Maine: 2014 Drive Electric Event in South Portland Sunday September 21st 2014

National Drive Electric Week Event - South Portland

I've just registered for this event. I was tempted to go last year, but it'd have just been in a Prius. Since we now have a Volt we'll bring it, even if the car doesn't stay as my wife goes shopping in the Old Port or at the Maine Mall.

So far there's one Model S owner who's registered. If you're a member here I look forward to fighting my way past the crowd of gawkers to meet you.

tga said:

For anyone not in ME, there are events all over New England (and the country) that weekend. I'll probably check out Concord, NH.

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The Drive Electric Week site has a list of events:
National Drive Electric Week 2014 - Event Location List

On Thursday September 18th there's an event in Old Saybrook, CT.
On Saturday September 20th there are events in CT, MA (not Boston), NH, RI and VT.
On the Sunday September 21st there's an event in Boston and South Portland, ME.

So, if there are any New England Model S owners who want to hit two events that weekend and don't want to do the Boston one, you can always come to the South Portland event.

There are no Superchargers in Maine, but there is an 80A charger at the Fore St Parking Garage.

Apparently PlugShare says that HPWCs at a couple of locations in Maine are for guests only but maybe people could try begging for special dispensation for Drive Electric week:
Maine Resort on the Coast | Kennebunkport Hotel Lodging | Nonantum Resort | The Nonantum Resort - Kennebunkport, ME in Kennebunkport has 2 HPWCs.
Ogunquit Maine Hotels – Beachmere Inn in Ogunquit has 2 HPWCs.

The South Portland event location has 1 CHAdeMO and a 2-port J1772 charger.

Unless it mysteriously morphed into "Other Plug-in Vehicle" there's no longer a Tesla Model S listed for this event.

Maybe by next year there'll be a CHAdeMO adapter and Maine will actually have a Supercharger so it'll be easier for Model S owners to attend events.

Robert.Boston said:

A Tesla is still showing when I pulled up the event notice just now:
National Drive Electric Week Event - South Portland

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Thanks. I must have gone mentally blind, because I'd swear that it had gone.

Panic over!

And there's now a 2nd Model S owner registered for the South Portland event. Thanks for coming, whoever you are.

Well, the weatherdoesn't seem to be cooperating, with forecast of scattered thunderstorms through the afternoon.

But a car is a very safe place to be in a thunderstorm.

I guess we can hope for things to improve.

Well, so much for the thunderstorms. Maybe a few spots of rain, but there were even periods of sun. I even got a sunburn, which seemed ridiculous given the general cloudiness.

Plenty of cars on show. The 3 registered Tesla owners (2 Maine registered, 1 Mass) turned up, 1 there nice and early and 2 came later.
One more Tesla came later, but he was just visiting, a board member of Plug-in America on vacation, from Seattle! Another couple from Virginia, I believe, who own a Tesla were there, but in his words "ICEd it up from Logan" due to the current lack of Supercharging.

Had some good conversations (at least from my point of view ). With the organiser Marc (there with his current Leaf), the owner of the "Other Plug-in Vehicle" (a Solectria Force owner who upgraded the batteries to Thundersky LiFePO), and a couple of Tesla owners.

The owner from Mass is magplate on TMC. He's only posted a couple of times, but he told me he'd been doing some tracking of costs in a spreadsheet and might post or blog the information here.

One of the Tesla owners from Maine was Tim Soley, the developer who owns the Fore St garage in Portland, which has a high amp charger. He clearly loves his P85. He only has it because he got impatient waiting for the X.

Dealers were there to give test drives. (Due to blue laws dealers can't sell on Sundays). My wife (whom I'd bribed with dinner and freedom to go mall shopping after test drives) test drove a Leaf and Smart ED. My wife found the Smart ED underpowered, and the Leaf "a bit Prius". If we didn't have a Volt she might have been more impressed by the Leaf, but it didn't offer anything new on the short test drive loop. I rode in the Leaf but didn't drive, since I'm too focused on efficiency and electrification to care much about performance or handling.

Test drives were also available in a Volt, Mercedes B Class EV, Plug-in Prius, and BMW i3. I really didn't look closely at the i3 or B Class (despite it being the first time I'd see one), simply because I have no interest in them. Similarly, the PiP held no interest.

There seemed to be a good mix of enthusiasts and people new to the ideas of EV, judging from some of the questions I heard asked.

If there was one criticism of the event, it would be that test drives could have been better organized. There seemed to be limited staff from the dealers, and they were often occupied or busy with the test drives, so it would have been good to have a volunteer finding the people interested in test drives and organizing them so they weren't just waiting around.

The organizer of the event, Marc, has said that he won't be running it next year.

linkster said:

Yeah....I have heard about that "Teslafever" couple from Va too :crying:. We had a great time meeting, talking to several owners and enthusiasts in your beautiful Maine state. IMO, Marc did a great job organizing y'all's event with free food/drinks along with Lee Auto Mall's test drives. This seemed like such a perfect location with a CHAdeMO on site. WOW, I think Marc even had a free (just take a test drive) Clipper Creek raffle.

Hopefully, Marc's assistant, Barry Woods will run the Downeaster event next year.

Btw, we pitched the Tesla destination HPWC program to the top two hotels in Rockport/Rockland while we were up there. I'll be up your way again next month and will pitch the two Resort/Spa's in downtown Bar Harbor.

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Well it was nice to kind-of-meet you. (I was just kind of hanging around as you had a conversation) The S in your picture was the near-loaded P85 belonging to Tim Soley, the owner of the Fore St parking garage in Portland, amongst other properties. I'm somewhere in the background in your photo, among the people on the left listening to the speeches.