Data from the Center for Sustainable Energy Helps Us Identify EV-friendly Dealers

We regularly field inquiries from club members and others asking for dealer recommendations. Usually, it follows a negative interaction with a dealership, when they walked in mistakenly thinking their inquiry about purchasing an EV would be well received. Not so fast!

It has been well documented, in the NY Times, in 2 Sierra Club shopper studies, and other reporting, that many dealers are indifferent or even hostile to EVs. But there are some dealerships that make an effort to sell EVs. To help guide consumers interested in non-Tesla EVs, we obtained from the Center for Sustainable Energy (CSE), the consultant that manages the CHEAPR incentive program for the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the number of rebates by dealership from the program’s inception in 2015 through August 11, 2020.

I am using rebates as a rough proxy for sales/EV-friendliness. It’s the best we can do. You won’t find retailers of expensive vehicles, for example, a Jag or an Audi, on this list because the cost of the vehicles exceeds the MSRP eligibility cap. Consumers are eligible for one rebate lifetime, so repeat customers are not included. Some dealers may end up on our list in spite of themselves. But we can still use this directionally. Tesla is not included since it doesn’t have dealers.

We are covering a 5+ year period and understand that EV models come and go. Some manufacturers got out of the gate quickly (Tesla, GM, Nissan), while others came later to the party. The Chevy Volt, once the most widely registered EV in the state, has been discontinued. A couple of years ago, Honda introduced a PHEV Clarity that generated a fair number of sales. Since then, it has greatly slowed, reportedly due to distribution having been curtailed. There have also been 5 changes made during this period made by DEEP to rebate size and the MSRP price cap that determines eligibility. Finally, some dealers have multiple stores that were not separated in this dataset.

One-Third of Dealerships have not Awarded a Single Rebate

There are 270 franchised auto dealerships, according to their trade association (Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association) in CT. 185 of them have made a sale or lease associated with one or more rebates. Less than half, specifically 104, have disbursed 10 or more rebates and only 28, or about 10%, have awarded 50 or more rebates. (The denominator is somewhat inflated due to some dealers that don’t retail eligible plug-ins.)

The Top EV Dealers

These are the 5 dealers that have awarded more than 100 rebates.

• A-1 Toyota (New Haven)
• Honda of Westport (Westport)
• Richard Chevrolet (Cheshire)
• Karl Chevrolet (New Canaan)
• Lynch Toyota (Manchester)

Below are other top dealers for different makes that had between 50 and 100 rebates. Some makes haven’t had any dealer exceed 50 rebates.

GM – Ingersoll Auto (Danbury), O’Neill’s Chevrolet/Buick (Avon), H&L Chevrolet (Darien), Maritime Chevrolet (Fairfield), Grossman Chevrolet/Nissan (Old Saybrook), Chevrolet of Milford (Milford), Partyka Chevrolet (Hamden).

Toyota – Hoffman Toyota (West Simsbury), New Country Toyota of Westport (Westport), Middletown Toyota (Middletown), Hartford Toyota Superstore (Hartford), Westbrook Toyota (Westbrook)

Ford – Steven’s Ford (Milford), Stamford Ford/Lincoln (Stamford), Crowley Ford/Lincoln (Plainville)

Nissan – Grossman Chevrolet Nissan (Old Saybrook), Harte Nissan (West Haven), Crowley Nissan (Bristol)

BMW – BMW of Ridgefield (Ridgefield), BMW of Bridgeport (Bridgeport)

Finally, 2 stores that handle numerous brands:

Valenti Auto Sales (multiple locations) – Audi, VW, Porsche, Maserati, Fiat, Volvo, Alpha Romeo, Jaguar. (We presume most of the rebates come from VW.)

MJ Sullivan Automotive Corner (New London) – Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, Hyundai, Genesis

It should be acknowledged that this is a changing landscape. We are relying on the past as prologue to predict EV-friendliness and we hope it proves useful. As the EV landscape evolves and new models are introduced, we will update the data to the extent that it is available. We anticipate it will be. Going forward, the CSE has advised they will be making more granular data available with their normal releases of CHEAPR data.

