Tesla Experience So Long As you return it

I have been involved in somewhat of a love affair with electric vehicles for some time now, so when my generous and thoughtful sibling-in-laws gifted me a 

Tesla

Experience

So

Long

As you return it…

for my 30th birthday, I was pretty ecstatic, to say the least.

They coordinated the rental over the long, memorial day weekend which coincided with a family road trip out to Eastern Oregon, 300 miles away. 

Friday, after work, we piled into a black, mid-range model 3 and set off for the town of La Grande. 

Giddiness was the primary feeling in those hours blazing East on I-84. Caroline (wife), Peter (brother-in-law) and I quickly found playful “Easter Eggs” which are hidden software features embedded on the large touchscreen. The silliness enabled us to explore Mars, pretend to be Santa’s sleigh, and create fart noises over the car’s stereo system. Our fun and lightness was reinforced when Peter let the autopilot system navigate the Pendleton curves almost exclusively by itself, which was convenient as we’d used a need for supercharging as an excuse to have a beer and share excitement for our weekend away from the city and into the Wilderness. 

Beer chug complete, and 25 minutes elapsed, our electronic horse was saddled with 200 miles of range. I knew Teslas charged quickly; I was still impressed. 

A year and half ago, Caroline and I purchased a 2014 Nissan Leaf, which we love. Besides a $20 tire rotation and a topping off of windshield wiper fluid, we have had no maintenance expenses and have used it for thousands of miles of commuting and regional trips for a flat rate of $30 a month in electricity to our landlord. However, we have been a bit too ambitious at times with how far the car can venture and how long it takes to replenish the energy reserves. This is why our “Tesla Experience So Long As you return it…”, was a whole ‘nother animal.

With all of these factors, it’s easy to understand why many are ensconced by Tesla. The software is futuristic and while autopilot was evidently not complete, you could still imagine the car someday chauffeuring you around. Glass on all sides encouraged us to look out, directly above at clouds and stars, sideways at mountains and rivers, and ahead because, well, you still have to drive the thing. Layer on the impish quirks, the seamless charging, and the quiet, smooth ride with luxury touches and it is hard not to like.

Needless to say, I was somewhat sad to return it at the end of the weekend. 

However, I was not sad about parting ways with certain aspects, considering my sheepishness around conspicuous consumption. The longing instead was created by looking out at all the other cars on the road and realizing how many vehicles remain to improve.  I had stepped into a possible future for the world and was quickly returned to reality. 

We traveled over 600 miles without a drop of petroleum to power our journey. Meanwhile, we paralleled the mighty Columbia River, the region’s largest source of electricity, passed wind farms and large scale solar arrays. You did not have to imagine a future of renewable power and efficient, electric mobility. It was right in front of our eyes, but I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that the change is not happening quickly enough.

The most compelling reason for electric vehicles is not the fact that they run on electricity, but rather that they are 3 times as efficient as our 2004 Prius and almost 6 times as efficient as the average vehicle in the U.S. 

The potential savings from bringing all vehicles up to snuff is enormous. 

24.7 MPG is the current fleet wide average. This means that a Model 3 will require only 17% of the energy to get you to the same place as the average vehicle does. If we were agnostic to whether the source of the energy was electricity or petroleum, we could cut the energy demand for moving people 5X just by bringing the average efficiency to parity. That is a whole lot of energy resource we will not have to go find, because the need was eliminated.

In all sectors, particularly transportation, efficiency is the largest untapped resource that we have, and our weekend T.E.S.L.A. was a luxurious reminder of the end goal. 

Next Phase of Observing the EV Evolution

Five years ago, before I started following electric vehicles, I had never noticed an all-electric vehicle on the roads. It was 2014 and I had lived in a small, relatively rural, mountain town for a couple years already. Today, the picture is significantly different, in some ways better, and other’s worse. Electric vehicles have taken to the streets and proven their worth, yet 2018 carbon emissions in all sectors went up in the U.S. and globally.

So, as of January 25, 2019, here is the data collection of every Tesla sighting from my first in 2015 until now. The yellow line records cumulative sightings. The Red is Model S/X sightings, and the blue is cumulative Model 3’s.

Today, I am ending a data collection experiment I began those years ago. In a way, it is a nod to the transformation that has occurred. In Leadville, CO, year 2015, my data collection was pretty simple. Now, it is an unnecessary burden that I must curtail.

The graph is shaped as I had hoped. The trendline for total sightings is almost perfectly exponential. If this growth rate were to continue for the next 3.5 years, I will have seen almost 11 million Teslas. I hope this is the case, and I also hope I will see an equivalent or greater number of other company’s electric vehicles on the roads in that time.

