preliminary information that is subject to change at any time. We definitely need to show our support for the Nissan dealers with Quick Chargers, because they are making a $30,000 to $50,000 investment per charger, installed, to offer this to the EV / LEAF community. Thank you Nissan Dealers with Quick Charge!!!

I'm unaware at the moment of any other activity to get a Quick Charger installed and operational in the Northern CA area within the next 6 months.

 

[TomT]

Lasik can do nothing for accommodation which is the primary cause of the need for reading glasses as one gets older. All Lasik can do, in essence, is to shift the focus point and eliminate astigmatism. If your distance vision is currently fine without glasses, Lasik likely will be of little help to you. Only about 30 percent of the population can accommodate mono-vision (where one eye focus is set to distance and the other closer for reading). BTW, there are a number of concerns with the so-called "all laser Lasik" whereby they do not cut a flap. Oh, and $299 Lasik is scarry - you do get what you pay for! I encourage anyone who may be considering Lasik to so some serious research in advance and fully vet the doctor you are considering. I did before I had mine.

Orient, I believe your lost reading glasses is a hint that you may want to consider LASIK. For $299, I had LASIK Enhancement (had PRK) on my distance eye (monovision is awesome!) I've had no need for reading glasses since '95 and no enhancements yet to the reading eye. And the surgery is so much better and safer now since they don't have to cut the cornea cover.

 

[linkim]

'Re: the chief engineer's visit, that's awesome! I don't know what sort of q&a will be provided or if there are some logistics as to people being split up into groups to ask questions so that he's not swamped, but we learned some lessons after we got to meet the 3rd gen Prius chief engineer in Detroit at its unveiling.

IIRC, we didn't know he'd be there (the list of Toyota folks present wasn't given to us, possibly for security reasons) but we had a hunch of at least one engineer being present. We were split into thirds to not overwhelm the chief. If we had a central repository of questions that people could submit to (ranked by importance), and then people could check off ones that were answered in their group, that would help... There were ~50 of us Prius fans who attended (and were invited by Toyota) and ummm, I'd guess many of us had plenty of questions that we didn't get to ask. The language barrier was also a problem as only 1 of us fans spoke Japanese (an attendee flown in from Japan) and the chief's native tongue was definitely not English, although he could converse in it.

cwerdna - if you have any suggestions for the format of a meeting with Nissan Japan, I am interested in hearing about them. Perhaps the structure of the Toyota meeting is useful. How long was the meeting?

My focus now is trying to categorize various topics regarding the LEAF that could be discussed. There is a lot of discussion on the MNL forum with suggestions/comments on improvements/modifications to Gen 2 (as well as Gen 1) and future LEAFs. I plan to collate the information and provide them to Nissan before the meeting (their request). The intent of the meeting (when I first started my contact with Nissan Japan) was to discuss with them some of the modifications/improvements that were described on the forum and LEAF meetings. There are plenty of great ideas described by LEAF owners, as well as some major criticisms of Gen1 technology. We should look at the major criticisms as an opportunity to help Nissan improve their technology with our suggestions.

We should know by mid November if the Dec. 3 meeting is still on. So if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the meeting with Nissan Japan a more productive one for LEAF owners and Nissan, please let me know.

Kim

 

[earther]

We have a conference call scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 13th at 2PM to brainstorm what can be done to get an operational QC somewhere in northern California...

oh, sorry, I won't have the opportunity to participate in a conference call during work hours.
I am interested however, so please post any updates here on MNL!

 

[TEG]

Lasik can do nothing for accommodation which is the primary cause of the need for reading glasses as one gets older.

Unfortunately I can personally relate to this statement...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_%28eye%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...The young human eye can change focus from distance to 7 cm from the eye in 350 milliseconds. This dramatic change in focal power of the eye of approximately 12 diopters (a diopter is 1 divided by the focal length in meters) occurs as a consequence of a reduction in zonular tension induced by ciliary muscle contraction. The amplitude of accommodation declines with age. By the fifth decade of life the accommodative amplitude has declined so the near point of the eye is more remote than the reading distance. When this occurs the patient is presbyopic. Once presbyopia occurs, those who are emmetropic (do not require optical correction for distance vision) will need an optical aid for near vision; those who are myopic (nearsighted and require an optical correction for distance vision), will find that they see better at near without their distance correction; and those who are hyperopic (farsighted) will find that they may need a correction for both distance and near vision. The age-related decline in accommodation occurs almost universally, and by 60 years of age, most of the population will have noticed a decrease in their ability to focus on close objects...