Westport Police Department Receives Donation of Used BMW i3

The local police have been rather busy of late with the protests that have been occurring in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis PD, and, of course, coping with the stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not to lose sight of the significance of that, the greening of the municipal police force continues apace. The police department was recently the recipient of a donation of a used BMW i3 from a local resident. It is a 2015 REx model, which translates to an EPA-rated 72 miles of electric range, or up to 150 miles total, including the gasoline range-extender engine.

The vehicle has been customized for its duties and it looks sharp!

The “bimmer” joins a growing family of green vehicles as the police, part of the town’s push to net-zero, are testing a variety of vehicles for different use cases. This “new” addition is being used for security at Staples High School and adjacent Bedford Middle School, where security duty lasts 8-10 hours per day. It replaces a Ford Taurus that was consuming 6 to 8 gallons of gasoline daily, per Chief of Police Foti Koskinas. If we take an average daily usage of 7 gallons and multiply it by 200 service days per year (per the police), it works out to an estimated 1400 gallons of gasoline and 14 tons of carbon emissions annually. (Source for calculation: NASA)

There is a no-idling rule at Staples. Ironically, the most persistent offender has been the police since the patrol vehicle must remain running while on duty. Now they have emission-free idling running off the battery. When it comes to the police, this is why it is important to focus on gallons of gasoline used or saved rather than just MPG. A police vehicle spends thousands of hours idling over the course of its service life.

The low-speed patrolling around the schools means the electric drive will function at high efficiency.

Daily recharging? No sweat. There are two level-2 charging stations at Staples and the vehicle gets plugged in after hours.

Expanding Number of Green Vehicles

Along with the new arrival, the WPD has a Tesla Model 3 that was customized as a police cruiser and went into service during February, 2 plug-in Toyota Priuses that are used for parking and traffic enforcement at the town’s two Metro-North train stations and downtown, and a Ford Explorer hybrid (not a plug-in hybrid) that was also acquired for cruiser duty this year. Before the Tesla and the hybrid Explorer, the standard vehicle for cruisers was a conventional Ford Explorer. The EPA-rated mileage of the hybrid Explorer is 28 MPG, compared to 16 MPG for the standard version. These 5 environmentally friendly vehicles, which comprise a little less than 10% of the total fleet, will enable the collection of data to refine the department’s approach to future acquisitions.

Tesla Model 3 Update

This blog covered the vehicle entering service in February of this year here and here. There was a planned public press event for when the weather turned warmer, which did not happen due to the pandemic. We have a few updates.

According to Chief Foti, the vehicle has been performing as hoped and he describes the ongoing relationship with Tesla as excellent, crediting them with being very responsive and having a continued willingness to work with the PD in terms of making upgrades.

As previously reported, the Model 3 is already making use of the Tesla cameras. The Tesla lights are incorporated into the police emergency lighting, and all of the accessories requiring electricity are wired into the large battery.

Since we wrote about the vehicle in February, there have been two additional upgrades. The default setting for the headlights is that they turn off one minute after the car turns off. This was not enough for the police. Tesla did some software recoding and the lights now persist longer.

The biggest open question at the time the vehicle was put into service was whether the police would be able to use the computer that is native to the vehicle rather than install their own. This is a complex challenge due to the need to have an airtight firewall between the police databases that would be accessed and Tesla’s proprietary information. It is still a work in progress but there has been one significant development. Working with Tesla, the police have installed stationary radar, which logs directly into the computer. If they get to the point where the Tesla computer can be fully utilized, it would save between $5-$6,000 in customization costs.

The i3 donation was not a planned event, but it wouldn’t have happened had not Chief Foti, the department, and the town administration not demonstrated a vision for how to move the town forward in an environmentally-friendly way (which also happens to save money). The EV Club applauds and supports that vision.

CT Joins Multistate Lawsuit Against Attempt to Dismantle Obama CAFE Standards

As was widely reported in the press yesterday, Connecticut is one of 22 states and the District of Columbia that filed a lawsuit to block the Trump Administration’s attempt to dismantle the Obama CAFE fuel efficiency standards. This links to the press release from Attorney General Tong’s office.