The only way to fight an exponential is with an exponential. In the face of climate change, we need more efficiency and decarbonization transformations to look akin to this graph. These accelerations are what continue to inspire my “applied hope” toward the challenge, as Amory Lovins has often implored us to find.

The war on entropy continues!

Luxury Expense

Something happened on March 31st, 2016.

Caroline was in Oregon, spending her birthday weekend with her family, making me more prone to irrational behavior. I had written her birthday card to be read aloud over the dinner table.

That letter sets the scene for my buoyant mood, flying high off of love and excited for the world to change.

Evening rolls around. It’s a Friday night and I’m home alone at 214 W 9th St. I bake a pizza, open a bottle of wine, and setup the projector screen. The ingredients are prepped for a romantic evening. Naturally, I log on to Tesla’s website. Tonight the more affordable and mass-produced electric car will start to become a reality.

In the two years since that night, we’ve seen the seeds bloom that were planted then.

Sure, to much hoopla and acrimony, the Model 3 has started to hit the roads and is already America’s top-selling electric car.

The world reacted.

The past two years have brought a litany of announcements - countries around the world will ban the sale of the internal combustion engine. Major automakers are aggressively unveiling one “tesla killer” after another painting the canvas of the government and business transition in action.

Imagination is the primary driver of change. Now, more than ever before, the world is imagining the electrification of the transportation sector. Three years ago greater numbers of people would have dismissed the possibility.

Wooed by promise and expectation that evening, I placed a $1,000 refundable deposit on a Tesla Model 3 and started to imagine our own transition to electric vehicles.

In the interim, thousands of dollars were spent nursing Caroline and my ICE vehicles. ‘Please, just a little more life’, we urged.

Since March of 2016, one of my biggest sources of internal conflict has been the purchase of something I’ve always associated with opulence and a great societal plague - consumerism. All of a sudden, I was flirting with the idea of buying a $35,000 car. In the privileged position to be able to finance such a luxury item - I’ve been forced to cross examine my motivations.

My lifestyle and passions require mobility. As Edward Abbey urged, “Be like I am...a part-time crusader”. Nourishing my soul has brought on long bouts as a road warrior - endless driving sets with minimal stops, arriving to remote trailheads at odd hours.

Given the constraints, I’ve yearned for a vehicle that could deliver on those objectives, more humbly. If there were old, inexpensive electric vehicles like the Toyota Prius we’ve owned with more than 200,000 miles on it, I would have gladly purchased that tool to facilitate electric travel. Unfortunately that has not been an option. And until Tesla forced their hand, most automakers have slow walked their offerings. So I will, intentionally, put my financial support behind the organization that catalyzed action.

Hey, pump the brakes for a second! Why does this matter and why is it a priority?

I have driven over 125,000 miles in my adult life. By my best estimate that corresponds with over 80,000 lbs of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere due to the direct combustion of gasoline. If the efficiency of my driving was upgraded to 126 MPGe - that same amount of driving could cut energy demand 75% solely based on the increased efficiency over those gasoline counterparts.  Even if that driving was 100% fueled by dirty coal - there would be an 11% carbon reduction. If that driving was fueled by hydro, solar, and wind that marks a 90% reduction opportunity!

This huge realm of possibility is the reason I celebrated the unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 that evening two years ago. I wanted to shepherd in an era where the promise of significantly cutting carbon became reality. It’s the same reason I came to love the promise of electric vehicles and the opportunity they present as the electric grid becomes cleaner over time.

I concede that there are larger challenges afield. How can we structure society and our personal lives such that I don’t need to drive that much at all? How do we tackle greater environmental and climate change challenges? More has to be done. Certainly.

My intuition is that we need to take opportunities and not squash them because greater challenges exist.

For this reason, Caroline and I will ultimately make the transition and it will not solely be a luxury expense. My hope is that our kids will be embarrassed to be picked up from school by that same vehicle 20 years from now. I hope it will be aged, with 200,000 miles on it. May it be worn, having traversed deserts, ascended mountains and delivered us to the inspiring places we seek to protect in this glorious world we live. After all, it’s our experiences nuzzling in with mother nature that drive us to protect that ability for our kids in the first place.

Observing the EV Revolution pt. 1

After finishing reading, Elon, by Ashlee Vance, I saw my first Tesla on the roads of Leadville, Colorado, the day of the 100 mile mountain bike race, during summer of 2015. Over the following year, I thought it interesting to start recording every Tesla I saw on the roads. I would use the information as a proxy for electric vehicles becoming mainstream. If there were Teslas, there would be others trying to get a slice of the pie too.

Data collection was simple for the first two years - then we went to Norway. After 77 sightings during our one day in Oslo, I knew the potential for transformation was huge.

Now, the Model 3 has launched and I've started to see them hit the Portland streets.