Aug 29

National Plug-in Day 2013

AustinEV and several Central Texas vehicle groups will be hosting the 2013 National Plug-in Event for Austin, TX.

It will be on September 29th (Sunday) and we want you to show your cars!

If you would like to register to attend, show a car or to volunteer, please add yourself and your vehicle details here:

http://www.pluginday.org/event.php?eventid=61

(updated 9/13/2013)

Join Austin, TX area electric vehicle enthusiasts for an electric vehicle display and  presentations on Sunday, September 29 from 10am to 3pm at the Northwest Recreation Center.  We will have all kinds of electric vehicles on display and their owners will be there to talk about how their electric vehicles fit into their lives.

(updated 9/23/2013)

2013_PressAdvisory_NationalPlugInDay

(updated 9/25/2013)

Schedule of Talks:
11:00 – 11:45 AM
Driving on Sunshine: charging your vehicle from solar panels on your home – Dale Bulla, Interfaith Environmental Network
noon – 12:45 PM
Testing the Cells: cycle testing on cells for electric vehicles – Marc Kohler, Director of Product Management, Actacell
1:00pm – 1:45
EV’s Today – experiences from actual EV owners — a panel discussion led by Tim Ziegner – president of the Nissan Leaf Owners group
2:00pm – 2:45
The Future of Homebrew and Small-Shop EV Conversions – Chris Robison, Product Lead, REVOLT Electric Vehicles
(And we love the Austin Sierra Club!

(updated 9/26/2013)

Mark W. is coordinating an electric scooter/motorcycle ride that will depart from the Plug-in venue Sunday about 3:30 pm (weather permitting)..

Aug 05

AustinEV list is moving – action required

We are moving the AustinEV discussion list to Google
Groups and shutting the old list down. If you would like to subscribe
to the new list, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/austinev
and subscribe by tomorrow, August 6.

While Google Groups has a web interface for those who prefer to
interact with the list as a forum, the new list is set to reproduce
the function of the old list as a discussion list and should default
to email delivery in the settings.

May 06

AustinEV at the Austin Mini Maker Faire

AustinEV setup

AustinEV members get set up for the Austin Mini Maker Faire

We had a great day out at the Faire.  Thanks to Aaron, Ben, Fred, Brian and Chris for showing the cars and to all the great people who stopped by to chat!

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May 04

Come see some home built electric vehicles at the Austin Mini Maker Faire

AustinEV will be showing member-built electric vehicles at the Austin mini-Maker Faire this Sunday, May 5.  We’re looking forward to all the tinkering.

Austin Mini Maker Faire

Feb 05

Meeting – 2013-02-09

Many of you who have been members of AustinEV for a long time may
remember Mark Kapner and his storied electric Geo Metro. Well after a
long absence, Mark’s back, and he’s just recently bought himself one of
these and would like to show it to us:

http://thinkev.leftbankcompanies.com/why-think-city/

I’ve seen pictures of the Think City EV over the years, but have never
gotten to see one of these Scandinavian cars in person. If you’d like to
check it out and maybe hear about what Mark’s been up to in the
meantime, and maybe bring your own EV to show off as well, put our
meeting for February on your calendar.

Food and conversation with AustinEV
When: Saturday, February 9 2012, 5pm
Where: Rockin’ Tomato Pizza, 3003 S. Lamar Blvd, 78704
Map:http://g.co/maps/sh9qa

Hope to see you there!

–chris

Jan 10

No more rebate from Austin Energy for conversions

From a member’s post to the AustinEV list —

.. “Well, during the application process, Austin Energy let me know that they would no longer be offering the 1/2 back rebate for conversion EVs. My rebate would be the last one offered for a conversion EV. You can still get the 1/2 back rebate for the install and station for a non-conversion EV.”

http://www.austinev.org/pipermail/ausev/2013-January/005331.html

 

Mar 03

Meeting – 2012-03-10

For our inaugural “casual gathering”, I’ve followed Mark Witt’s suggestion
of going to the Rockin’ Tomato on South Lamar. The owner (who has an
interest in EVs himself) has offered us some tables and a few reserved
spaces if we want to bring cars to show. There are a couple 120VAC outlets
available as well for scooters or to put a little into your EV while you
eat.
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Sep 08

Meeting – 2007-09-08

Saturday, September 8, 2007 3:15 – 4:45

Hey folks,

We’ve got some important events coming up as summer heads into autumn and our typically busiest season, including our annual trip to Fredericksburg for the Renewable Energy Roundup.

Before that though, we’ve got a couple things on the radar.

First is the next AustinEV meeting. On the agenda for the meeting, in addition to regular organizational business, is that relatively new entry into EV discussions these days, Plug-in Hybrids (PHEVs). We’ll have 2 on display, from Austin Energy and also one converted by James Philippi from Houston. James’ conversion of his car is documented pretty much entirely within a single 11-page forum thread, here:

[Link to his site]

The next item, which James will also be present to discuss, is the Maker Faire on Oct 20-21, for which he is looking for our help. A Toyota Prius (belonging to one very brave Darren Overby, from California no less) has been provided for conversion to PHEV during the course of the 2-day event. Darren and James will be at the meeting to go over the details of the plan and request help from any AustinEV folks interested in donating some elbow grease.

The meeting will be a month from now, Saturday Sept 9 at the Terrazas branch of the Austin Public Library:

[click “Get directions” for a Google map]

The meeting will start at 3:15 and we’ve been told we need to be out by 4:45. We’ll most likely (perhaps already by that point) reconvene in the parking lot, around the cars.

In my opinion, PHEVs are one of the sources (along with gas prices, and NEDRA drag racing) of one of the biggest groundswells of popular support for electric grid-powered transportation in recent memory. I hope we can put together a big group for the meeting, to learn more about the PHEV concept for those who are new to it, and support what promises in October to be an important PR event that will be attended by thousands and will be seen, through subsequent articles and blogging, by people all over the world.

Mark your calendars!

—
Christopher Robison

Mar 11

Event – 2007-03-11

March 11, 2007 1-3 PM
Intro to EVs Workshop

Hi Everyone,

Fear not AustinEVers! Your emails about the EV Intro haven’t fallen into a void. The EV Intro Workshop will be held Sunday March 11 from 1-3 PM. I’ll be free later if it runs longer, but I think we can hit a lot of the big points in two hours. The location isn’t nailed down yet, but will likely be around North central Austin. I’ll send out an update when the place is decided. If you can’t make it March 11, we’ll probably do this again in the future, so please let me know if you can’t make it and are still interested.

Please RSVP to me at this address: [rsvp address]

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Nov 04

Open Garage – 2006-11-04

General Meeting — Saturday, November 4 — 2-4pm

This week the General Meeting was combined with an open garage project. First, we gathered at Mark Witt’s house at noon to help work on a factory Ford Ranger battery pack swap. Then, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm we had the AustinEV General Members meeting.  The festivities concluded by 5:00 pm.