There are three parts to this legal action as listed in material from AG’s office:

1.            A petition for reconsideration pending with the EPA;

2.            California v. Chao, Docket No. 1:19-cv-02826-KBJ in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and

3.            California v. Wheeler, Docket No. 19-1239 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which petitioned for review of SAFE Rule Part 1.

The administration’s rulemaking seeks not only to pull back to a lower MPG standard (and the dirtier air and higher fuel costs for consumers that go with it), it also seeks to block California and other states from following a separate, more stringent standard, which is what the landscape looked like prior to President Obama negotiating the Clean Car Standards with the industry. That was the crux of the compromise: the industry agreed to boost MPG and in return they got standardization. Point number 3, which refers to a “review of SAFE Rule Part 1” addresses the California Clean Act Waiver and the ability of the CARB states to preserve it if the Obama EPA regulations are rolled back.

The 2016 federal mid-term review found that the carmakers had exceeded the minimum requirements to that point and recommended continuing with the second phase through 2025 when the standard tops out at 54.5 MPG for passenger cars and light-duty trucks.

This blog is supportive of the action being taken by AG Tong and the other states. The Obama CAFE rules were not EV-specific, but more aggressively transitioning to zero-emission electric vehicles is the way to most effectively meet (and exceed) the standards.

The photo above of the Hartford area air quality, with readings of zero, means that in order to have cleaner air, you’d have to live on the moon. Air quality was already hugely improved as a result of the COVID related lockdown which has shuttered industry and greatly lessened traffic volume. Add to that a storm system that moved through the area yesterday, followed by high winds today, and we now have a “breathe deeply” moment.

As we have said in previous posts, we have an opportunity as a society, to implement measures going forward to maintain this level of air quality.

Below is Fairfield County. Not quite perfect, but close.

For comparisons to what air quality typically is in recent years in this area, which ain’t great, see our earlier post. It contains historical images from PurpleAir and NASA.

First Quarter Sales Results Were Terrible for the Industry, but a Sliver of a Silver Lining for EVs

The first-quarter economic data were just released and as bad as expected (GDP down 4.8%) with worse to come.

According to Automobilemag.com, nationally, automobile sales were down 12% for Q1 year over year because of a 41% decline in March.

Only two manufacturers reported a quarterly gain. Kia was up 1% and Tesla was up 40%. All others fell by as much as 30% (Nissan). Since Tesla basically carries EV sales, it is possible that EV market share is up for the quarter. General Motors was down 7%, but the Chevrolet Bolt was up 36%. That could be due to this being the final quarter of the phase-out of the federal tax incentive for GM, which is over the 200,00 unit sales threshold. It now joins Tesla as the only manufacturers that no longer have the benefit of this tax credit. We await final data for other EVs.

Despite a stronger than expected earnings call from Tesla, and after-hours momentum for the stock, there was some unfortunate hyperbole from Elon Musk over the temporary closure of its manufacturing plant in Fremont, CA. (Its plant in China is re-opening.) The company is ahead of schedule in its rollout of the Model Y, which is expected to be an even stronger performer than the Model 3. The economy may be cratering, but their problem seems to be more supply than demand.

CHEAPR Rebates Run Countertrend and Rise in March

March was clearly the worst month of the quarter by far, but CHEAPR rebates actually rose relative to January and February. As shown in the graph at the top of the post, this is almost completely driven by the Model 3, despite the fact that only the most basic trim level falls under the revised MSRP cap of $42,000. 39 of the 86 rebates in March were for the Model 3, a lower percentage than it was before the change in October 2019, but still surprisingly high.

CHEAPR data are loaded through March 31. They typically update monthly and lag about a month.

Despite the March spike, the annual run rate based on a straight-line projection of the quarter is only $756,000, still well under the $3 million allocated. The messaging remains on the CHEAPR website that revisions to the program are coming this year, but, hey guys, it’s almost May!

This is a screengrab from the CHEAPR website showing rebate levels by month from inception through March 2020. The levels rose as EVs gained more traction and, in particular, Tesla launched the Model 3, but then fell after the changes in October. The green shading is for BEVs and the blue is for PHEVs. The amount of green shading has increased and is driven primarily by the success of the Model 3, the discontinuance of the Chevrolet Volt, and a softening in the number of rebates for the Toyota Prius Prime. The introduction of the Chevrolet Bolt and Nissan Leaf Plus have had a more modest impact.

