[NY] Albany Capital District EV Driver's Group

[blownb310]

Calling all Ford Foucus EV drivers in the Albany, NY Capital District area.

I am seeking local EV owners for social and driving EV events and gatherings. I have started a new FaceBook group called the Albany Capital District EV Drivers.

Mission statement: To assemble a local group of EV enthusiasts to socialize, organize group outings at local car shows, and possibly put on some EV economy competitions or driving tours as well.

If you know of any EV drivers in a 60 or so mile radius of the capital region, please let me [or them] know about the group I have put together.

Tesla, Mitsubishi i-Miev, Nissan Leaf, Smart ED, Honda Fit EV, Ford Focus EV, BMW Active E, Chevy Volt, home builts, it's all good!



I'm currently driving a new Honda Fit EV. It was the first one in the Capital District and was delivered on June 3rd, from Keeler Honda.

Thanks,

Mike Kamm

 

[blownb310]

OK, we're up to 14 members now and growing. Hopefully, we will have a few Focus EV driver's find us and join in. I'd like you all to meet a few of the EV people in our area and their cars.



Meet Harry Bilodeau and his wife. This is their Tesla Model S. This one is the P85 model, which means range is not an issue, as they can go 265 miles on a charge. The "85" stands for the big 85 kilowatt battery. Zero to 60 in 4.4 sec. Tesla sold 4,750 of the Model S during the last quarter. That's more than the 3,077 Mercedes S-Classes, 2,338 BMW 7-series, and 1,462 Audi A8s.





Under the hood is a decent size trunk! [Sorry for the overexposed picture.]



The undercarriage is very slick. The Model S has the lowest coefficient of drag of any current production car.

 

[blownb310]

The Mitsubishi i-Miev belongs to RPI and I snapped this picture last week at the new RPI Field House Chargepoint station [which became operation on May 18th.]



It actually might have been the first time two EV's charged at the same time in Troy!

 

[blownb310]

I'd like to welcome our newest member, Glenn from Hagaman [near Amsterdam] NY. He's been a Chevrolet Volt owner for about a year now and just purchased this new Mitsubishi i-Miev last month and has 1,200 miles on it already.



His got his 2012 Volt last year in May and has 15,000 miles on it so far, in which 13,800 miles are all electric miles. So between his wife and himself they tradeoff between the Volt and MiEV for most of their driving. Their Chevy pickup truck stays home unless something needs to be hauled.

 

[blownb310]

I decided to check the 1/4 mile performance data that Car and Driver reported in their instrumented tests by taking my 2013 Honda Fit EV to Lebanon Valley Dragway last month. It was calm with no wind, 70 degrees, ideal for testing.



The only change I made to the car was to increase the tire pressures to 44 psi [max pressure rating on the sidewall of the Michelins.] I was able to better their elapsed time by quite a bit, but the mph was spot on.



Run 1: 16.468 sec. @ 83.47 mph.

Run 2: 16.465 sec. @ 83.62 mph.



I snapped this pic just after the finish line.

I am quite happy but will give it another go in a few weeks to try to improve on it.

 

[blownb310]

Below are a few of the Albany Capital District EV Driver's Group cars that are coming to this event to date. Well, at least the ones I have picture of so far.

There will be at least 5 Leafs, 2 Volts, and an Accord plug-in as well.

How about some Focus EV's? Let's hear it New Yorkers.

 

[blownb310]

Here are some pics of the lawn signs and the 8' banner that I laid out and ordered this morning.

8' group banner

 

[georgek]

blownb310,

Great Pics!

That's great that you have organized this many EV's for your meet and greet .

 

[blownb310]

blownb310,

Great Pics!

That's great that you have organized this many EV's for your meet and greet .

Thank you George.

Here are a few more registrations that rolled in this week. The owners have sent me these pictures of their rides.

 

[blownb310]

Here's an update on the upcoming Capital District EV Driver's Group event at Guptill's on the 29th.

The event link is here: National Plug-in Day EV car event



Electric Vehicles registered so far:

4 Nissan LEAF
3 Honda Fit EV
3 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive
2 Tesla Model S
2 Chevrolet Volt
1 Mitsubishi i
1 Ford Fusion Energi
1 Honda Accord Plug-In
1 Ford Focus Electric
1 Harley Davidson EV conversion motorcycle

New things are coming together every day now. Now we're going to have electric RC cars races as well. We have mini orange pylons to set up a course. We'll have EV music playing, ice cream, EV test drives, and EV parade, and group photo shoot. I have solar equipment venders coming, and charging station vender displays as well.

Heck, it's not out of the question that we'll have some "Electric Slide" line dancing going on too.

 

[blownb310]

Well the Capital District EV Driver's Group's first ever EV event went great and we had 31 EV's in attendance! The above picture even made it to the top of the Sierra Club's blog entry for the National Plug-in Day weekend recap.



One of the seven Nissan Leafs in attendance.



Glenn Marcucio had the most impressive display by bringing both of his EV's plus a borrowed i-Miev dealership sign from Goldstien Mitsubishi. He actually hauled the 6.5' tall sign in the back of his Chevy Volt! His wife followed him to the event in their custom striped Mitsubishi i-Miev.



Tony Milillo's Mitsubishi i-Miev.



A few other pics from the event:




Above is Dr. Otward Mueller. His Smart ED was the very first one delivered in our area. He explained to me that his EV has an absolute zero carbon footprint, as he powers it completely off of the grid. He designed his own solar charger for the car. He works for MTECH Laboratories in Ballston Spa. This man is a genius and it was a pleasure to meet him.


