News
CHARGERS ARE HERE!!!!
Central Washington University now has chargers.
The number went down from 13 to 10, but we're not complaining! They've already been under heavy useage.
We just can't stop smiling!
However - one small sad bit of news is that you can not leave any cars on chargers overnight. Other than this, we are pleased as fruit punch!
CWU HEALTH SCIENCES CHARGERS NEARLY FINISHED!!!
Central Washington University has electric vehicle chargers now.
These units will not be live until some time toward the end of this quarter, going into Summer.
BUT LOOK AT THEM!!!
CWU POLICE PURCHASE NEW TESLA
WINTER, 2021 - 2022
BY DAVID LEDER
The Central Washington University Police Department is helping the institution meet its sustainability goals by adding an energy-efficient Tesla to its fleet of patrol cars.
The new electric vehicle will join rotation of CWU police vehicles this month and will be used to patrol campus in place of a recently retired Ford Explorer. Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order in November, stating that the state’s pool of roughly 5,000 vehicles will begin the transition to becoming fully electric by 2040.
CWU Police Chief Jason Berthon-Koch said the new Tesla will contribute to the state’s environmental goals, as well as the university’s sustainability efforts. He also expects the car to make a long-term difference in Central’s vehicle maintenance budget.
“We’re the first higher education institution police department in the state to invest in this technology, and that shows that we are leading the way with regard to sustainability,” Berthon-Koch said, adding that the cost of a fully outfitted Tesla was about $7,000 more than a patrol-ready, gas-powered vehicle.
The department expects the return on investment to far exceed the additional up-front costs required to purchase the high-end electric vehicle. Berthon-Koch said CWU will save thousands of dollars on fuel over the car’s lifespan, not to mention thousands more on maintenance costs sinceelectric vehicles don’t require as much upkeep as gasoline-powered cars.
“It cost a little more up front, but over time, we will save about $18,000,” he said. “When you consider the environmental benefits, we know this car is going to be a great investment for CWU.
In addition, the Tesla will help the university achieve its goal of producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions because the car uses electrical power instead of petroleum. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electric and hybrid cars produce one-third to one-half of the carbon emissions as their gasoline-powered counterparts.
CWU Sustainability Coordinator Kathleen Klaniecki said the university now has nine electric and 12 hybrid vehicles, improving the fleet’s average miles per gallon — and, in turn, lowering the rate of carbon emissions. She also pointed to the fact that electricity in Ellensburg produces relatively low carbon emissions, with 96% of the electrical power being produced by hydroelectric dams.
“CWU is committed to driving down our greenhouse gas emissions, and adding more electric cars to our fleet is only going to help us reach our goals,” Klaniecki said, noting that CWU is gradually reducing the number of gas-powered vehicles on campus, independent of the governor’s order. “This car is just one of the many steps we have taken in recent years.”
Media contact: David Leder, Department of Public Affairs, David.Leder@cwu.edu, 509-963-1518.
CWU HEALTH SCIENCES TO INSTALL 13 J-1772 CHARGERS
The newest addition to the Central Washington University main campus will be the Health Sciences Building, which began construction at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year. The building will house several new programs at CWU, all under the auspices of the Health Sciences Department - and the plan is have facilities to teach proper medical professions.
Read more about the building here: https://www.cwu.edu/facility/health-sciences
above: the blueprints for the new building.
Electric car battery pack prices fell 89% in just 10 years
And this year, they dipped under $100 per kilowatt hour for the first time.
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION GROUP LAYS FOUNDATIONS
The Central Washington University Sustainable Transportation Action Group; acting to improve sustainable transportation adoption, planning, and infrastructure at CWU's main campus and beyond, has been meeting bi-weekly during the pandemic over Zoom. We have been focusing on EV Charging, Bike Lanes, and Carpooling.
Recently, we have been developing the CWU Transportation Climate Survey. It will be put through review and published to Qualtrics soon.
CWU EV Club President meeting with the Island Regional Transportation Planning Officer, in Coupeville, WA.
WHIDBEY AND CAMANO ISLANDS GO ELECTRIC: WCIEVA is founded, Survey is sent out
On December 27, 2019, the Whidbey-Camano Islands Electric Vehicle Association was born in a coffee shop.
It came about as a result of a meeting to discuss the Scope of Work for study for Electrifying Island County, between the IRTPO and the CWU Electric Vehicle Club.
CWU EV Club is currently seeking applicants to become the Board of the WCIEVA.
