Plug In America has just released "Charged Up!: The Definitive Guide
to Plug-In Electric Vehicles, 2013. This fourth edition's 68 pages
showcases 17 production vehicles. Thanks to the talented and tireless
team that assembled the great stories and superb photos -- and ads
from many in the industry. We encourage all plug-in drivers to keep
some copies in your car, and give them to people you know who are
thinking about buying a PEV. We reprint below -- after the table of
contents for the issue and information on our how to get it  -- "A
Plugged In Life," our article telling the story of how we spent a
decade going from CalCars.org to DrivingElectric.org. (This is our
second message today; the first was about the Electric Auto
Association, the other national plug-in organization.)

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting will also be
viewable at http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there you can
add CalCars-News to your RSS feed.)

Electronic PDF version of Charged Up! is FREE to Plug In America
members (join for as little as $25) or get print copies@$5 (less for
bulk orders) from:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2711/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=553&t=&s\
tore_item_KEY=4566

Partial Table of Contents

5 Welcome by Chad Schwitters

6 The Story of the Chevy Volt by Bob Lutz: Former GM chairman and
"Father of the Volt" recounts the development of the PHEV and the
technology that will take us into the future.

8 Achieving Efficiency by Greg "Gadget" Abbott: The easiest way to
find more energy is to waste less. Gadget tells us how.

10 A Plugged-In Life by Felix Kramer: EV driver and advocate Felix
Kramer works to get "butts in seats."

13 National Plug In Day by Zan Dubin Scott: The second annual event
was a big success nationwide.

15 The Former Secretary and His LEAF by Marc Geller:  Former
Secretary of State George P. Shultz is a Nissan LEAF driver. We sat
down with him to talk about his love for his car and the environment.

16 The 2013 Car Showcase: From the LEAF to the Spark to the car of
the year. There is a car for everyone

34-53 Testimonials

56 Incentives
59 Glossary
60 Resources
63 Plug In @ Work

A plugged-in life
We plug in our gadgets -- why not our cars?
By Felix Kramer

My experiences with driving electric go back to my childhood. I
remember bumper cars at amusement parks, and electric toys that ate
up so many throwaway batteries we bought them in bulk. Now advanced
rechargeable batteries power our phones, cameras, tablets, and
computers. It feels natural to plug in every thing in every day.

Is it a big leap to add cars to the list? How do we think about
plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs)? For a long time, PEVs seemed
marooned in pigeonholes like lame (underpowered, strange-looking,
less reliable) or exotic (costly, made by small companies, for niche
markets). But now they've really arrived. Buyers can shop for a
growing range of models.

Now PEVS are starting to prove they can actually be better choices
than gas-guzzlers! Journalists are handing out Car of the Year awards
to many all-electrics and plug-in hybrids. In their reviews and
comparisons, PEVs are often tops in customer satisfaction,
acceleration, driver amenities, and total lifetime cost of ownership.
Industry analysts predict broad adoption can follow, as high initial
costs come down.

Buying a PEV is no longer a leap of faith or a noble sacrifice. We
can sync our driving needs with performance levels. They can be every
family's second car. And the only car for millions of urban and
suburban households -- with a rental, carshare, or friendly swap for
special purpose trips. But what will it take for most drivers to
understand that?

The "aha" moment for people who read about these awards and see ads,
and are curious to learn more about PEVs, comes when they try out the
cars at showrooms and events, or when a driver offers them a chance
get in and take a spin.My own PEV story follows the mantra: it takes
getting "butts in seats" to make all the difference. In 1999 I
happened upon a few dozen GM EV1s at a hotel. I stopped to look, but
didn't try one -- and I missed their significance. In 2002, I first
drove a hybrid. It didn't plug in, but I was impressed that when its
engine turned off at stoplights, it started again quietly with
electricity. The following year, I drove in a Chevy Suburban that
Prof. Andy Frank at UC-Davis had retrofit into a plug-in hybrid.
Then, plug-in advocate Paul Scott gave me the full electric
experience in his Toyota RAV4 EV. Test drives won me over, motivating
me to do all I could so anyone could try out a plug-in.

