Tesla Chadstone Shopping Center Melbourne Australia Showroom

The next day I took the bus to Chadstone Shopping Center in eastern Melbourne.  As you can see, it's in the middle of the walkway in the mall, at a bend with a cupola above, big pillars and a pair of escalators, a perfect place to pick up a lot of foot traffic.

There was a white 85 and a rolling chassis with only the rear motor, plus a mockup supercharger and an HPVC unit that had enough power to open the charge port on the car. 

I spoke briefly to the Tesla staffer who I thought I recognized from yesterday, but by the way he was talking it was like he didn't know me, so I explained about my visit to Church Street yesterday, my love of Tesla, my car, my trip, etc. 

I was sitting at a side table looking at my phone and people kept coming up to ask me questions. I'd tell them I don't work for Tesla but the staffer was always busy so I tried to answer best I could. They normally have two people working, with two Teslas in the parking garage ready for test drives.

This is a great marketing strategy to pick up folks who just happen to walk by and are drawn in by the cars.  Infinity had a similar display in another part of the mall but there was nobody looking...

Tesla East Richmond Melbourne Australia Showroom

Tesla has two locations in Melbourne Australia, a full showroom & service center on Church Street in East Richmond, and also a display area at the Chadstone Shopping Center.  This is the Church Street location,

The folks at the Church Street showroom were great. I talked with Nick, a service technician. He gave me the tour around. This location has a massive service shop area, only about 25% of the floorspace is used right now; I was asked not to publish any pictures. This building is meant as an owner support center while the other site at a shopping mall in nearby Chadstone is where they get the foot traffic and sales leads.

I then spoke with Nathan, the Product Specialist. He has a flexible role but is the go-to guy for technical issues. He handles walk-ins and phone calls, works 9-5 5 days a week and floats between the two locations. He does test-drives, follow-ups, and lead captures. He needs to log about 45 leads per week but it's easy to do at the Chadstone location. 

We also discussed the Delivery Experience role and the Service Concierge role, with me filing the information away for a foggy future plan...  This is the Delivery area.

Tesla offers a 24-hour lounge for folks who need a charge outside of business hours.  It's accessed via a keypad on the door and is heated & cooled, lighted and has a coffee machine.

Tesla has to make locale-specific changes for the various markets around the world. The differences on the Australia model are: 1) No child seat option - against crash safety rules. 2) No web browser in the 17" display - against driver inattention rules. 3) Mennekes Type 2 charging connector. 4) Some of the new autopilot features will be allowed, but some may not comply with current law and will be excluded.

Big thanks to the staff!

Tesla Sydney Australia Showroom

One top goal on my Around-The-World trip is to hit as many Tesla locations as humanly possible.

While in Sydney, I took the bus from my hotel across the city, jumped off and walked about 300m to the Tesla showroom. It's really big, with a huge long glass wall along the road, with about 10 parking spots right in front and superchargers all across.

Like most Tesla showrooms, they had a rolling chassis on display but this one was the first I've seen with the "D" motor installed up front.  They don't have any Ds for sale yet, but should be soon.

I spoke with Gavin, the assistant service manager about Tesla and my electric 914. I then arranged for a test drive with Taylor, an American woman who went to Uni here and never left. I didn't get to punch it due to city traffic, but it drives perfectly. 

They're running a special Billion Miles event the next day, so I got a Tesla neck lanyard and ID card for taking a test drive. 

Gavin took me downstairs to the service area, it's painted Tesla red and white and sparkling clean as you would expect, only one orange Roadster in for service. Gavin said that since Australia was later in the worldwide rollout, they didn't experience a lot of the early problems such as naughty door handles and drivetrain bearings.  Gavin asked that I not post any pictures of the service area and I'm happy to comply.

We discussed the Right To Repair documentation issue, he doesn't think Australia legislates full disclosure like Massachusetts. 