During the Lockdown, a Council of advisors was established by the IRTPO to survey the residents of Island County, implement EVSE installations at Public sites, and further advance Island County
PTERODACTYL: The podcast is going swimmingly.
FALL, 2020
Did you know we have a great interview-based format podcast? We've had a wide range of guests on the show, from the United States Army, to tinkerers working on EV conversions, to legit YouTube powerhouses in the EV space.
"Pterodactyl is a fun project, I wish I could dedicate more time than I have been to the show," says EVC President, Guylaen O'Connor. "Covid screwed everything up. It's been EIGHT MONTHS since this virus came out, and Moderna is only just in the trial stage. We're all just confused. I wanted to build this club into something magical over the course of this academic year, but Covid made that impossible. It is difficult at best to recruit people when you can't gather."
The Club created the Podcast as a way to overcome the inability to recruit members the traditional way, as a direct response to the Coronavirus phenomenon.
"It's a way for me to continue having these industry conversations - but at the same time, keep sending our name out into the Ether. We are Central, and Wildcats lead the way!"
CWUEVC sends official letter of request to ASCWU BOARD: Install these chargers now!
SPRING, 2020
Earlier this quarter, the CWU Electric Vehicle Club sent an Official Memorandum addressed to the ASCWU Board. The following is the text of this letter:
TO THE ASCWU BOARD:
We desperately need electric vehicle chargers (EVSE = Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) on this campus. The Electric Vehicle Club has access to many knowledgeable people who have already successfully installed EVSEs at other campuses.
We humbly request with extreme urgency of the ASCWU to;
A) Request of Parking Enforcement that a temporary 1 – 2 dollar fee be applied to the PARKING PERMIT for the specific purposes of installing EVSEs.
B) Understand that these EVSEs shall be prioritized for residential parking lots – EV drivers and owners do between 70 – 90 percent of their charging at home. This shall include the six charging stalls that have not been purchased but are currently ready to be installed in the Dugmore Hall parking lot.
C) Push for the installation before the end of the next academic year of at least one more EVSE in every parking lot on this campus, but preferably at least six in each parking lot. There are MANY solutions to physical space limitations; street lamp posts can be remanufactured as EVSEs, EVSEs can be recessed into the ground and lift up on hydraulics only when needed to reduce clutter – many more solutions already exist.
D) Understand and act on the fact that planning for these EVSEs should take no longer than one month. The installations should take no longer than 72 hours per parking lot, or a week for the more complicated installations. Most installations take no more than several hours, as they are plug-and-play – however, we have quoted 72 hours here because it will take time to dig up the concrete and asphalt. The Dugmore Hall installations should not take any longer than a few hours because there are already conduits in the ground.
CES 2020 was a "BLAST!"
Club President still pondering the lessons of the giant technology conference in Las Vegas.
January, 2020
Dispatch from CES 2020 Las Vegas - by Guylaen O'Connor
Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada. City of Sin, as they say. My primary sin being that I have managed to survive an entire trip down here without spending A SINGLE DOLLAR in the city itself. My entire trip has costed a grand sum total of $150. I got my ticket to the event paid for by an Electric Vehicle charging company from Amsterdam called EVBox, and I'm staying on a couch that I found through Couchsurfing.com.
Repping CWU HARD with my name badge that says “CWU Electric Vehicle Club, a chapter of the Electric Auto Association,” I’ve been handshaking and networking to the left and right, up, down, and sideways. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES TO CHANGE THE WORLD. Duh.
What does the future look like? Damned if this conference will tell me, because there is a distinctive utopian ideal presented to us by every manufacturer, every company, every exhibitor here - and that story they’re all telling is the one in which they - that single company - own the world. Nobody else seems to exist in these new paradigmatic dogmas of these Goliath techno-boppers.
The world is changing. Every decade that you’ve lived, you’ve heard this. Electric Vehicles are on the rise. Cobalt. Lithium. Cold Weather. Soon enough, internally-displaced climate refugees will be marching across our breadbaskets like Manhattan rats to peanut butter.
Yes, the world spins, and there’s this awesome expression that I am fond of - what goes around, comes back around.
Well, there goes another action-packed day at CES, the largest technology conference in the world. My Couchsurfing host - his name is Justin - says that there are over 200,000 people in this city. Still not a single dollar spent here. Not a single dollar.
I have not spent a single moment sitting. Every single moment of my time here has been in motion, in flux, oscillating with the vibe of the conference atmosphere. There is a feeling here of excitement, joyousness at the advancements of humanity. This conference truly is the exposition of every pinnacle of human achievement. From every sector of human society, as well. From the kitchen, to the office, the bedroom, the car, the road, the garage, the classroom… every single aspect of humanity has someone here, at least one someone - pushing the boundaries.