Bargersville, Indiana, Tesla Model 3 Police Vehicle

The exciting news from Indiana is that there is really no news. The Model 3 police vehicle performance is meeting or exceeding expectations. And, yes, it is quiet.

Our Facebook page received an update today (March 9) regarding Indiana, where the Bargersville Police force acquired the first Tesla Model 3 to be put to use for police duty. This is the progress report.

Glad to hear this report from a test vehicle that’s in service a few months longer than Westport. Their expectations are in line with Westport.

Bargersville is a small town – population 9,000, located 20 miles or so from Indianapolis. They have stated to the press that they hope to add 4 more Teslas and use the savings to add another officer to their force, which currently stands at 12.

A Lot Had to Happen to Get Us Here

The Westport Police Tesla Model 3 police cruiser is in its third week of service as of this writing. It has become an international sensation and the introductory splash doesn’t show signs of abating any time soon. The Westport Police Department is still fielding inquiries. The car will be exhibited at the New York International Auto Show from April 10 – 19. It will be seen at the Westport Maker Faire and there will be an open house and press event in April. (Update: The NY International Auto Show has been canceled for 2020. Maker Faire is canceled. The status of the open house is TBD. This is due to taking precautions regarding COVID-19.)

This post takes a look back on some of the hurdles and questions that had to be faced in order to get to this point, some of which could have scuttled the project.

Politics

Westport Police Chief, Foti Koskinas, has made it a point to thank the First Selectman Jim Marpe and town officials for their support. We want to pause here for a minute because this is not just an obligatory shout-out. Chief Foti was very clear that because of this support, he was spared jumping through bureaucratic hoops with multiple boards. The town was supportive of taking this step, knowing that they were incurring a certain level of risk. The community has ambitious goals to lower emissions and become net-zero. Town leadership understands it is time for action. The fact that there is considerable support in this environmentally-minded community also helps.

Foti told the club that he is aware of police chiefs in a number of municipalities that would like to do the same thing, but they gave up because of the process. It can be hard to overcome inertia.

Requirements

This was easy. The Tesla exceeds the minimum requirements for safety and performance.

Engineering

There were a number of challenges and questions that flow from this one word.

Would Tesla be cooperative from an engineering perspective? Without their support, the best that Westport and its vendors could hope for would be to muddle through, if it would even have been worth the trouble. Foti stated that at first there were challenges. Tesla was initially unresponsive. But they came around to embrace the project, which has obvious upside for them. Having made it through that, Foti now characterizes them as a great partner.

These are the specific tasks we are aware of:

Integrate Tesla headlights and taillights so they can be used as part of police emergency lighting. Tesla recoded for this.

Access the Sentry cameras for use as dashcam and license plate readers. Tesla worked with the WPD vendors and this is happening. The police can now avoid purchasing new cameras, which they normally have to do. And the Tesla cameras are superior.

Wire the electric accessories such as lights, siren, and radio into the 75kW battery (a.k.a. the large battery). The alternative would have been to add another 12-volt battery, an inelegant solution that could also have scuppered the project. The law enforcement accessories that are powered by the large battery have had only a de minimus impact on range.

Use the Tesla computer. This is a work in progress and the outcome is still not known. There has to be airtight security for both parties. Foti is cautiously optimistic. For now, they have installed a ruggedized tablet.

One of the questions to be addressed by the test is how well the battery holds up. Tesla has advised WPD to expect 1 – 1.5% degradation per year. Tesla is monitoring the batteries. That level of degradation would not interfere with the ability of the car to be used for many years. After 10 years, the battery would still be 85-90% of what it was on delivery.

Cost. Of course, cost.

Even though replacing a car that gets 16 MPG (on paper, anyway – in actuality, it’s lower) with a zero-emission vehicle makes all the sense in a world where climate change represents an existential threat and air pollution is responsible for thousands of deaths each year and billions in added health care costs, the town, and taxpayers, nonetheless, have to pay for it.