Tesla uses the Mennekes Type 2 connector here for supercharging, with 7 pins, and physically a bit larger than the US connector.

Pricing goes from AUD $113,152 "on the road" for the cheapest 70 kwh pack with a 4 month delivery queue, up to $225,763 for the fully loaded P90D, including $43K in taxes. The only government savings on an electric car is a slight decrease in the Luxury Car tax. The current Aussie government thinks coal is the solution for the future and is actively fighting solar, wind and electric vehicles. Hope the bums get voted out next time.

Many thanks to the Tesla staff for taking the time to chat and answer my questions and give me a test drive!

I just got fucked by Google. #GoogleFucked?

Well, all of my pictures are gone.  Thanks (I think...) to Jason for point this out.

After a quick Google search (ironic) I found out why.  When I make a post, I write the text and explicitly upload each picture or video.  I move and size the picture, then save and publish the post.  Easy, right?  Not exactly.

Google now owns Blogspot.  What happens under the covers is Google doesn't lock the photo to your blog post, it puts your uploaded picture into your AutoSync thingy and then makes a link from the blog to your photo.

AutoSync was starting to fill up, I thought, with every picture I took on my phone and I was running out of the space Google gives you for email.  So I cleaned it out.  I just invoked the Law of Unintended Consequences.  Fuck me.

So what to do.

After I get over this rage I have going on right now, I'll probably slowly go back and fix the posts.  I hope it's easy to fix these, I've got a couple of thousand to do.

Note that this would not have happened if Blogspot had remained independent, or if I used another blogging platform.

Update: On May 16, 2015 I've just finished fixing all 205 blog entries with over 1600 images.  That's a lot of hours I won't get back.

My visit to Toyotron Electric Motorbikes in Bangkok

After building the electric 914 and planning a move to Thailand, I was very interested in the state of electric vehicles there, again trying to avoid gasoline-powered transportation.  What I found was disheartening...  There are no pure-electric cars for sale, not even the Nissan Leaf despite Nissan dealers everywhere.  I did find one electric golf cart shop that had an electric scooter from Toyotron www.toyotron.com but they told me it wasn't legal to drive on the road.  I ended up buying a Honda Click 125cc motorbike, which gets about 110 miles per gallon, so I'm minimizing my use of gasoline the best I can.

I've been watching the Toyotron web site since then to see what electric motorbikes are available, and if and when they will become legal for street use.  Sadly the site hasn't changed so I don't know if they are coming out with new designs or are even still in operation.

I was dropping a friend off at the airport in Bangkok so we stopped by the address on the Toyotron web site for a personal look.

We were greeted by two Thai ladies who spoke no English, but we managed to get some photocopied brochures and a couple of test rides.  The factory is somewhere else in Bangkok and as you'll see from the videos below the showroom is pretty bare and the rear area of the property is piled with old parts and broken bikes.

The main model listed on the web site is the Dragon-G, with a small and large battery pack available.  The Dragon-G body style is much like my Honda Click 125cc bike and several others in use here.  The spec on the Dragon-G Turbo (which shows a distinct lack of marketing prowess as you don't need a turbocharger on an electric motor...) is 40-60 kilometers range and a top speed of 55 km/hour. This is a little small for my use around town and up and back to the next towns. The Dragon-G Super has 60-80 kilometers range and top speed of 65 km/hour. I wish there was still more range and I have a dream of buying one without a battery pack, then building my own pack with CALB LiFePO4 cells and an appropriate charger.  I wonder if they would agree to it?

Strangely, they had two bikes on display called Hunter but no paperwork available and not shown on the web site.  I did a Google search and found this article from 2008 showing how close it looks to a Honda Big Ruckus.  The Thais generally have no respect for copyright law, so I assume they just welded it up based on the Big Ruckus shape.  I have no idea if they're still building it or these are just leftovers.  It has a very upright driving position, with a forward-backward adjustable seat.  The backrest tilts down to make a second seat, and as you can see it has additional storage space available in the saddlebags.