John Razzano's poses next to his Ford C-Max Energi during the group photo.


Al and Annabelle Smith's stunning new Tesla Model S.


..... and Jodi Smits Anderson even brought out her Segway!


Ann Zownir brought this Smart ED demo out for test drives from Keeler's Smart Center of Latham.

Larry Eckhaus' Smart ED [Electric Drive] model. It's unusual, but that's how the hood opens!

We had 31 EV's in attendance. Here we are lining them up for the parade on Route 9.

 

[blownb310]

There was one Focus EV there driven by Mr. Spencer. It can be seen in the short video clip of the EV parade.

http://youtu.be/SZeHszFc3-g

 

[blownb310]

Yesterday I held the first drive event for my Capital District EV Driver's group, up to the summit of Mt. Greylock. This is the highest point in Massachusetts.



We had five EV's participate. Two Fit EV's, two Leafs, and one Smart ED. Our first order of business was to drive over to Bob's Country Kitchen in Lanesboro, MA for lunch.





The weather was perfect and we got some great pictures.











After enjoying the camaraderie at the summit and swapping stories, we all went our separate ways, but made a plan to reset our trip meters and try to record our rates of regeneration on the 8 mile decent to the lower visitor's center. Here's the raw data that I can offer from my Fit EV:

I left the peak with 29 miles remaining on my distance to empty readout. After the drive down to the lower visitor's center my display rose up to 54 miles remaining. The trip computer said I had traveled 8 miles, recaptured 7.9 miles worth of current, with just .1 mile of actual usage. From the Visitor center down and back home it read: 26 miles traveled, 7.8 miles recaptured, for a total of 18.4 miles of actual electrical usage. In my garage it showed 40 miles of range remaining with a 36% charge left. Travis' Fit EV had 25% charge remaining when he got home to Nassau. [He carried additional passengers up the mountain and lives a bit further away than I do.] This performance was a pleasant surprise for both of us, because we didn't know for sure that we could make the trip.



And I thought I might not be able to make the 75 mile round trip with the long, steep climbs and high elevations.

It turns out it was actually pretty easy.

 

[blownb310]

We are very pleased to announce this year's National Drive Electric Week event.

What: Our second annual all electric vehicle event.

When: Sunday, September 21, 2014

Where: Guptill's Arena/Coney Express 1085 Route 9 Cohoes, NY, [on the Cohoes/Latham border].

We look forward to surpassing last year's record of 31 EV's.

This facility has a huge fully paved lot that hosts car shows of over 500 vehicles, so space is not a problem. They also have a locally famous outdoor ice cream stand [Guptill's Coney Express] on the premises with ice cream available [as well as hot dogs.] There is fun for the whole family, as their giant indoor roller skating arena is the largest in the US.

Hours: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Please register your FFE's at https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=132

Don't worry that your plans might change at the last minute. The important thing is to get your name on our list and support EV's in our area.

Thank you,
Michael Kamm
Albany Capital District EV Driver's Group

 

[blownb310]

Electric Auto Awareness Day 2014 - Saratoga Auto Museum

The Albany Capital District EV Drivers will be holding an Electric Vehicle Lawn Show at the Saratoga Auto Museum. This is a great opportunity for the public to learn about and even experience electric automobiles in a beautiful park like setting. Their members are enthusiastic about their electric cars and are eager to inform the public of their advantages as daily transportation. Many will offer rides to interested spectators. This event is also open to other types of all-electric vehicles as well, including motorcycles, scooters, bicycles, low speed neighborhood vehicles, even Segways.

Join in for our EV parade through Saratoga Spa State Park!

Date: Saturday, August 23, 2014 [rain date Sunday, August 24th.]

Hours: 10 am to 3 pm.

Location: 110 Avenue of the Pines, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Contact: Michael Kamm
Send a Private message through this forum or call me at (518) 674-0520.

 

[blownb310]

The Saratoga event was terrific. Here are some pics we took.

 

[blownb310]

Please come out and join us for our second annual National Drive Electric Week event at Guptill's Arena in Latham [technically Cohoes].

https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=132

We will start the event by meeting 2 miles away at Falls View Park in Cohoes [231-341 N Mohawk St, Cohoes, NY 12047 for your GPS] for our EV parade. This will be at 10:30 am. At 10:50 am we will start the 2 mile parade on 9R [Manor Ave.] and make a grand entrance to our show at Guptill's at 11:00 am.

Confirmed new EV's available for test drives:

Mangino Mitsubishi - i-Miev EV
Fuccillo Nissan - LEAF EV
Keeler Mercedes - B-Class Electric Drive
Keeler BMW - i3
Smart Center of Latham - Smart ED convertible
Zero Motorcycles - three electric bikes, the S, DS, and FX models.

That's right, bring your helmet and license and ride a Zero EV motorcycle!

Please join us!

Day: Sunday, September 21, 2014

Time: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm

Location: Guptill's Arena/Coney Express
1085 Route 9
Cohoes, NY 12047

 

[blownb310]

The event was terrific and here are some pictures taken at the event, which boasted about 50 EV's during the course of the day.

 

[blownb310]

Upcoming events for 2015:

Then on Sunday, September 13th, we will be having our biggest event of the year, our 3rd annual National Drive Electric Week event at Guptill's.

https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=327

Please take a moment and sign up!

Mike

 

[blownb310]

Calling all Focus EV's!