That led me to a thrilling five-year stretch when CalCars.org and
partner startups converted hybrids. We put hundreds of plug-ins on
the road and gave thousands of neighbors, auto industry insiders,
engineers, environmentalists, business executives, elected officials,
journalists, and other thought-leaders the opportunity to say, "Wow!"
-- and then ask, "If garage engineers and small companies can improve
hybrids, why won't automakers produce cars with plugs?"

We took cars with giant "100+MPG" signs to conferences and car shows,
brown-bag lunches at Silicon Valley companies, even to Washington,
DC. We brought along a great prop -- a yellow "dongle" that plugged
in to a standard 120-volt outlet. Taken up and used as a symbol at
legislative hearings and many events, the dongle became more powerful
than we'd expected, proving we already had infrastructure everywhere.
At the same time, advocates organized Don't Crush and then Plug In
America, moving automakers to build EVs. And we saw a direct
connection between our Johnny Appleseed efforts and carmakers'
decisions to build the Chevy Volt, the Prius Plug-in, the Ford C-Max
Energi and other plug-in hybrids.

The moment of understanding

Once you've driven a plug-in, you get what's called the "EV grin." In
my family, we feel punished when we can't drive our Volt and Leaf --
we can't wait to get out of gas-jail.Of course, we also have other
big reasons to fuel our cars with cheaper, cleaner, domestic
electricity. I sometimes wear a T-shirt I call my "Petrocide"
T-shirt. A stick figure beside a fuel pump is blowing out his brains
with a gasoline nozzle. Shocked people used to caution me about
delivering such a provocative message. But I haven't heard that since
the BP Gulf blowout and Hurricane Sandy. PEV drivers want to get cars
off oil to improve energy security.

Many go further, recognizing that unless we go beyond fossil fuels
ASAP, coal, oil, and gas will destroy our world. Plug-in cars plus
"negamiles" (reducing vehicle miles through mass transit and driving
less) and a zero-carbon power grid, can start us down that road.

Drivers' unique contributions

PEV drivers welcome every chance to talk about their cars, which is
fortunate, because buying or leasing a PEV is just the start of our
public engagement. Why the urgent push to spread the word and share
the driving experience? Because the success of plug-in cars is not
guaranteed. For instance, if the $2,500/$7,500 federal tax credit is
defunded, it will significantly affect sales. Building a pipeline of
demand will shore up support for the tax credit while strengthening
the resolve of carmakers to produce more PEVs.

Carmakers have built really wonderful PEVs, but have often fallen
short in promoting them. We realized something was very wrong when it
took more than a year after the first big-company PEVs hit the market
in late 2010 for their ads to show regular people loading, driving,
talking about them. (Could it be because some in the industry or
their marketing firms haven't had their own EV grin moments?) A funny
thing has happened to many PEV drivers. We've discovered we're
selling cars! People tell us, "Because of you, I went out and bought
one!"  And we've realized we could help dealers too -- easing their
load and often, because we know our cars' ins-and-outs, are better
able to answer questions than salespeople.

Carmakers have noticed and graciously acknowledged drivers'
importance to sales. When Brendan Jones, director of Nissan LEAF
marketing & sales strategy, spoke at the 2012 National Plug In Day in
San Francisco, he turned heads talking about the driver community.
(The seven-minute video at http://youtu.be/Hkey12m0xhg is worth watching.)

He said:

"I will tell you after 25 years of experience in the business, I've
never found this much energy, enthusiasm, entrepreneurial spirit and
emotion surrounding one vehicle as I have with the Nissan Leaf and
all electric vehicles in general. There's [no] more excitement and
passion about changing the way we move, about doing something for the
environment, about getting the country off foreign oil, etc., than
there is around the EV movement. It's something different. And it's
the first time people can own a car and actually feel good about what
they're doing with it, and that's outstanding."

"And when you hear that enthusiasm coming from the public, it can't
help but rub off. And what I mean by that is more of our sales come
from you guys than come from our sales and marketing efforts. And for
that again I have to thank you, because when you go into a parking
lot, or you drive through your neighborhood, and you talk about the
vehicle with so much enthusiasm and passion, that just helps to sell
cars. It makes my job very, very easy."

New ways to connect drivers and EV-curious people have come up; many
drivers enthusiastically and unselfishly have fun showing their cars!
What do you get when you mash up local PEV driver groups, the
Electric Auto Association, Plug in America, and CalCars with
Meetup.com and Match.com? DrivingElectric.org!