They also have two models which are essentially electric bicycles which I'm not interested in.

The ladies made it clear that the motorbikes can be licensed and driven on the roads, so I'm getting conflicting information.

To wrap up, here are three videos we took of test drives around the back area.  None were brand new, and the Hunter had a nasty grinding noise when it first started rolling, but it has nice pickup.  The Dragon and T-Win felt light with good balance and handling, while the Dragon-G was in very bad shape after nearly 5000 kilometers and nearly no charge remaining in the pack.  The last video also has some footage of the inside of the showroom and the other bikes on display.

While these are competitively-priced with similar sized gasoline bikes, I would be asking for more range than they can deliver so I think my best plan may be to buy a used motorbike with a chassis I like and converting it to full electric with my own design.  I just need to figure out how to make it legal first!

Formula E electric car race in Malaysia

Here's my video report from the second (after Beijing) Formula E electric car race from Putra Jaya, Malaysia on November 22, 2014.

EVCCON 2014 - Day 5

This is the last official day of the show.  A group of people and several cars went just south of Cape Girardeau to Dyno Dom's Sikeston Dragway.  This is a 1/8th mile NHRA official track, so any fast times set here go into the record books.  Last year Jack's speedster set several records, and we were hoping for good things with John Metric's Miata dragster.

First up was the TVR but about a quarter of the way down the track it went bang and came to a stop.

And here they're pushing the TVR onto the trailer.

This is what the driveshaft looked like after all of that torque.

Next up was the triple AC35 motor with titanium shaft 911.  Lots of power, lots of money!

The 911 then ran against a beautiful hand-built AC Cobra replica.

A beautiful blue electric pickup truck was up next.

To everyone's surprise this electric drag motorcycle showed up for the racing.  He wasn't an EVCCON attendee, but came because he saw that today's racing was sanctioned by NEDRA.  He holds the world record for his voltage class, and you can see why.

This highly-customized electric golf cart (but still with the original gearbox) also holds the world record for its class.

Jason Horak's "Daytona That Wouldn't Die" survived the week of EVCCON without blowing up any parts.

Jack Rickard's Speedster Replica is one of the fastest street-focused home-built electric cars around.

Now we have the 911 vs. the Speedster in a Porsche grudge match.

Then the one we were waiting for all week - John Metric's custom electric Mazda Miata drag racer against the 911.  At the end of this run, the front hood peeled off the Miata and flew into the woods on the right side.

There were also a few gasoline motorcycles on the track that day, but we didn't pay much attention to them, they're so noisy and smelly!

So that wraps it up for EVCCON 2014.  See you next year for EVCCON 2015 from September 29 to October 3 2015, and if we're lucky there will be an EVCCON Amsterdam sometime soon.

EVCCON 2014 - Day 4

Today is the last day of presentations, then we go outside for the car show in the park.

First Session - Built It To Last and Build It To Maintain It.  The Myth of No Maintenance Electric Vehicles by Brian Noto

EVTV's very own co-host "The Brain" has spent many hours building, rebuilding and rebuilding again electric cars, so he's in a great position to discuss component choice, build technique and maintenance.

Jack jumped in and discussed the battery situation of the electric Smart car he just bought on eBay.  You can lease a Smart electric car and included in your monthly payment is a battery lease fee.  You can also buy the car and then you also own the battery too, but they still want you to pay the battery lease fee.  They will sell you a new battery pack, but it costs more than the price of a whole new car.  Jack got in contact with the president of Smart USA who promised him the CAN bus documentation so Jack can build his own battery pack for the battery-less Smart be bought on eBay.  We'll see what happens after he talks with the engineers and the lawyers.

There is a growing issue that you can buy a car these days, but you can't fix anything yourself because of a lack of documentation, and more and more of a modern car is embedded computers and software.  Most car companies won't release their specs and that hurts us when we try to understand or update the vehicle we've bought and paid for.

