The Oct. 13, 2012 SF BayLEAFs meeting was held at Union City Library in Union City. This was a relatively small meeting for us, with about 20 LEAFs and 38 members in attendance. Three new members were present – from Half Moon Bay (commuter to Palo Alto), Brentwood (commuter to Livermore) and San Francisco (involved with LEAF sharing). Many thanks to linkim for providing the attached minutes.
Meetings of interest for the SF BayLEAFers include:
EAASV meeting, Oct. 20 (Coda dealer, Santa Clara, Thorium Energy Alliance)
EBEAA meeting, Oct. 27 (Alameda, topic TBA)
GGEVA meeting, Nov. 4 (SF, topic TBA)
SF BayLEAFs meeting, Nov. 10 (South Bay, location TBD)
The EAA has 2 refurbished L2 chargers (Clipper Creek) for sale at approximately $250 each (depending on shipping). These units do not have the “smart” functions of the Blink, for example, but are great alternatives for drivers wanting a simple wall charging unit.
The cost of driving a LEAF is decreasing, with a lease of $139/month available from Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City. Other lease deals are also available, for example, $179/month.
The website for Driving Electric (http://www.drivingelectric.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false
, which was launched on National Plug in Day (Sept. 23) is now fully functional. There are about 600 registrants in 40 states participating in the on-line community. Details are found on their website.
SF BayLEAFs are providing input to the BAAQMD Planning Document. The key topics for LEAF drivers are: Regional Infrastructure Siting Plan, Stakeholder Training and Customer Education. The deadline for responses is Oct. 22. Members can send their comments to
[email protected] (SF BayLEAFs will compile the comments and send in one package) or directly to the BAAQMD (http://www.baaqmd.gov/EVReady" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false
.
OrientExpress made a request for donations (tax deductible) to defray the expenses for the SF BayLEAFs events. For example, liability insurance is a major expense. Thanks to the efforts of our members, we received $480 for participating in the Michigan Scientific Center survey. A sponsors’ link is available for Leaf dealers, and other interested parties, to advertise on the SF BayLeAFs website.
ElectricVehicle presented an update on the charging infrastructure. Brendan Jones from Nissan North America mentioned (at LEAF celebration) that the will be 100 QCs installed in the Bay Area. The tentative hosts for the 100+ QCs are BAAQMD (41), retail installations (23), NRG settlement (53). Unfortunately, only 5-6 sites have been determined. Ecotality has plans for expanding their QC locations, which include Menlo Park, Hayward, Petaluma, Calistoga, Concord, South SF, Fremont, Newark and Santa Clara. Nissan has a QC unit that they will locate at a dealer in the Bay Area. They have asked for recommendations from the SF BayLEAFs for locating the QC. All suggestions must be submitted to
[email protected] by Wednesday (Oct. 17).
ChargePoint 4.0 is now live and ready for EV owners to check out (http://www.chargepoint.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false
. The website has an enhanced user interface, with charging station owners able to directly communicate with EV drivers. Multi-deployment sites by corporations and pricing structure are improved.
Gascant provided an update on the NPID events in SF and the Bay Area on Sept. 23.
Besides the LEAF celebration at Crissy Field in SF, NPID was held at Cupertino, San Rafael, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Alameda. The LEAF celebration, which preceded the NPID event, attracted over 105 LEAFs, 300 owners and their families and about 200 other guests visiting Crissy Field. The Cupertino event had test drives of the RAV4 EV and rides in the Tesla Model S. Two Oregon LEAF owners made it to the Sacramento event, and two LEAFs were escorted from San Rafael to Crissy Field by our Nissan Japan hosts who were driving a local owner’s LEAF.
Last July, a crew from Tokyo TV visited the Bay Area and attended the SF BayLEAF meeting. Part of their video "Future Century Zipangu" (courtesy of Waidy and OrientExpress) on the EV activities in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) was presented at the meeting. Local members will recognize some of the “actors” and locations in the video. The audio in the video was in Japanese, but an English version is expected for viewing in the future.
The next SF BayLEAFs meeting will be held on November 10 in the South Bay at a location to be determined.
Slides from the meeting can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?24d06ebe3spu78y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
