Tesla-S-owner

The world is filled with “network effects” (Wikipedia article).  Network effects are typically positive, resulting in a given user deriving more value from a product as more users join the same network.  If more and more users purchase VHS videocassette players, this prompts more film distributors to publish movies in VHS format.  This in turn prompts more users to purchase VHS videocassette players, and so on, leading perhaps to the demise of the Betamax format for videocassettes.  Today’s announcement that General Motors has agreed to partner with the Tesla supercharging network in the US comes on the heels of Ford’s announcement a couple of weeks ago that it had agreed to partner with the Tesla supercharging network in the US.  What factors probably contributed to these recent developments?  What does this mean for the future of the non-Tesla standards for EV chargers in the US?  Continue reading “GM follows Ford in partnering with Tesla supercharger network”

(Updated to include fun fact about the color of the charging plug.) 

Let’s suppose you are driving along Interstate 70 and you decide to exit at Silverthorne, Colorado to do some Tesla supercharging.  There is a first supercharging station two minutes off the exit, having 12 kiosks, and there is a second supercharging station six minutes off the exit, with a mere 8 kiosks.  Which one should you go to for charging your car?  Continue reading “Where the smart drivers go to charge”

Surely nearly every owner of a Tesla vehicle is aware of the proper etiquette for EV charging in a Tesla supercharging station.  The general rule, in a Tesla supercharging station that has so-called V2 chargers, is never park next to another Tesla vehicle unless there is no other choice about where to park.  If for example you arrive at a station with six ports, as shown above, and there are two cars already charging, you park in the far-right spot.  Just about everybody knows this.  But in some locations, this is incorrect.  A first example is the Tesla supercharging station in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. A second example is a Tesla supercharging station on Rainbow Drive in Silverthorne, Colorado. Continue reading “Proper etiquette for Tesla EV charging”

If you own a Tesla car in Colorado, you will recently have received a rather scary letter in the mail telling you that you will be in big trouble if you fail to switch over your car license plates from whatever type they were before, to fancy new EV plates.  But perhaps like me you already have amateur call letter plates because you have an amateur radio license.  If so, how do you make it work with these fancy new EV plates?  Continue reading “Amateur Call Letter plate and EV plate”

Tesla cars do not have spare tires.  So it is important to plan ahead about where to get a flat tire if you are driving a Tesla vehicle.  Continue reading “Flat tires and Tesla cars”

It is no easy trick finding replacement wiper blades for my 2021 Tesla Model S Long Range.  Most wiper blades are made for what is called a J-hook mounting.  The Tesla uses something called a 22-millimeter push button mounting (see photo above right).  You push with a screwdriver or other blunt object into that square hole, and it releases a latch that allows you to pull the old wiper blade radially out from the wiper arm.  Continue reading “Finding replacement wiper blades”

You could try to make up an astonishing story and you would not be able to make up this one.  A bill pending before the Wyoming state legislature proposes to phase out new EV sales by 2035.

You can read Senate Joint Resolution number SJ0004 here.

Among other things, this bill directs the Wyoming Secretary of State to:

transmit copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, … the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, … and the governor of California.

I recently renewed the car registration for my Tesla vehicle.  One of the charges tacked on to the annual registration fee is a “registration electric vehicle fee” of $51.88.  This is, I gather, intended to make up for a portion of the money that I do not pay to the State of Colorado through gasoline taxes.

It seems that the State of Colorado plans to charge even more money for EVs.  The State plans to charge an annual “Electric Motor Vehicle Road Usage fee” for each EV as follows:

• 2023 – $4
• 2024 – $8
• 2025 – $12
• 2026 – $16
• 2027 – $26
• 2028 – $36
• 2029 – $51
• 2030 – $66
• 2031 – $81
• 2032 – $96

 

Other sort of annoying nickel-and-dime fees include:

• 22¢ as a “material fee” for the “year” sticker that will get mailed to me, and that I will apply to an upper corner of the rear license plate.
• $4 for a “clerk hire fee” which I suppose is meant to make up for my having deprived some clerk of being able to earn a living selling the renewal sticker to me in person at a county DMV office (I did my renewal online).
• $1 “convenience fee” for paying the annual registration fee as an ACH debit from my checking account.
• 50¢ as a vague “insurance fee”.
• 50¢ for “Emissions – Statewide Air Account”, whatever that is.  Given that my car is an EV and does not generate “emissions”, this seems unreasonable.
• 10¢ for “Motorist Insurance Database Fee”.  I guess I pay a dime for the privilege of having my license plate information entered into a database.

In Colorado, something changed about motor vehicle license plates on July 1, 2022.  It became possible (or maybe required, I am not quite clear on this) for the owner of an electric vehicle (EV) to have an “EV license plate”.

Continue reading “Colorado EV (electric vehicle) license plates”

When a homeowner is getting ready to install an EV charger, one of the questions that often arises is “what kind of receptacle should I install for the EV charger?”  I have written an article about this, which you can see here.