It's connecting everybody. It's a website where drivers can create
profiles, upload pictures, and share stories. People hear about it
from drivers or flyers on PEV windows. Via an online map, they
connect with a PEV driver who lives or works near them. That way they
get answers to questions, test rides and drives, and even do short car swaps.

With DrivingElectric as a "utility" for companies and non-profits in
the plug-in vehicle community, along with a range of other efforts by
advocates and drivers, we could double the demand for PEVs in 2013.
What a triumph that would be for drivers and for us all!

Felix Kramer, a San Francisco Bay Area cleantech entrepreneur and
advocate, founded CarlCars.org in 2002 and DrivingElectric.org in 2012.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
Felix Kramer , Founder
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
http://drivingelectric.org
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

CalCars' first Prius, converted to plug in by advocates in 2004,
updated in 2010 with a commercial system, was destroyed in a fire on
Wednesday. It's a sad end for a vehicle that gave hundreds of public
officials their first opportunities to drive electric and helped
inspire a campaign that brought us the Chevy Volt, the Prius Plug-in
and other plug-in hybrids and extended-range electric vehicles. It's
also a huge personal setback for its owner, Ron Gremban, CalCars
Technology Lead.

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting will also be
viewable at http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there you can
add CalCars-News to your RSS feed.)

The New York Times story below, by Bradley Berman, founder of
HybridCars.com and PlugInCars.com, explains the situation. Because of
the extent of the damage, there's much we don't know and may never
know about the cause of the fire. Here are a few preliminary broad points:

* It's fortunate that no humans were injured, especially Ron's
partner, Lynne McAllister, who discovered the fire and notified the
fire department; it's very sad that one of their cats died and the
other is missing. And the damage to their home is a heavy financial
setback from Ron and Lynne.

* This incident has NO implications for mass-produced plug-in
vehicles. Ron's car used nickel-metal hydride batteries, the same
battery type used in the original Prius and in other conventional
hybrids for the past 15 years. Today's production PEVs use
lithium-ion batteries. This commercial conversion did not use the
current industry-standard J-plug found in all the fully validated and
tested cordsets in production vehicles.

* What happened can be put in perspective when compared to the
internal combustion industry's record, chronicled by the National
Fire Protection Association: from 2003-2007, an annual average of
287,000 vehicle fires, 480 civilian deaths, and $1.3 billion in
direct property damage. http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=1123

* In 2004-2005, our message was that amateurs and engineers working
in a garage could show how we could have cars that plug in NOW, with
batteries that were "good enough to get started" and would improve.
We encouraged the media and the public to imagine how much better and
safer they  would be when mass-produced by automakers. These
conversions drove home the benefits to drivers, the economy, the auto
industry, the environment, and national security. (This story is well
told in early news stories http://www.calcars.org/kudos.html and
http://www.calcars.org/early-news.html ,  and chapters in dozens of
books, especially in Sherry Boschert's "Plug-In Hybrids, the Cars
that Will Recharge America" http://www.calcars.org/books.html .)

* This first conversion and many dozens more completed through our
Open Source Prius+ project proudly announced that they got "100+MPG"
of gasoline, plus a few cents a mile of "cleaner, cheaper,
domestically produced" electricity. They and about 1,000 other
conversions by small companies had a giant impact. They helped reach
the goals of CalCars, the Electric Auto Association, Plug In America,
and others: raising awareness, getting opinion leaders the
opportunity to experience driving electric, and encouraging carmakers
to mass-produce all types of plug-in vehicles.

* 80,000 plug-in cars have been sold since the end of 2010
http://www.electricdrive.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/20952/pid/20952 .
And it's been clear for some time that the era of small-scale hybrid
conversions was drawing to a close.  We still hope that more
companies will jump into a larger opportunity -- converting tens of
millions of internal combustion engines to plug in, an idea we
promoted heavily from 2009-2011
http://www.calcars.org/ice-conversions.html . And we still have much
to do to bring PEVs into the mainstream, through DrivingElectric.org
and other efforts supported by CalCars, EAA, PIA and allies.