Brian talked about other OEMs that we in the world of electric cars came to depend on like A123, Azure Dynamics, Winston, Netgain Controls, Better Place and my own issues with PakTrakr who are now history.  The issue is someday the company you're depending on may go out of business.  This leaves you without a source for components, replacement parts, service and documentation.  This is the heart of the Build vs. Buy argument that every company has when sourcing components.

We should be moving to more robust and sophisticated techniques and components, like one-twist battery box disconnects rather than running cables through holes, and readily accessible components for replacement like controllers, fuses, and contactors, because things break and you will need to fix or replace.  Due to the high voltage and current, it's important to use hydraulic crimpers on your battery cables, and invest in a good crimping tool for the other wiring in the car.

Quality usually costs more, but do not compromise your car for short-term savings.  Also take time to research components and techniques, don't rush into decisions.

Fred Behning made a point of thanking EVTV for the excellent documentation that comes along with the products they sell.  The JLD404 and the GEVCU are especially good.  Jack recommends having a quality multimeter and sunglasses.  If you can measure it, you can tell if it's working properly.  Brian says to build a small team, each person with specific skills.  Jeff Southern says to get to know your local trade schools.  The point was made about watching the EVTV guys make a mistake, recognize it, make a new plan and succeed - this is how we learn best.

The questions was asked how many people are doing their own electric conversions.  EVAlbum has about 3000, but it includes electric bicycles and couches.  While other people think we are on the bleeding edge and doing impossible things, we think it's just a fun project and then we just drive it around to get to where we want to go.  Jack's theory of publishing is make people go away, and then you're left with the people who are intensely interested in the subject.

Next Session: Helwig Carbon Products with Tom Brunka

Tom recapped his fascinating sessions from previous EVCCONs.  Refer to my notes from EVCCON 2011 and 2012.  He did mention that he built custom brushes and thick shunt wires for John Metric's drag car.  The plasma you see on his videos from yesterday is generated at the point where the brushes touch the motor's commutator.  Without high-amperage and high-temperature brushes, they would self-destruct and probably take out the motor too.

One point that Tom stressed again, that most people don't understand, is that you have to seat your brushes before full power is applied to the motor, i.e. driving it for the first time.  The brushes come from the factory with the contact surface perpendicular to the side, but the brush is rubbing against a round commutator, so enough brush material has to wear off to get the brush into full contact with the commutator.  Tom's rule of thumb is, depending on the grade of the brush, is running the motor at 3000 rpm for between 7 and 17 days.  Yes, a week to almost 3 weeks, 24x7.  This ensures the brush is in full contact with the commutator, allowing maximum current flow across the largest area and lowest temperature.

Next Session: The Future As I See It - Jack Rickard

Jack and Paulo discussed the blitz build of the Smart car.  It was stuck in 4th gear on the first attempt but they got that fixed and it's now fixed in 2nd gear, giving fast acceleration and 55 mph top speed which is great for around-town driving.

Jack then brought us of the Smart car project up on stage, we introduced ourselves and talked about what we worked on.  Jack will have to top it next year, many people called out "boat" so we may have a floating project next year.

Next year's EVCCON 2015 is September 15 - 21, 2015.  It's a little cooler and more predictable good weather.

The boat that Anne built for Jack was supposed to arrive during the show, but is taking a week and a half to make it 300 miles from Chicago by Monday so most of us won't get to see it.  Boats and cars are just two kinds of vehicles that can benefit from electric motion, and even cars are highly specialized for the needs of their drivers.

Jack reiterated his view that all innovation comes from one or two people in a basement or a garage.  We are working in an area that still has incredible opportunity for great ideas.

Ray suggested we have access to a computer where we can copy on pictures and video and others can copy them back off.  Somebody else suggested Flicker.  Jack's looking for a volunteer to handle this next year.

Jack says the Lear company is quietly taking over the world of chargers in EVs and its CAN bus properties are a mystery that needs to be documented.

