The Victoria EV Club had a good selection of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Victoria Day Parade here in Victoria, BC, Canada. Rolf and Silke debuted their Safari all-electric trailer which they will be using to camp their way across Canada, starting in a few days. Other EVs in the contingent included the Kia Soul EV, the Smart EV, the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, and the BMW i3.
Ed from Seattle was persuaded to bring his Tesla Model X to tow the trailer through the parade. He dressed up as a chauffeur and the lovely Queen Victoria agreed to ride in the back while the falcon wing doors were open for much of the route!
Great fun was had by all. The EVs were a hit with the crowd as they silently rolled by.
Several Tesla owners on Vancouver Island have done road trips in their Model S vehicles. Three road trips taken by our members are profiled below (newest first), but if you know of more road trips (planned or already driven), please leave a comment!
James and Lisa Locke -road trip to Williamsburg, Virginia
May 2016 – James, Lisa and family drove some 10,400 kms across the USA to participate in Tesla Roadtrip 2016, a well-organized event of Tesla enthusiasts. The Lockes left Victoria on May 5, 2016, and took a direct route to the event (and back). Check out Lisa’s very detailed online report on the Victoria EV Club’s website.
Silke Sommerfeld and Rolf Oetter – TeslaXCanada – to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
January 2016 – Silke, Rolf, and their dog Kye drove diagonally across the USA to Fort Lauderdale to get to their winter escape destination: sailing in the Bahamas. Rolf sold his older Model S through Tesla Vancouver while they traveled in Silke’s newer Model S from the west coast to the east coast. They report they didn’t spend a single cent on recharging for the entire trip!
They have returned home to Victoria, but they are already planning their next road trip, and it will be a “first”. Check out their TeslaXCanada for details! You can help them spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and be sure to check out all the great videos and photos covering over 24,000kms!
Jeremey and Laura Janzen – Spud’s Electrik Trek – to New York in a big circle thru the USA & Canada
Spud’s route map around North America
2014 – Not to diminish the road trips described above, but Spud’s road trip was pretty ambitious! In 2016, Tesla’s SuperCharger network is pretty well developed in North America, especially in the USA. When Jeremey and Laura drove their trip in 2014, the Tesla SuperChargers were largely just promises, with stations installed near major cities and only one trans-continental route across the northern USA. So this Electrik Trek faced challenges…and Jeremey documented it all!
Spud’s route went from Victoria down to Sedona, Arizona, then back up through Chicago to New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC, before crossing back into Canada at Niagara Falls. But wait, after spec’ing out the route through Ontario sans SuperChargers, Spud opts to head back south through the good ol’ USA and the SuperCharger network! They eventually loop back into Canada, heading through Winnipeg, Edmonton and other locales in the Prairies visiting family, before returning to home in Victoria.
The total cost of driving this 17,500km (10,900mi) trip, using 3,400kWh is $47 for recharging, not including those tolls on the east coast!
Vancouver Island Tesla owners have been a well-kept secret until now. Joe Carr, one of our Tesla owners in Victoria recently had the good fortune to acquire the domain name TeslaOwners.org and has decided to use this easy-to-remember URL to help Islanders raise the profile of Tesla vehicles and their owners.
Joe has hosted our email list for awhile now, but it is mainly used to coordinate local events among members, so that problem of being invisible remains. By having our own website, Tesla vehicle owners on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands now have an online resource to point to.
So, watch our website at vi.teslaowners.org grow into a dynamic resource for owners and our friends!