The Bosch smart home display scared the poop out of me. The cartoons were cute and cuddly, but I swear to the Gods - this is how Skynet starts. Be aware. When there is a single AI that controls what temperature your fridge should be, and reminds you to pick up flowers for your date - this AI scares me to no end.
My salvation comes from cloud computing. Only in cloud computing did I find companies that seemed to understand that they weren’t going to own the world, but as much as I enjoyed watching artistic renditions of algorithim-fed data visualizations in IBM’s Technology Garden - not a whole lot of the cloud computing ecosystem is going to help drive the push to 100% tailpipe reduction.
Oh, did I mention? What I'm here for?
LADS - the Low-Income Access Driver’s Scheme. A nonprofit garage model where the poorest drivers can literally drive their fossil-fuel burning gas-guzzlers into one of our LADS locations around the world, leave us the keys, and three weeks later drive away with that same vehicle converted to entirely electric - FOR FREE.
LADS will require a LOT of money, a LOT of unpaid volunteers, and HUGE corporate sponsor deals, and that’s exactly what I’m here for. It’s why I had to beg, borrow, and barter for the money for my cheap-as-sin Spirit airlines ticket.
Already I have met with PR people, marketing execs, and VPs from Panasonic, Nikon, IBM, Sony, Harley Davidson, and so many more!
But secretly I'm laughing at all these suckers staying on the strip - using their company credit cards to rack up thousands of dollars in bills that they have to justify to their bosses - probably spending time at Blackjack or Texas Hold Em' to try and make that money back - and I haven't spent a single dollar in this city.
(I brought my own stash of Top Ramen with me.)
Am I the only one here who is representing a nonprofit? Probably not. But it makes me feel wonderful that I don’t have to feel guilty about the fact that I might be capitalizing on saving the planet. Because the money I’m here to get, the contacts that I’m here to obtain, the relationships I’m here to develop - they’ll ALL be going to improve the human dignity of the impoverished, while at the same time - reducing the global volumetric tonnage of carbon dioxide that hath been birthed by human greed and psychopathy.
I ask myself, again - what does the future look like?
Better. There are many big players in the climate change game now, and from what I see - they’re serious about it. Not one single person at this conference contests the fact that climate change is real, that it is serious, and that we ALL need to change. Thankfully, many companies here have done good works during 2019.
EVC PRES. AND TREASURER MEET WITH CONGRESS REP
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 03, 2019
Earlier today, EVC President Guylaen O'Connor and Treasurer Benjamin Cooley met for a quick and informal coffee / lunch meeting with Kelli Scott, the Central Washington Representative for Congresswoman Kim Schrier.
Topics discussed were wide ranging and all focused entirely on EVs and EV infrastructures.
D&M Coffee Downtown, photo by Bryan Myrick, Ellensburg Daily Record
TESLA TOUR
The squad poses for a photo at TESLA in Bellevue, Washington.
Friday, October 25, 2019
The Presidents of the CWU Car Club, CWU Electric Vehicle Club, the ASCWU Vice President for Academic Affairs, past and current members of the various clubs, CWU Alumni, and other genuinely interested students got a very special tour of the inside of Tesla's showroom and service center in Bellevue, Washington.
The event was largely organized by Bruce Simpson, the CWU Career Services dude.
Grace Reamer, a Tesla veteran and current employee gave the students an inside glance at the daily operations of the showroom that you see in the photo. Grace is also the Vice President of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association, a chapter of the Electric Auto Association.
Not featured in this photo: the students also got to see what very few people even know exist, the service center. The service center is directly below where the students are standing in this photo.
Upon hearing the news that we were going underground, Maceo, an Economics major, asked "How far down does this go?"
UNFORTUNATELY EVERYONE SIGNED AN NDA. So, that's all we can really write here. But it was great to see the inner workings of Tesla.
The one gripe that we might have is that this should have been several more hours, and the students should have been allowed to manipulate actual components on the vehicles. But, this was a good hors d'oeuvre. This writer is certainly ready to bite into the full course meal.
EVC PRESIDENT MAKES SPEECH TO ASCWU STUDENT GOVERNMENT
"Racing is good, racing is fun, racing is educational - but we also need to act. We need to act now to save our planet from extinction." - CWUEVC President
On Wednesday, October 16, 2017, the Acting President of the Electric Vehicle Club, Guylaen O'Connor, gave a speech to the Student Government outlining the club's intentions and its new mission and purpose, with the caveat, he said - that we still need to be officially recognized.
