April 24, 2009. First public Tesla charging station ribbon cutting ceremony. We had seven Roadsters (for the event, two more showed up late!), four Rav4EVs, a Sparrow, a Chevy S10 and a PHEV Prius in attendance. A great crowd! The site includes two Clipper Creek Avcon units, one 70A Tesla unit and one Small Paddle Inductive charger. In addition there are two 120V 20A (5-20) outlets. At the end of the morning, we had six vehicles all charging at the same time: Three Roadsters, my Rav4EV, a Sparrow and the PHEV Prius. Two of the Roadsters in attendance were factory cars driven up by Daniel and Zak from Tesla. Many were offered rides, and a few got behind the wheel. Yay!
Great cake with a Rav4EV and Tesla charging next to each other. Of course we got to see the cars and charging happening in real time... But we could also eat it this time!
Kyra getting her first look at a Tesla Roadster. It's no EV1, but it'll do.
Our car in the foreground, Eugen's Rav, a PHEV Prius and two Roadsters.
The whole party just getting going.
Photo Credit ChargeIT
The first five Roadsters to show up. The blue cars in the upper left were the factory cars that we got to drive.
You've gotta get down there pretty low to take pictures with these things!.
Or you look REALLY tall.
This, in fact, is my first sit in a Roadster. I think I wear it pretty well. I'd heard so many people complain about the difficulty of entering and exiting. I did it about six times this morning, and really didn't even think about it. Was certainly easier than getting on and off of my tandem bicycle that I do about six times per day.
Eugen made these great bottles of water. While I wasn't worthy, I was at least close to him, and got one anyway.
The green Signature model being charged at 70A.
Since the cars were on "display" we didn't make efficient use of the charging spaces. Here I had to sneak in behind the charging Roadster to top up before our trip to SF right after this event. I never thought I'd see the day when my Rav was blocked from getting a charge by two Tesla Roadsters!
The entire EVnut family Wondering where to look next.
Photo Credit ChargeIT
The official cutting of the ribbon. We're open for business.
Photo credit Richard Tsai
 |
Click for |