Tesla Owners Club Australia April 2019 Newsletter
23rd April 2019
Hi fellow Tesla Owners and Reservation Holders,
It's been a busy period for TOCA and Tesla.
On Tuesday 9th of April, Tesla opened both the new Bathurst permanent Supercharger site and the new Dubbo Supercharger site, making available a large part of NSW for easy Tesla touring. I was honoured to cut the ribbons with the Mayors of both Bathurst and Dubbo. Following the opening of the Bathurst Supercharger we even got to do a few slow laps of the famed Mount Panorama. Several of our members were interviewed by the printed press and Channel 7 ran a story on the evening news. All in all the press were very positive about the community benefits the Superchargers bring to Bathurst and Dubbo. We'll be continuing to work with Tesla on more Supercharger Ribbon Cutting events as the network continues to grow.
CLUB MATTERS
Did you know that the Tesla Owners Club of Australia is geographically the largest Tesla Owners Club in the world?
TOCA Merchandise available online now
Hooray! I am very pleased to announce that our new merchandise is ready for sale. Visit www.teslaowners.org.au/store to browse our many designs and merchandise. We’ve got everything from t-shirts to hoodies to mugs and aprons. All TOCA merchandise is delivered direct to your door by our partner Spreadshirt.
If you can wait until 25th and 26th of April, using the code 20APRIL19 you will get an extra 20% off these prices!
The logos include:
Annual Bulk Buy Program
The annual bulk buy program proved itself to be a difficult program. All items arrived unlabelled and the team had to pull out every t-shirt, jump-suit and cap to validate its style, size, colour etc. This did cause some long delays. In addition, many items were not delivered. We were hoping that new runs of those items may be delivered by now. We have decided now to issue refunds for items not received. To ensure anyone is not overlooked can you please email president@teslaowners.org.au and secretary@teslaowners.org.au with a description and price of what you did not receive and we will cross check and issue a refund. On a bright side, with the opening of our store you will now get merchandise delivered directly to your door!
TOCA Referral Program
Well, if Tesla can do it, so can TOCA! Earn fabulous merchandise awards when you refer new members to TOCA! That’s right, tell your Tesla owning or reservation holding friends about TOCA and when they join, and nominate you as the referrer, then you will earn awards. For every five referrals we’ll give you a $50 to spend on merchandise. Start earning that merch today! There will also be awards for members that organise events or help out the club in other ways!
We’re always looking for a little extra help – now you can earn awards for doing so!
State Chapter Pilot
I consider our club to be quite successful. We have a good relationship with Tesla, we're a properly run legal entity, and we have a growing member base. Built on a solid structure implemented by our Founding President, Jude Burger, we have grown to around 500 members in just a few short years. With the near release of the Model 3 in Australia, and our new referral programme, we expect our numbers to triple over the rest of this year.
With all this growth, how do we keep a united national strength whilst remaining relevant at a local level? This is a question many of us grapple with. A State Chapter concept has been proposed, where the chapter operates at a local level, ensuring our members enjoy their TOCA membership to the fullest and, importantly, we all remain members of a national club representing Tesla owners throughout Australia.
Within our Constitution the committee can form sub-committees for various activities. We formed one for the Round Australia Electric Highway, appointed a lead and gave them a budget and operating principles. It was a resounding success.
We are now planning to do this to create the Queensland State Chapter (QSC) of the Tesla Owners Club of Australia. An informal sub-committee of Queenslanders has been formed and we have been discussing the operating principals.
If this model is successful it will be made available to each state (or potentially region) should others wish to do the same. It will never be made compulsory though as other state's reps have said they don't want the extra work associated with becoming a chapter.
I'll keep you informed as we pilot this model and it will be presented to all members at the Annual General Meeting.
Insurance
Insurance continues to be an expensive exercise for many of our owners. TOCA has been in discussions with a major global brokerage to see if we can provide an exclusive insurance package to our club members that not only provides great pricing but also brilliant service should you need to rely on your policy. It's a long and slow burn (we started discussions last year) and is still likely months away if we are successful.
In the meantime, we also have several brokers in the club. A simple post on Facebook may help you get a great deal. Also, many members are having success with the major motoring organisations.
Familiarisation Days
During insurance discussions we were brainstorming ways to potentially bring premiums down. One suggestion was to offer a familiarisation and training day to new TOCA owners and reservation holders prior to delivery. On such a day our members could show people the cars and how they operate, hold meaningful discussions on the technology such as AP, and maybe let them get a feel for a car if they haven't already test-driven. The brokerage thinks this may help us with our premiums across the board. What are your thoughts? Would you want to help?