* Finally, about Ron. He's a talented and resourceful engineer, a
good writer, and a smart strategist. CalCars, founded in 2002, got
its most important jump-start when he came on in 2004 and led the
conversion project and many subsequent programs. He devoted his life
to this effort from then until he got his Chevy Volt at the end of
2010. Due to budget constraints at CalCars, he was largely a
volunteer. Ron's costs in rebuilding his home and replacing damaged
possessions and his car will not be fully covered by insurance. We
have already received inquiries from people who would like to help.
If you would like to donate directly, please reply to this message or
write to sponsor (at) calcars.org .

Thanks for all the support and help this community has provided over the years.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/fire-destroys-a-pioneering-plug-in-pr\
ius-conversion/

March 7, 2013, 6:00 PM

Fire Destroys a Pioneering Plug-In Prius Conversion
By BRADLEY BERMAN

A 2004 Toyota Prius that had been converted to run on grid-supplied electricity
caught fire at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night in Corte Madera, Calif., according to The
Marin Independent Journal and other Bay Area news outlets. Nobody was hurt, but
the fire killed a cat and caused about $250,000 worth of damage to the owner's
condominium.

The cause of the fire was unknown.

The vehicle, which had about 50,000 miles on the odometer and was owned by Ron
Grembam, played a crucial part in the history of plug-in electric vehicles. In
2004, Mr. Grembam said, it was converted to use a plug -- and an added battery
pack larger than the one provided as standard by Toyota – so that it could run
for a number of miles purely on electricity. At the time of the conversion,
Toyota and other automakers were not making plug-in hybrid cars and expressed
doubt about the technical and market viability of the technology.

"The message we had from the start was that if a group of amateurs and engineers
could make the technology work in a garage, then the major automakers could make
it much better and safer," said Felix Kramer, the founder of CalCars, the
plug-in car advocacy group that organized the conversion and a subsequent
campaign to get car companies to produce electric cars and plug-in hybrids. In
an interview Thursday, Mr. Kramer added, "This unfortunate fire unequivocally
has nothing to do with today’s production plug-in hybrids."

Nearly 40,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles were sold in the United States in 2012.
The market includes the Chevrolet Volt, Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid, Ford C-Max
Energi and Fisker Karma. Honda and Ford will introduce new plug-in hybrids this
year.

Mr. Grembam, who is also associated with CalCars, could not explain the cause of
the fire, which had occurred while the vehicle was being charged. "It's not
obvious," he said. "The car exploded and apparently destroyed all the evidence."
The vehicle was using a $5,000 Brusa charger plugged into a 120-volt outlet and
was able to pull only about eight amps, Mr. Grembam said. "That shouldn't be
enough to overheat the battery pack. That deepens the mystery."

The fire was controlled in about 30 minutes. The exact cause is being
investigated by the Corte Madera Fire Department, Mr. Grembam said.

The Prius was originally converted by CalCars to use grid-supplied electricity
in 2004. In 2010, the vehicle's plug-in system was replaced by equipment
supplied by the Plug-In Conversions Corporation of Poway, Calif., near San
Diego. In the conversion, the existing batteries were replaced with a
6.1-kilowatt-hour nickel-metal-hydride pack, as well as a charger, control
electronics and a plug. The conversion was intended to increase fuel efficiency
above 100 miles per gallon. Since 2008, Plug-in Conversions has performed about
70 without any problems, said Kim Adelman, the company's chief executive.

Mr. Grembam said: "This incident very well might make a dent in aftermarket
conversions. It would give anybody pause. But I'm hoping it doesn't affect the
market for O.E.M. plug-in vehicles."

He said that major car manufacturers use large teams of engineers to make sure
every safety factor is considered, but it's more challenging with one person or
a small team. "It's possible for things to get missed," he said.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
Felix Kramer , Founder
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
http://drivingelectric.org
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

Here's what we've found out so far about the fire in Ron's converted
Prius and how to donate. On a second topic, we're also including a
pointer to a new article we co-authored to encourage
environmentally-minded people to buy plug-in cars.

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting will also be
viewable at http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there you can
add CalCars-News to your RSS feed.)

THANKS for all the notes of sympathy and support. Ron continues to
respond to CalCars-related issues and topics (especially involving
batteries); he works at an energy startup; and now he and Lynne
McAllister need to recover from the major damage to their house, well
beyond what insurance will pay, is a major burden.