"Most people at this university probably weren't aware of the fact that this University has been a part of an Electric Vehicle racing circuit since 2011, called Electrathon America. Most people here don't know that," Mr. O'Connor said.
"In 2015 and 2016, this club existed primarily for the purpose of Electric Vehicle racing, but this year we have expanded the club's mission and purpose. Racing is good, racing is fun, racing is educational. We get to learn how to spot weld and fabricate. But we also need to act. We need to act now to save our planet from extinction. We are becoming the Campus Chapter of the Electric Auto Association, whose mission is to be owner/educators of Electric Vehicles and EV infrastructure - but since we're college students - and most of us are broke, and we can't afford new cars, most of us only drive cars we bought for 500 dollars on Craigslist, our club will become Builder/Owner/Educators," the President said.
EVC Pres. has informal Skype call with Zac Cataldo from Now You Know
On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, the President of the CWUEVC had an informal Skype session with Zac, one-half of the dynamic duo from the Now You Know youtube channel.
The conversation was primarily focused on Mr. O'Connor's personal YouTube venture, DopeEV.com, but also addressed was the shift of focus for that channel to - for now - document the development of the Electric Vehicle Club. The two men spoke at-length about topics ranging from merchandising, channel growth, time management, and the projects facing the Electric Vehicle Club in the near and far future. The main thing Zac said: "Keep filming."
EVC Pres. gives speech to the CWU Car Club: you like cars? You might also like ELECTRIC cars.
MONDAY, October 14, 2019
They like cars. A lot.
They like cars so much that every week they spend around 45 minutes just talking about them. It's the Central Washington University CAR CLUB, and they're a brand new thing here at Central Washington University.
The Acting President of the CWU Electric Vehicle Club was invited by the President of the CWU Car Club, Joe Cavalieri, to give a short speech on the Electric Vehicle Club.
Mr. O'Connor touched on the very basics of what the Electric Vehicle Club is planning on doing, what it has been doing with its racecars, and actively looked for new recruits.
Then he stayed for the rest of it and just talked about cars.
The group talked about their dream cars, and when the question came to Mr. O'Connor, he said the Citroen DS Electric from Gattaca.
"Also [this club member]'s dream car was the R8 Spider? That is based off of a fully electric vehicle that was in iRobot that had radial tires, went sideways, and fought fucking robots," said Mr. O'Connor.
TOWN HALL: CWU
OCTOBER 13 2019: Left to right: Congresswoman Kim Schrier with the President of the CWU Electric Vehicle Club, Guylaen O'Connor
"If young people voted, we would be on a different trajectory." - Kim Schrier
On Sunday, October 13, 2019, students from Central Washington University were invited to participate in a Town Hall with Congresswoman Kim Schrier.
Representing the Electric Vehicle Club in his relaxed attire, the President of the Electric Vehicle Club, Guylaen O'Connor, actively participated in the discussion. Town Halls are never preplanned, and often Socratic in nature, so the conversation always follows a natural progression of topics in the primary interest of those present.
The topics that were covered at this event; Vaping, Education Assistance, Private Scholarships, FAFSA for the middle class, affordable community college, student loan forgiveness, underrepresented students and access to financial assistance, and thoughts on mandatory public service before university.
It was a great event, and while many topics were discussed, there wasn't quite enough time in the docket to touchstone everyone's questions. We did, however, manage to make some connections with the Congressional staff, and we will be discussing over some coffee and tea, EVs, EV Infrastructure, and renewable energies to SAVE OUR PLANET.
The Electric Vehicle Club will be at Fully Charged Live in Austin, Texas, in February.
The First Annual Fully Charged Live USA is an event organized by the guys over at the Fully Charged Show on YouTube.
It is anticipated to be the largest gathering of EV drivers, owners, and infrastructure developers in the country. There will be show cars, drag races, lap times, brand new concept cars, live speakers, and much, much more.
The President of the CWU Electric Vehicle Club, Guylaen O'Connor, has been planning on attending the conference with his own conversion project, THE STARFIGHTER X (a 1984 Firebird Trans AM that he is converting to fully electric). And as long as he is able to finish his conversion before that date, he will be driving the STARFIGHTER X to Austin.
EVERYONE IS INVITED. Anyone, even if you've never even seen an EV before - this will be like the ComicCon of EV's.
PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS AT: www.fullychargedshow.com
