North Texas Electric Auto Association

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DFW Solar Home Tour

Date : Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Time : 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Location : Entire DFW Area

Website : http://www.dfwsolarhometour.org/

Website : http://nationalsolartour.org/content/dfw-solar-home-tour-ntreg-txses

NTEAA was part of NTREG (North Texas Renewable Energy Group)  DFW Solar Home Tour.  The turn out at the homes were great and we were told that the number of visitors from last year were doubled.  That is a lot of people interested in Renewable Energy.  Of course several people’s bubbles were burst when they found out some of the costs behind solar PV.  But once they find out that doing upfront upgrades and changes to the house makes a big difference on how much solar PV you need.  It is a huge savings doing some cost savings up front when it comes to solar PV.  Here are some pictures from a few houses with EVs at them.

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Lake Wood Stock Neighborhood Festival

Date : Saturday, May 15th, 2011

Time : 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Location : Lakewood Village Shopping Center (Gaston & Abrams)

Address : 6400 Gaston Avenue Dallas, TX 75214-4022

Website : http://www.lakewoodstock.com/

This year we took our EVs  to the Rock N Roll Blvd. at this year’s Lakewoodstock on May 15^th 12 – 8pm.  This is our second year to attend this great neighborhood event. They set aside a car area that we shared with vintage American cars. Unfortunately we were so overrun with spectators that I never even got to see the other cars.

We had Mike Harris’ Ford pickup conversion, Mark’s NMG, Neal Farris’ VW Golf conversion and Neal’s Nissan Leaf, driven by Ron Swanson.

The NMG is a great draw at any event, but to have the Leaf at the same show made for some busy times. We had lots of really interested folks. The demographic of the East Dallas area makes for an eclectic crowd with many varied interest, including EVs. I talked to quite a few people who have ordered or about to order a Leaf. We all talked to many that wanted to do a conversion or find someone that could do it for them.

The Lakewood event is more music and arts than green tech, but it has that feeling of more earthy roots. We barely had time to eat lunch or sit down. That is a good thing, but Mike left us for some time and that made for a lot of work for three guys and 4 cars. Luckily Mike’s car is well labeled so that made for easier explanations.

People can’t stay away from Mark’s NMG! That car has more photos taken of it than any other car in town! Of course the Leaf got lots of surprised looks. Most had never seen one and were excited to see the first full scale production EV in this century. The VW Golf always draws interest and had many lookers.

Our display area was near the Lakewood Theatre stage, so we got to hear some great music for the entire day. We stayed until 5 and left as the real music party was just starting.

Great showing and we hope to be back for more next year with more Leafs and who knows what else!

Author Neal F.

Texoma Earth Day Festival

Date : Saturday, April  16th, 2011

Time : 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Location : Sherman Municipal Grounds

Address :  405 N. Rusk, Sherman Texas 75090

Website : http://www.earthdaytexoma.org/

NTEAA (Mike B. and Paul S.) was at the Texoma Earth Day Festival with several electric vehicles.  Mike B. worked with the Bohnam High School to bringing their electric vehicles that they made (Ford 9N Tractor and the newly converted Zero Turn Radius Lawn Tractor), Mike also brought his own Plug-In Toyota Prius that he has worked with the school’s students to build.

One guy drove up in a NEV that generated a lot of interest. It was a nice GEM car with solid doors. He parked next to us. He and his wife drove it as a daily driver in Sherman.

The Ford dealer was there and I quizzed them about the Ford electric. They didn’t have any details other than what’s on the web. The Ford is rumored to be cheaper than the Leaf with a 6 KW charger that should charge the batteries in four hours. They said they expect the car at the end of the year (meaning the beginning of next year).

Even the North Texas e-News publication did a piece on the Sherman Earth Day Festival and had pictures of the electric vehicles.  See this article here.

Plano ‘s Live Green Expo

Date : Saturday, April  16th, 2011

Time : 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Location : Plano Centre

Address :  2000 E Spring Creek, Plano, TX 75074

Website : http://www.livegreenexpo.net/home.html

As usual NTEAA went to Plano’s Live Green Expo and as usual, this event is just totally awesome!  It’s got something for everyone at the event.  This year they filled out the inside of the building and the entire west end parking lot with venders, booths, information, presentations, workshops, etc.  There was tents all over outside to help keep patrons some what in the shade.  NTEAA had a great turn out this year as we had a lot to show.  We had a Nissan Leaf, VW Golf, Meyers Motors NMG, Plug-in Toyota Prius, Pontiac Fiero, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Go Kart and Mower which were all electric or at least a plug-in.  So that is 8 vehicles that we had displayed at the event.  We were fortune enough that some neighboring venders did not show up so we go their tent area.  The grown ups seem to really flock around the Nissan Leaf  and the Plug-in Prius while the kids flocked around the electric go kart.