TO CONTRIBUTE: You can go to http://www.PayPal.com (even if you don't
have a PayPal account, you can use a credit card) and send money to
gremban@... -- many thanks in advance.

WHY IT'S "GREEN" TO BUY A NEW PLUG-IN CAR: When mass-produced plug-in
cars hit the market, we expected environmentalists to be among the
early adopters, given the immediate and long-term climate and energy
security benefits of driving electric. We found that most were
inclined to wait, thinking that was the greenest thing to do. We
think if their concerns are answered, environmentalists could be
charged up about getting rid of their gas-guzzlers.

We recently co-authored an article, "Good and Green Reasons to
Consider an Electric Car this Year," with Max Baumhefner, Sustainable
Energy Fellow and attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
You can read and comment at
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mbaumhefner/good_and_green_reasons_to_cons.htm\
l
and also at
http://www.cleanfleetreport.com/good-green-reasons-electric-car-year/
and
http://theenergycollective.com/maxbaumhefner/195816/good-and-green-reasons-consi\
der-electric-car-year
. Please send it around!

BONUS TALKING POINTS on this subject that didn't make it into the
short article:
* You know the saying, "give away the razor, sell the blades?" In
terms of energy used, that's how cars work. It's a secret for most
people that the energy "embedded" in manufacturing is usually well
below 25% of the total energy a car uses in its lifetime! (This is
also a reason why we hope companies start, sooner, not later, to
provide safe, affordable, certified conversions of gasoline-powered
vehicles to EV and PHEV.)
* If you take mass transit, bike, or walk everywhere except for a
short trip once a week, you could justify keeping a clunker. But if
you think you're destined to make the switch eventually, you might be
smart to trade up sooner.  And when you do upgrade, know that while
someone else drives your old car, you're getting companies and
suppliers in Michigan or Tennessee or Europe or Asia to build fewer
gas-guzzlers and more plug-ins.

BACK TO RON'S CAR: WHAT HAPPENED: Here are Ron's reports about the
findings so far for the fire described at
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/1159.html . As we mentioned then,
this car has been the test-bed for multiple conversions and battery
projects -- so it is a considerable distance from the car as it was
originally produced.

MARCH 8: I was with the fire investigator today.  With a saw and
crowbar, he removed the rear deck cover over the battery.  We found
the battery intact -- and it appeared fine. A cable still drew sparks
when brushed against the vehicle's frame.  There will be a more
thorough analysis in a warehouse over the next two months or so.

MARCH 12: It has occurred to me that because the conversion battery
was electrically isolated from the chassis, arcing to ground requires
two separate faults -- and one fault would have triggered a
Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC), making the vehicle undrivable. This
didn't happen before the fire. (Alternately, the arcing we saw could
have come from the accessory battery with a single fault.)

OFFICIAL INVESTIGATOR: Dennis Field,  certified fire inspector at
Fire Cause Analysis, says, "As of this date and time the actual cause
of this fire is under investigation, pending further examination of
physical evidence, data, and interviews and use of the scientific
method, to identify all potential ignition sources, and also the
elimination of non-causes. There are currently several hypothesis
which need further examination, testing and either confirmation or
elimination.  We simply do not have enough information at this time
for any speculation."

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --
Felix Kramer , Founder
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
http://drivingelectric.org
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- --

A month ago, Felix Kramer, Founder of CalCars.org and DrivingElectric, gave a 15
-minute update to the annual meeting of the Electric Auto Association, held
February 23, 2013 in Palo Alto, with an in-person audience and participants
online and by phone links. Reading the transcript is the best way for plug-in
car drivers and advocates to find out about importance of getting "Butts In
Seats," about how far DrivingElectric has come so far, and where it hopes to go
with more support -- which we hope is forthcoming in the near future.

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting will also be viewable at
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there you can add CalCars-News to
your RSS feed.)

Here's a copy-edited version of the talk, with some of the emphasis in all-caps,
augmented by some web links. You can download a 9MB PDF of the entire meeting's
slides, including informative graphics about the EAA's membership, at
http://www.electricauto.org/news/117552/Annual-Members-Meeting-Presentation-slid\
es.htm . Felix's slides are #49-52 of 67.