UPCOMING EVENTS
We have several events coming up this month:
Scheduling for the Bob Brown Foundation #StopAdaniConvoy 17/4/19 to 6/5/19
The BBF convoy commenced in Hobart and heads up the eastern seaboard to Airlie Beach, Qld before heading in to the Galilee Basin. It concludes in a rally in Canberra.
TOCA is providing scheduling and adapter services, as we do for all major Tesla movements, to minimise disruption at chargers for all Tesla Owners. If you intend to join the convoy please register and indicate which parts of the convoy you wish to join. This will ensure we have sufficient adapters and will also enable us to minimise impact to non convoy drivers.
* Tesla Owners are a diverse group and as such TOCA does not endorse the #StopAdaniConvoy
More
Lunch and Tour of Trydel Private Car Museum - 28 April 2019
The Tesla Owners Club Australia has secured a tour of one of Australia's best Motor Museum, the Trydel Car Museum.
We'll start the day with lunch at the Cardinia Park Hotel, 200 Beaconsfield-Emerald Rd, Beaconsfield, at 12-30pm (pay for what you have) and then head over to the museum at 2-00pm until 4-00pm. We'll car pool to minimise the number of cars at the museum (neighbours!)
It promises to be a very interesting look back at the history of the car. Entry to the museum is by donation with all money collected going to an orphanage in Cambodia.
If you wish to attend please email club member Trevor Withers at trevorwithers3@gmail.com . Trevor has kindly offered to arrange this event.
Electric Vehicle Expo Inverell NSW - National Transport Museum - 4 May 2019
Make a long weekend of it!
The main EV Expo day is the Saturday and Motor Show on the Sun. Options include static displays or rides (show off your Tesla), exhibits, huge museum, and country convoy drives (depending on numbers). TOCA dinner on the Saturday night.
Accessible from Sydney via the new Tamworth supercharger, and good options from Qld. You can take the interesting route through Nowendoc if you have a 3 phase adapter !
Last year there was a good mix of TOCA members and other EV's and the organisers were REALLY grateful. Hopefully we can do as well or better this year!
Sydney Electric Vehicle Expo, Oct 26 - 27
The big annual EV expo is in Sydney this year on Oct 26 - 27 ! This will be a first-class event, held at the Sydney Showground, Howie Pavilion.
In particular we really need as many Tesla owners as possible who are willing to participate in our “try drive” which is driving members of the public around a demonstration circuit. Quite a few TOCA members did this at the Newcastle Supercars last year and it was great. There is nothing like getting bums on seats to create interest.
We will also have a display for our own TOCA / AEVA Round Australia Electric Highway.
Hope to see you there!
RECENT EVENTS
We have held and participate in more than a dozen events this year already.
The Eastlink Great Australian Rally.
Around 800 classic cars were on display plus a special display of cars through the decades culminating in three Teslas representing the future. We had Dick Friend's early Model S, Sjaan Sandford's new Model X and Tesla brought the Model 3 for people to see. All three cars looked stunning in their multicoat red paint and black interiors. People loved the Merry Xmas and Summon demonstrations.
Between the Vines
On a stinking hot Australia Day afternoon TOCA members from NSW and QLD attended Cassegrain Winery's inaugral Australia Day "Between the Vines" car show. The event attracted in the order of 50 classic and exotic cars for a display in the winery grounds. Live music, a bar and a fair crowd of exhibitors and interested visitors created a relaxed friendly atmosphere to chat about the cars and answer the usual questions about range, price, perfomance and charging. The last question was easily answered by pointing up the hill to the Tesla Superchargers!
TOCA attendees came from Sydney, the local area and the Gold Coast, with some brave (daft?) enough to drive there and back in the one day from Sydney! It was a fun event and one that we would consider attending again next year.
Andy's Off-Grid Housewarming
Departing Cremorne for a casual drive to Andy Chapman's new completely off grid home in Benloch, Central Vic. Andy showed us his energy efficient new home and his 30kW of PV, ~50kWh of storage and the nine inverters giving him 45kW of three phase output. An impressive set-up.
McMeet-Up
A recent social catch-up over coffee and supercharging at the Mahura Superchargers.
Contentious Character
A drive to Wamboin followed by lunch at the Contentious Character winery.
