Hi All Teslans,
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2018, and a special welcome to our new members, we hope you had a wonderful summer season and we look forward to a great year ahead.
Here is an update of our recent news:
Affiliation
Tesla Owners Club Western Australia (TOCWA) is now official, Tesla motors USA accepted our application and Australia now holds the distinction of being the only country outside of the USA to have an official regional based club. Although TOCWA are completely independent of Tesla owners club Australia (TOCA) both clubs are keen to work together when required, a big thank you to Annie Atkins for putting in the hard work and communicating with Tesla and presenting our case.
Membership
TOCWA now has over 40 members and is keen to recruit more; membership is $50 per year and brings a host of benefits including access to charging cables, member’s discounts on Tesla official merchandise and discounts on TOCWA sponsors products.
Charging facilities
Basic AC charging options are popping up everywhere across both the metro area and regional areas, there are now over 44 locations with Tesla destination chargers and many more locations with 3 phase outlets dedicated to EV charging, AC charging is not the perfect long term solution but it’s low cost to install and gets the discussion started on future possibilities, as time goes on and the EV population increases faster DC charging will become the norm. Don’t forget to make full use of plugshare before and during charging.
Becoming an Outback EV warrior
Once you’ve become accustomed to the driving and charging an EV around the metro area you may like to try something more adventurous, the prerequisites are planning, patience and a spare tyre (you can borrow a spare wheel/tyre combo from McCarthy’s prestige in Claremont), start with the relative safety of the South west where there are a plentiful supply of charging options, a trip to Albany via Bridgetown is a good starter, after gaining experience with energy use on country roads, charging speeds and other factors you can then try trips to Esperance, Kalgoorlie or Geraldton. The 3 most important tips I could give you when country driving is study plugshare religiously, always have a charging plan B and drive at a speed that gives full respect to the unpredictable wildlife.
Upcoming events
TOCWA have a few events in the planning including a drive day to York on the 8th of April. Please mark this date in your calendar.
There are also a number of AEVA organised car events that are a great opportunity to pick up some tips and tricks from long term EV fanatics.
Useful resources
TOCWA has a twitter account @tesla_wa, a website-https://www.tocwa.org.au/ and a facebook group- Tesla Owners Club WA, if you are keen to keep up with the ever changing world of electric vehicles, battery storage, renewable energy and sustainability I recommend an Australian site http://reneweconomy.com.au/ and a California based site https://electrek.co/
Happy motoring
Rob Dean
TOCWA Chair.