FELIX KRAMER: Thanks everybody. Driving Electric is a chapter of the Electric
Auto Association. It's also co-sponsored by Plug In America, the Electric Auto
Association and CalCars. And basically, it's a place where EV-curious people can
meet plug-in drivers to get information, get a ride -- anything they want. I
want to talk a little about that today, and I want to talk a little more broadly
as well.

The first thing I want to say is, We have this huge opportunity NOW. We have the
cars and the organizational structure to change the game. And my concern is not
why did we go down from 1,800 to 1,500 members -- my concern is where are the
80,000 drivers? Why don't we have tens of thousands of drivers who are members
of EAA and Plug In America? That's the opportunity.

Now, Driving Electric is a GIFT for this whole community, for every carmaker,
for every advocacy organization, because it's a TOOL. It's a way for people to
find you -- see that little map on the top there [http://drivingelectric.org
home page] -- for people to find you, the EV driver, and say "Hey, help me out
here. Give me a ride, answer my question, whatever it is".

So I see 500 EVs registered on the EAA website. There ought to be at least 800
if the numbers are right. There's three or four hundred at least EAA members who
haven't bothered to put their car down on the EAA website. And many of them
haven't joined Driving Electric, and I hope they will.

And when I go to an industry event, every time someone asks (luckily), "How many
people in this audience drive an plug-in car every day?" Twenty, thirty percent
say they do. In this room, how many of you drive a plug-in car every day? Ok,
that's about 70 percent, and nationally, if half of EAA members have cars, it's
more than 50 percent... that's our opportunity!

So how many of you have given one person a test drive? Everybody! How many of
you have given ten people a test drive? Only about half of you, that's a little
bit of an issue...

How many of you people have gotten one person to buy a car? That's great! We've
got about 30 or 40 cars that are directly the result of people in this room.
Some people have done more than that.

Let's think about what happened with Tesla the last three or four weeks. We've
been sitting, watching, you know -- laughing, commenting -- maybe we weren't
happy about what Elon Musk did in the beginning, in inviting them to do this
winter drive; maybe we weren't happy about his accusations on Twitter. But it
turns out it was a lot of great free publicity. And it was the opportunity for
CNBC, CNN, Consumer Reports and a whole bunch of independent drivers to go and
do the same drive, and show that it was easy and possible.

So, something happened there -- and it happened because there are A LOT OF
PRODUCTION CARS ON THE ROAD, and people are taking advantage of them. And that's
our opportunity! And if you want to get a laugh, look at
http://www.solidstategroup.com/page/6277/a-review-of-the-new-fangled-petrol-powe\
red-car which has a very funny description of the problems of a Porsche doing a
drive -- you know, finding enough room for the luggage, you know, the noise...
all sorts of funny things about that.

But we have these amazing vehicles now, and we're not taking advantage of them
enough. That box of Plug In America's Annual Guides -- that ought to be empty
when Marc Geller leaves the place today. Every single one of you should have a
couple of them in your car! It's five bucks -- you can give it away to somebody
you think is a good prospect, or give it to your neighbors. Have one in your car
and replace it with another one. [PDF version of Charged Up! The Definitive
Guide to Plug-In Vehicles is FREE to Plug In America members (join for as little
as $25) or get print copies@$5 (less for bulk orders) from:
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2711/shop/item.jsp?storefront_KEY=553&t=&s\
tore_item_KEY=4566 ]

Ok, so that's my rant. Last night, I thought "I'm giving a normal speech about
Driving Electric" -- I'm going to talk about it, But really, the issue is, Let's
take advantage of this GIANT OPPORTUNITY.

So you see up there, that's what our home page looks like right now. It's got a
map, and a photo of 'kvietor' with his EV grin and his Tesla Model S
http://www.drivingelectric.org/users/kvietor . We have about 1,000 drivers and
EV-curious people signed up. We have 397 who have entered their vehicle and
their location, so they can be found on that map, and a few internationally. We
have 888 drivers in all. That means some people aren't on the map because they
haven't put their location or they haven't put their vehicle type.

Everyone says what they're willing to do -- give a test drive, lend a car, or
whatever it is. And we have 111 EV-curious people. We haven't been pushing too
hard to get the EV-curious people on, until we have a lot of drivers.