NTEAA was also asked to be a presenter on the “Info To Go” section inside of the Plano Centre.  Neal and Ron put together a Power Point presentation just for the Expo.  Even through it was hard to hear them, the presentation turned out great.

We were told that we had the largest attendance of people on the “Info To Go” presentations.  So that is great news that we were able to draw in a lot of people to the event for our presentation.  Neal and Ron talked about some of the newest technologies in the EV World and what the differences are on all of these latest Production EVs that were being released.

While at the Expo, we ran into North Texas Renewable Energy Group (NTREG) (http://www.txses.org/NTREG/), we discussed a future monthly meeting together at REI.  We will be meeting with NTREG in June (11th) and give a presentation and hopefully have a good collaboration of information.  Should be a good meeting for the general public to learn a lot of information.  They will have the normal info about renewable energy and we will have our info on electric vehicles (EV).

NRG’s eVgo Launch Event took place today to signify their launch of there Network of eVgo Charging Station in Northern Texas.  Here are a few comments from  NTEAA members with pictures of the event.

From Paul:
Just got back from the EVGO event. The first station was put in today at a Walgreens at Beltline and Monfort. The station has a level two and a high capacity DC charger for the Leaf. The plan is to have 70 charging stations in Dallas/Ft. Worth with half installed this summer. Very nice little party. On display were the Nissan Leaf Toyota Prius PHV, Mitsubishi iMiEV, Tesla Roadster, Smart fortwo Electric Drive, Chevolet Volt, Via VTrux (Converted Silverado Hybrid) and ….. Neil’s VW Golf conversion. Neil put on a good showing for the NTEAA. Our banner was also displayed on a high tech background. Speakers included Gov Rick Perry and Ft. Worth mayor Mike Moncrief. I thought Moncrief’s speech was the best.

I did learn that even if you are not paying a monthly due that you can call in and use a credit card for a onetime charge. I didn’t ask how much but I think if you’re in that situation it probably wouldn’t matter. They are also looking at adding 120 volt charging. The NTEAA was treated very well and I wish these people success.

But I couldn’t talk them out of the Leaf:(

Paul

Neal's VW Golf displayed at the NRG eVgo Charging Station Launch

From Neal :

I have to say the EVGO event was terrific. Paul and I were busy with more people and questions that we could handle. It was weird that everyone was in a suit! I am used to a more granola crowd interested in EVs!
They did a really cool set up with the cars dramatically lit. Under lit tables with clear acrylic bar stools and illuminated flower arrangements. Big white benches for seating and woven leather chairs. It was a very sleek show. There were 100 foot long video screens on both sides of the room showing scenes of Dallas and flashing logos of various sponsors as well as NTEAA.
They dropped some bucks! If they pull this off it will be great for all the EVers around.
I am glad I let them take the car, I think it really helped show a good face for the organization.
My car fit in with the color scheme perfectly. Ever car was white except the Tesla, black and a plug in Prius that was silver. Made for a dramatic look.
Maybe I’ll will make the news or the paper.
I’ll bring some pix to the meeting tomorrow.

Neal

Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair

Date :  September 24th – 26th, 2010 (Fri, Sat, and Sun)