 

[ElectricVehicle]

The various threads spawned from the Quick Charge conference call and other sources:

San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Related MNL threads
San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Getting them sooner
San Francisco Bay Area Quick Chargers Recommended Locations
How often would you use the Vacaville, CA Quick Charge?
L3 / CHAdeMO quick charge AWOL ? Includes some discussion of the UL listing.
Vacaville L3 Chargepoint

 

[gascant]

All: Our next meeting is slated to be held at Luscious Garage in San Francisco. A small wrinkle has developed, in that Luscious is now open for business on Saturdays. That means that extra-curricular activities like GGEVA and BayLEAFs meetings move to Sunday afternoon. So, please respond with your opinions on meeting on Sunday, October 2 at 12:00 Noon. We'll need to let Carolyn know soon.

 

[waidy]

All: Our next meeting is slated to be held at Luscious Garage in San Francisco. A small wrinkle has developed, in that Luscious is now open for business on Saturdays. That means that extra-curricular activities like GGEVA and BayLEAFs meetings move to Sunday afternoon. So, please respond with your opinions on meeting on Sunday, October 2 at 12:00 Noon. We'll need to let Carolyn know soon.

I am not available to attend BayLEAF meet on Oct 2. Please go ahead as missing one meet is no big deal.

 

[gascant]

Side note: I don't know if the topic of the meeting time came up. (Me not being a Leaf owner, yet) I decided not to come partly because it was so early in the morning. I'm not a morning person at all and wasn't too motivated to drive from south San Jose early enough to be on time. Perhaps it's more convenient for some folks or even preferred by most w/me being the outlier...

I'll second that. It's taken me two days to recover from getting up six hours earlier than usual Saturday morning.

Incidentally, Union City was 43.6 miles from home (Morgan Hill), mostly freeway. I did make it back, but it was a close call -- the last two miles were with flashing bars on the guessometer (i.e., after the Very Low Battery warning). I drove 55 mph both ways, but after getting the first Low Battery warning I dropped off the freeway for the last 8 miles, and took it at 45mph.

Ray

I'm definitely not a morning person, but having the meeting start earlier, say at or before 9am does make it an easier sell to the rest of my family since I can get up a little earlier zoom to the meeting and be back home in time to do something with the family in the afternoon. Of course, no matter when we schedule it - time is precious!

Appreciate the effort to get up so early and attend. The start time was dictated by needing to be out of the room by 10:30, so the next group could set up. I'm also not a morning person, but I felt we needed two hours of inside time (which wasn't enough, as it turns out!).

 

[Deleted member 3147]

Sunday the 2nd works better for me than the 1st. I have a funeral to go to on Saturday.

I've only made one meeting so far so my vote shouldn't count for much, anyway.

 

[cwerdna]

cwerdna - if you have any suggestions for the format of a meeting with Nissan Japan, I am interested in hearing about them. Perhaps the structure of the Toyota meeting is useful. How long was the meeting?

My focus now is trying to categorize various topics regarding the LEAF that could be discussed. There is a lot of discussion on the MNL forum with suggestions/comments on improvements/modifications to Gen 2 (as well as Gen 1) and future LEAFs. I plan to collate the information and provide them to Nissan before the meeting (their request). The intent of the meeting (when I first started my contact with Nissan Japan) was to discuss with them some of the modifications/improvements that were described on the forum and LEAF meetings. There are plenty of great ideas described by LEAF owners, as well as some major criticisms of Gen1 technology. We should look at the major criticisms as an opportunity to help Nissan improve their technology with our suggestions.

We should know by mid November if the Dec. 3 meeting is still on. So if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the meeting with Nissan Japan a more productive one for LEAF owners and Nissan, please let me know.

Sorry for the delay. Higher priority items were on my plate and I had to slog thru a lot of posts to try to find some answers...