Ok, so we're co-sponsored by these two organizations, and they're not only
co-sponsoring it, they're promoting it! So that slide is the current issue of
[EAA's monthly] Current EVents -- the lead article is about us, and this is the
postcard and we've got hundreds of that postcard in the back. You know, pick
some of them up, take them, put 'em on your windshield, so when somebody walks
by your car they can pick this up and they can contact you. Soon we hope to have
QR codes for each driver so somebody can scan it with their phone and find you.
There are a lot of opportunities here.

And thanks. On Current EVents, especially for [EAA Chair & Editor] Ron Freund;
Ron is the unheralded heroic person who makes this Current EVents happen every
month -- it's amazing, how much work he does. And thanks to [EAA Membership
Secretary] Will Beckett , who just crunches those numbers and delivers all this
stuff. It's a huge amount of work. And [EAA Treasurer] Howard Clearfield -- when
we talk about virtual banking, how easy it is... it means it's easy because all
of the information comes to Howard, who is not virtual, and has to do all the
work and get those checks out and everything. But thanks to all the people who
are giving huge amounts of time. If everybody in this room were doing that much,
we would have so much more going on.

And on the right of that slide, that's my story in the Plug In America Guide.
And if you want to look at either of those two things and send them around or
find out how to get the publications, go to the CalCars News Archive
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/1157.html and
http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/1158.html

So, our story up till now. We built the site between June and September,
spending about half of the money we raised on technology. The money came,
$11,200 from EAA, $3,800 from CalCars and, thanks to the Electrification
Coalition, $25,000, plus some private donations. So that's what we used to make
this happen, with volunteers and one almost-full-time staff person and another
staff person

We ran out of money in December, and our project director and our marketing
manager had to leave. We've gotten a commitment for additional fund from the
Electrification Coalition -- a substantial amount of Electrification Coalition
funds -- and we're hoping for a renewal from the Electric Auto Association.

And in my view, we shouldn't be saving our funds at this point for a rainy day
-- this is our day; this is our time to figure out strategically how to use all
our cars and all our resources. And if we want to figure out a way to get EAA to
build EAA, we're in Silicon Valley -- everybody knows 'business-speak', it's the
VALUE PROPOSITION! We need to deliver the value proposition to our members and
the people they talk to.

And the value proposition has to be: join EAA because it's a way for you to be
an active advocate for plug-in vehicles. EAA makes it easier to happen; EAA and
Plug In America and Driving Electric all are the TOOLS that we use. And you
know, that's where I think we should be putting our resources at this point.

So we now have a plan for what we're going to do. For a while, we're going to be
essentially all-volunteer, except for technology. In the future we think -- when
we succeed, when we have thousands of cars up there and constant interactions --
we will be showing the carmakers that we're actually helping them sell cars. And
then we hope we'll be able to get the price of one car per year from each
automaker. At that point we'll be able to do a lot of marketing.

But for right now, here's what we're doing. That's the Tesla Motors Club
[slide]. The Tesla Model S has been out for one year. It's made an incredible
change because we finally have a no-compromise vehicle, a vehicle that's
competitive in price with the kinds of cars that people buying would consider.
And that everyone who gets in says "this is the best car ever". That's amazing,
and the Car-of-the-Year awards and all those kinds of things -- that is our
signature car at this point. That's the lead, and there are some other great
cars.

But we decided to make a little push on the Model S. We've come up with the idea
for a Tesla Model S AMBASSADORS program. And this is the idea of rounding up a
lot of Model S drivers, who have time (many of them), who are entrepreneurial
(many of them), and who can afford to volunteer some time. And get them to
organize, in their communities, to become EV Ambassadors, and say to their local
city council and local elected representatives and state legislators, and
community leaders, "I want to give all of you a drive in the Model S".

And if we don't have enough Model S's, we give them the other hot new cars, the
BMW and the Ford, and the "old" Volt and LEAF and the other cars that people
know of for two or three years. And do this in collaboration with the local EAA
chapters in every community. Let's figure out strategically, who are the 50 or
100 people in each community who need to get a drive in this car so it changes
the way they think about EVs?