We now break for lunch then outside for the car show, as long as it's not pouring rain.  And we lucked out, not a drop of rain.  There was a gas car show going on on the other side of the park, so we got some visitors who wandered over from there too.

This is a Twike.  It has pedals and an electric motor and batteries too.

These are the two fastest cars at the show.  The front car holds the world record as the fastest golf cart.  Just behind is John Metric's drag racing Miata.

Hanging out in the back seat of Jack's Tesla Model S.  Well, it's actually Jack's wife Jill's car...

The Model S always had a big crowd.

Closeup of the dashboard.

I easily found my building in Thailand on the satnav, it's the L-shaped white roof in the center.  Unfortunately it wouldn't let me click the Navigate button.  It must have figured out you can't drive from Missouri to Thailand.

After the car show, we went on a very quiet, police escort parade through town.

At the end of the parade we got the cars set up for the traditional group photos.

After the group photos we got dressed up in our finest and had the closing banquet and awards ceremony.  I won the trophy for the furthest traveled attendee!

EVCCON 2014 - Day 3

Today was "fun day" at the Cape Girardeau airport, inside and just outside Jack's hanger.  Since the day is mostly pictures and video, just enjoy.

Jack owns two DC 3s, two helicopters, a biplane, a LearJet and a number of MGs that all still run on liquid fuels.  Maybe someday we'll convert a DC 3 to electric?

This is the cockpit in the DC 3.

Here are the passenger seats in the DC 3.  Much more comfortable than today's planes!

Here's his Huey.  His daughter Jennifer is a certified helicopter pilot.

The next series of pictures are some of the cars lined up for weighing before the drag racing started.  This is a 1960s Datsun pickup truck.

This is the custom-built "Seven" car that came second in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition.  They would have won but their clutch blew up in the acceleration test at the end.

A hand-built AC Cobra replica, a TVR and Fred Behning's MG.

This is one of the few new second-generation Toyota RAV4 electrics.  This has the Tesla battery pack and drive train, a product of their technology partnership that has now been dissolved.  The blue thing on the back requires some explanation.  It's a VW Beetle with the body and front wheels stripped off, so it's now a self-powered trailer.  When he's cruising down the road, he turns the RAV4's lights on, and this causes the Beetle engine to start, pushing the RAV4 and trailer down the road.  When he sets the cruise control on the RAV4 and the trailer pushes faster than the car is set for, it goes into regen mode and actually charges the battery as he goes down the highway.  When he taps on the brake, the Beetle engine shuts off.  He drove all the way to Missouri from Utah in this manner and actually used it on his dragstrip runs.  Unconventional, yes.  Wile E. Coyote ingenious, yes!

Nabil's Bradley GT, the quintessential kit car of the 70s, now in full electric mode.

The Mazda Miata makes a great conversion platform - light with great handling, and the transmissions can handle strong electric motors.

The Karmann Ghia in the morning sun.

Jeff Southern's VW Thing.  I got a ride home to the hotel one night in it and we stopped at CVS.  One of the checkout ladies had to run outside and check out the Thing.  He gets that a lot!

Miata, pickup truck, Miata, Jack's Porsche Spyder and Jack's Porsche Speedster, all electric.

All lined up, ready for drag racing to start.

I named this Swamp Thing.

John Metric's world record Miata.  He recently did a segment for MotorWeek, the PBS car show and it should be aired later this fall.  Check out his dyno videos below.

Under the hood, twin 2000 amp Zilla controllers.

This is the business end of a converted 911 from Montreal.  That's 3 HPEVS AC35 motors connected together with belt drive.  The motors were updated with titanium shafts and cases.

This is the inside of the motor controller in the newly completed Smart car.

And here is the Smart, completed and driven over to the hanger from the EVTV workshop.

The Smart now has a JLD404 meter in the coin shelf on the left side, and a state of charge meter in the original round housing on top of the dashboard.