For the purposes of your planning, I won't go into too many details outside of the time we got to meet w/the chief engineer since it's not really that relevant. There was a brief video that someone did (and I had a speaking role in) at http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-drivers/video-first-detailed-look-2010-toyota-prius-25452.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but it's out of sequence compared to the how the event unfolded.

Essentially, some 50+ Prius fans (mostly Priuschat users + some cleanmpg folks) were invited by Toyota to the unveiling of the 2010 Prius in Detroit in January 09 (first US deliveries were in May 09). We were not given any list of what Toyota folks would be present. Perhaps it was for security reasons and/or to not set expectations that they might not (unexpectedly) be able to meet. IIRC, we were told to feel free to bring Prius memorabilia that we might want autographed...

We saw a live feed of the press conference in of the 2010 Prius, its new features, etc. In the evening, we were taken to a venue (featured in the video) that had 3 2010 Priuses which we had just heard about. That was the essentially the first time anyone outside Toyota and the automotive press had seen one in person. Doug Coleman (Toyota Motor Sales USA Prius product manager [aka marketing person]) was the MC and then the chief engineer spoke briefly. That was the first time we learned of Doug. I think we had a hunch that we'd get to meet the chief engineer only because he was in the audience of the live press conference (we watched the feed from a different location than where it took place). He was briefly featured and thanked by Bob Carter (very high up TMS USA exec).

Everyone's badge had a dot w/1 of 3 different colors, corresponding to the color of Prius we should go to. The chief engineer then came around to each of the 3 Priuses to answer questions. There were also numerous Toyota USA folks on hand who could answer questions about the car, but I suspect/believe most of them weren't engineers.

In looking in the private area for those who were invited, some folks did contribute to a thread w/their questions, but since we knew virtually 0 about the 2010 Prius changes and features (were virtually no leaks prior to the unveiling), some were things we could discover on our own or not need to ask the chief. Some were later answered by Toyota marketing folks. I don't think we had any sort of curated, prioritized list of questions to ask and each group had no knowledge of what had been asked or answered in the other 2 groups. Once we returned, people started posting and (mostly) discussing what we learned at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/57380-what-did-we-learn-chief-engineer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

In looking a the time stamps of my pics and the agenda we got, it looks like the evening event was a bit over 3 hours long but I'd guess that the 3 groups in total had no more than 2 - 2.5 hours w/the chief for q&a, possibly as little as 1 hour. Toyota gave us a photo showing the evolution of the 3rd gen Prius design which the chief autographed for us.

I do think a curated, organized, prioritized list of questions would help. Not so sure the groups should be split. It wasn't up to us and we didn't know about the split (nor the significance of the colored dots) until that evening. I can't find the post/thread where people did sort of a post-mortem and expressed us invitees being better organized w/a list questions.

I don't think anyone recorded video or audio of our conversations w/the chief. Prior to the event, there was a thread where all discussed concerns about etiquette and what Toyota folks might be willing to say or not, on camera/audio. So, I think most of us erred on the side of caution of not recording and not having a camera in someone's face. Smartphone usage and ones w/decent video recording weren't as common back then.

I'll post more if I find it and it's useful. HTH, a bit.

(It was a GREAT event, BTW. We felt very privileged to be invited. We were excited to see the car and to meet some Priuschatters we had only previously "known" via posts online.)

 

[gascant]

Gathering #8 now confirmed for Sunday, October 2nd at Luscious Garage, starting at 11:30 AM. Carolyn is very excited to host us again and will be talking about the future of green vehicle service. We also will have some committee reports for the first time, and further discussion on SOC. The GGEVA meeting follows immediately, so there will not be a horn upgrade clinic at this meeting. We'll resume that at our November meeting.

Details:
Luscious Garage
475 9th St
San Francisco, CA

Doors will open around 11:15 for those needing charging.
Further agenda items are welcomed. I encourage everyone to stay for the GGEVA meeting, which starts at 2PM.

 

[linkim]

Sorry for the delay. Higher priority items were on my plate and I had to slog thru a lot of posts to try to find some answers...

Thanks for your detailed response. Your feedback was helpful. Hope to see you at future Bay LEAF meeting.

Kim