So I posted something at Tesla Motors Club website
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/13513-Invitation-Become-Model-S-qu\
ot-Ambassadors-quot-in-Your-Community
  in the Model S area, which, in less than a year has twice as many messages as
in three or four or five years for the Roadster. It turns out Tesla Model S
people love to talk about their cars. And they're very gregarious -- they love
to lend their cars out, and so forth.

We invited people to become Model S Ambassadors. And at the same time, we
finally implemented SEARCH on our website. So for instance you can now search
within 200 miles of Sarasota Florida, see how many Model S's, and look! Seven of
them have signed up at Driving Electric. And we have more than 50 who signed up
as a result of this solicitation, nationally, and said they want to be part of
this project. And by the way, that's a screen shot on a tablet. So this site
works on a phone OK, on a tablet pretty well, as well as on a computer.

So we've got 58 Tesla Model S drivers signed up now, out of about 2,650 that
were delivered in 2013. That's our first project, to get that off the ground
with EAA volunteers and with Tesla Model S owners.

The next project we're going to do is reporting on interactions, contacts made
within the site: someone finds someone -- I'm EV-curious and I connect with you,
and you let me get a drive or whatever, a week later each of them gets an email
asking, "How did it go? What happened?", and we'll be able to start documenting
the contacts and hopefully the sales, and so forth.

One more thing is CAR-SHARING. Car-sharing is a great extension of Driving
Electric, because it's a way for people who don't have an EV to try an EV. Right
now, you can sign up your EV and we encourage you to sign up with Getaround and
RelayRides. RelayRides is national, and Getaround is in parts of California,
Portland, Austin and Chicago, but they're going to be expanding.

What GetAround has that RelayRides doesn't have is that you can put your more
expensive car on there -- your Model S or your BMW -- and so you can lend your
car to someone knowing that it's protected by GetAround's insurance policy, not
your policy. And we invited all of our drivers about a month ago to sign up with
a special log-in so that when they sign up it's recognized that they're part of
Driving Electric, and Driving Electric will get a small commission their signing
up or from any rentals that happen. For Getaround, start at
http://mbsy.co/getaround/41848 and for RelayRides, begin at http://bit.ly/RlYK9o

And we're going to announce that further. We're in contact with both of these
organizations. As a result of our bugging Getaround, finally we have something
coming next week, which we've been waiting for. When you do a search, and you
ask for a filter, there'll be an EV filter in there, so you can, say, I'm on
Getaround.com or their app, and I'll be able to search and find an EV.

And it's because they need us, they need our cars -- don't forget, they're in
competition with ZipCar [acquired by Avis], so they need us. And EVs can provide
the distinguishing characteristic giving an advantage for the car-sharing
organizations. So, we want to work on that.

The last thing we're doing is we hope to be in cooperation with some of the
official industry efforts. For example, Electric Drive Transportation
Association has http://www.GoElectricDrive.com , a website focused on drivers,
and Edison Electric put together http://www.TheElectricGeneration.org a couple
of weeks ago.

These don't yet have the grass-roots energy of our organizations. So let's
figure out a way to connect them, and to cooperate. And you know, in my best
hopes, they would be SPONSORING these efforts! You know, with grassroots
efforts, not with official ad-agencies.

And there's a lot of funds coming out from public agencies for EV education.
Let's get those funds, nationally. And if we energize this organization, we can
deliver that value that will give us five or ten or fifteen thousand new
members. And at that point we'll be a real organization, that is calibrated to
where we are with tens of thousands of production vehicles out there.

The last thing is, we're now looking for volunteers. We're looking for a
part-time Project Director -- we'll be able to pay that person something -- and
we're looking for volunteers to make all this happen.

So I want to thank everybody in this room who's believed in this concept, who
has supported it over time, and hope that we can really make it happen in the
future. Thank you. [Applause]

[One follow-up audience question for Felix was about associating Driving
Electric with the annual National Plug In Day.]

Felix: Absolutely. We want to connect it with National Plug In Day -- we
launched at the 2012 National Plugin Day, and we want to organize this so that
those drivers all show up at those events.

[And thanks to the ever-enthusiastic Michael Bender, CalCars and DrivingElectric
system administrator, for the transcription!]

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Felix Kramer , Founder
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
http://drivingelectric.org
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