Location : Fredericksburg, TX

Address : 101 East Main Street, Fredericksburg, Texas 78624  Mapit

Website : http://www.theroundup.org/

NTEAA had a lot of support at the Fredericksburg Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair.  John and Nancy B., Jared and Julie (and little Zachary), Mike, Clint, Paul, and John N. all went to the event.  Unfortunately only Mike and Clint were able to bring down the vehicles that Bonham ISD had converted.  But the EV Truck and Tractor showed very well.  The Fredericksburg area was very much into working the land and so the EV Tractor got a lot of attention.  So it was great that they brought down those two EVs.  There was other EAA’s there that brought some other vehicles, they were Alamo City EAA. and Austin EAA  It was great to talk and work with them at this event.  Austin EAA was giving rides in their EV 4 door Saturn.  The EV Demo board got used a lot and got lots of attention from the other EAA’s.  The guys at Alamo City EAA were really interested in making that same extender trailer that Mike made and we keep bringing up as a Club Project.  Several people also really liked the idea of the little EV Racers that we keep trying to do.  The Plug-in conversions were brought up a lot at the event.  It would have been nice to have an example of that at the event and more information on them.  So we need to look into having more information of Plug-in Hybrids.  We all took some time to walk around the event.  There was a lot of useful information at the event.  Not sure of the count of Exhibitors or Visitors but there was a whole lot of people who stopped by.

Dallas Green Festival

Date :  Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Time : 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM

Location : Texas Discovery Gardens at Fair Park

Address : 3601 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Dallas, T 75201

Today we were at the Dallas Green Festival in Dallas at Fair Park. Ron, Paul, John, Dex and myself (Jared) were there.  We had my Fiero there, Ron brought the electric mower, and Dex brought his EV Ranger.  As usual we talked to a lot of people at the event.  We picked a nice shady spot outside in front of the Teas Discovery Gardens Building.  The event was bigger this year and will probably continue to grow each year.  They had displays on the inside of the building an all over the grounds in the back.  We got to talk to a lot of interesting people there. The Smart Car club did a rally race starting from that location.  Paul and I were talking about this and this sounds like a lot of fun and we may try doing this some time for our group.  We didn’t get to spend much time wondering around the grounds,we had a fairly steady flow of people coming and looking at the cars.  We even learned about a local company that has converted several cars to be electric.  Hopefully we can do some thing with this company in the future.  We could probably learn a lot from each other.

Cisco Earth Day Celebration

Date :  Friday, September 17th, 2010

Time : 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Location : Cisco Campaus

Address : 2200 E. President George Bush Hwy, Richardson, TX  75082

Cisco had their 10th annual Earth Day Event for the Cisco Employees.  I (Jared) brought my Fiero EV to the event and had that displayed at the event.  Paul came and helped out with the questions that we got.  A lot of good questions from Engineers at Cisco.  It was good to talk to them all.  This year the event was even larger than last year, they had the entire parking lot full behind the building and they even had an over flow section that people were in.  They had a good time, they even got the VPs to do contests up on stage.  We hope to be able come again next year.

Saturday, July 24th 2010

NTEAA was at Bonham’s Heritage Day Festival.  Really it what Mike Barkley doing all of the work.  I (Jared) showed up at the end of the event and really only got  to help bring the vehicles back.  Mike setup at 6:00 AM and was there till 4:00 PM.  He had the Bonham EV Truck and EV Tractor at the festival.  He has a lot of people asking questions about both vehicles.  Several people were really surprised that their own town’s High School was building these electric vehicles.  I (Jared) drove the tractor back to the high school while Mike drove the truck back.  The tractor was really impressive, it is hard to get an idea of the quality of the build from pictures.  But it really is built very well.  It takes off in 3rd gear like it is nothing, you actually have to be careful to not take off too hard because the front will start coming up into the air.  Mike warned me of that and I took it really easy, it drove nice and was nice not having to shift the tractor.  I was a little bit surprised on the motor noise but I guess that is to be expected, it is just out in the open.  Mike said he talked to a lot of people and had a pretty good time.  As usual we all hope that having public appearances helps promotes EVs and their usages.

Date :  June 19th, 2010 (Saturday)

Time : 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Location : REI

Address : 4515 LBJ Fwy, Dallas TX 75244   Map It

Website : http://www.meetup.com/alternativeenergy-153/

NTEAA was invited to do a small presentation for the Dallas Alternative Energy Group in Dallas.  Several of the NTEAA members worked together to make a presentation to give to them.  Jared gave the presentation and Paul, John and Neil came to help with questions and information.   There was a lot of good interaction with the group and a lot of good questions.  We had Jared’s Fiero EV there and Paul also brought one of his EV scooters.    Paul also brought the demo display board.  The presentation lasted around 60 minutes, and then adjourned to the parking lot to see the Fiero EV and had further discussions of the electric cars.  Everything went pretty well and I (Jared) believe they learned a lot and I hope we get invited back to do future presentations.