Paradigm Hill Winery Tasting and Tour
A fabulous tasting of Paradigm Hill's current release wines, followed by a winery tour including what’s happening in the vineyard and a barrel wine-tasting to finish. We then went on to have a late lunch at Merricks Creek Winery.
Sublime Point
After meeting at St Leonards we headed southwards in an eight car convoy to the entry to the Royal National Park. A perfectly positioned RBT point at the entry to the park allowed us to regroup our convoy and head deep in to the park along some great scenic roads to our second meeting point at Stanwell Tops Lookout. After collecting another two cars we headed off along Lawrence Hargrave Drive including travelling over the almost surreal Sea Cliff Bridge towards Clifton and Scarborough. We finally made it up the hill to a group lunch at the Sublime Point Cafe and a chance to catch up over some great food and drink.
Smart Building and Living Expo
A number of Teslas were displayed at this event organised by the Friends of Royal Park
Wiebe Wakker/Plug Me In Canberra Event
TOCA invited Wiebe Wakker of the Plug Me In Project to come and speak at an event in Canberra on 28 March 2019. The event was held at the Renewables Innovation Hub in Turner, and in conjunction with the ACT Government (who also paid for the catering), the ACT Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Shane Rattenbury also attended and did a short speech about the ACT’s plans for a sustainable future, which include electric vehicles and 100% renewable energy by 2020. He then spoke about Wiebe and introduced him, and welcomed him to Canberra.
Wiebe talked and took questions for about an hour and told humorous anecdotal stories from his 95,000km journey through 33 countries to Australia, which was very interesting. We then took him out to dinner afterwards. All up we had around 50 attendees, which was very gratifying to see.
Plug Me In Finish Event
Many of our members had become aware of Wiebe Wakker's Plug Me In project via social media posts or news stories and had been following his travels across the world from the Netherlands to Australia.The project was a mixture of social experiment and a challenge to prove that the journey could be done in an electric car. Wiebe relied upon people volunteering a bed for the night, a meal and somewhere to plug in and recharge his converted VW Golf wagon as he travelled literally across the world.This event marked the finale of his travels with a shout out to TOCA and AEVA members to come a join a rally from Tesla St Leonards to the official photo finish on Bennelong Lawn opposite the Sydney Opera House.
Approximately 40 cars, predominantly Teslas, but also iMievs, Leafs, i3s and others gathered at a grid locked Tesla showroom before heading off in convoy towards the bridge. Despite some ICE infiltrators and a few wrong turns the group made it first to a catch up at Mrs Macquarie's Chair and then onwards to the finish line.
The event attracted attendees from Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Victoria and even overseas and provided a great positive story for the media in a sea of anti-EV stories that had been running in the previous week. The majority of attendees headed off afterwards for a catch up with new and old friends at the Opera Bar as the sun set over a great afternoon in great company.
The Super Supercharger Opening
Meeting in Bathurst on Tuesday, 9 April at 10-00, we formally cut the ribbon at Bathurst.
Here is some of the press on the Bathurst and Dubbo Supercharger ribbon cutting events.
Western Advocate
Channel 7
https://www.prime7.com.au/news/7593-ora-teslastation-190409
Dubbo Regional Council
Round Australia Electric Highway
The Round Australia Electric Highway, a TOCA / AEVA joint venture, is in good condition for those keen to do the loop! 3 phase charging or better is currently available at all but a couple of sites and 15A single phase power is available at those. Best time for travel is from now to October.
For info and latest conditions see teslaowners.org.au/round-australia
Richard Smith, TOCA member from Darwin is now at Perth heading anticlockwise, and is set to be the first ever EV to visit all capital cities!
Staying connected to TOCA
We have found that the best way to stay connected to your club is to ensure you download and login to your account in the Member Jungle app. Over the coming months we will be transitioning more of our communications to Member Jungle. It currently notifies you of new events and news bulletins, stores a copy of your membership card so you can avail of member benefits, and enables you to register for events from your phone. Great new functionality is being rolled out throughout 2019 which will make member interation much easier - really great for the many members who do not use Facebook. If you haven’t downloaded the Member Jungle app yet please do so as it makes keeping up with club activities so much easier.
Download the Member Jungle App
Kind regards
Tippo
President Tesla Owners Club of Australia
Mark A. Tipping
0418 371 251
on behalf of the
Tesla Owners Club of Australia Committee