In the reporting at the time of the acquisition, it was noted that the cost of the Tesla was $52,290 versus $37,000 for a Ford Explorer and that the savings on fuel and maintenance would make up the differential in less than 3 years. That is all true, except it is more complicated than that.

The new Tesla actually will have cost less to acquire. “Huh?” you say.

Police cruisers require a lot of customization and that is expensive. None of the off-the-shelf parts would fit this new vehicle. This includes the wiring of the accessories into the battery, lights, gun rack, etc. The firms that Westport uses, major players in this particular market niche, are Whelen Engineering and Fleet Auto Body, the latter company doing the installation. Both of these companies provided their services to outfit the Tesla for free. It was R&D for them. And once they made that offer, it essentially eliminated any financial risk for the town, barring the car being a complete failure and having to be written off. The cost of paying for a one-off customization would have been prohibitive. It wouldn’t have happened. Going forward, the cost of the customization will have to be figured into any future purchases, though the cost will be the standard market rate for such a project. And depending upon how much of the native Tesla tech will be repurposed, these costs could be lowered significantly.

Not having to buy cameras saves around $3000. Incorporating the Tesla lights into the police emergency lights helps. If the Tesla computer can be tapped, there would be an additional savings of $3-5000, making the differential in capital costs practically disappear.

Model 3 – Going Forward

It is not uncommon for the actual performance to differ from the officially rated metrics. In the case of the Ford Explorer, while it is rated for 16 MPG, the performance under police-use conditions with all the idling and sudden acceleration is 8-10 MPG.

According to Foti, the Tesla Model 3 has “hit all its marks” during the brief period that it has been in service. So color us optimistic. The performance is there. The officers like it. The range has been adequate. Tesla is monitoring the battery. It is hoped that the life of the vehicle will exceed the service life of conventional police vehicles.

We now enter the period of gathering data. By definition, that will take some time. And we’ll be here to report it when that time comes.

The Tesla Model 3 police cruiser was the star of the EV Club meeting

Westport Chief of Police Foti Koskinas brought the new, fully customized Tesla Model 3 police vehicle to the EV Club meeting this week to exhibit to a group of roughly 30 attendees. He applauded the support the police received from First Selectman Jim Marpe, Sustainable Westport, the EV Club of CT, and many residents. This car is a tangible step toward the town’s objective of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The police department continues to field inquiries about their experience and process to this point from countries all over the world. The chief referenced recent inquiries from Istanbul, Turkey, and New Zealand.

Chief Foti is shown here speaking to the club. He is drinking Pepsi, folks, although he has also drunk the Kool-Aid as evident in his enthusiasm about the Model 3. The vehicle has only been in service for two weeks, which is not much time to gather data, but Foti told the crowd that it is performing as advertised. He looks forward to gathering more data as the department accumulates more experience with it to further analyze the use case.

A police vehicle is normally kept for around 120,000 miles. But those are driving miles and the vehicle will have spent 30,000 hours idling during its time in use. In the stories about the Tesla acquisition that have been published in various outlets, some commenters expressed negative sentiment about police spending time idling in general. For the record, it is required. The computer needs to be kept running, and the officers have to be in a position to respond instantaneously. The combination of the driving and idling equates to 300,000 driving miles, per Chief Foti. The police electronic equipment is being wired directly into the 75 kW Tesla battery. Problem solved with respect to emissions, but it is hoped, and we won’t know for a while, that the Tesla will have a longer service life. Tesla is monitoring the battery and advises the police to expect 1% to 1.5% diminishment per year, meaning the vehicle can remain in service a long time without worrying about a battery that becomes meaningfully compromised.

Chief Foti also discussed how the mileage stats that are on paper about a car don’t mean a lot with respect to actual performance. The 16 MPG that is the rated performance of the Ford Explorers is closer to 8 – 10 MPG due to the nature of its use for police work. But, that said, and in the service of gathering data, the department is also working with Ford to test a conventional hybrid Explorer police vehicle. The hybrid would see a gain in rated mileage from 16 to 28 MPG, and would somewhat mitigate the use of the engine while idling.

The Model 3 is not the department’s first experience with a plug-in vehicle. It owns two plug-in Priuses, which are used for parking enforcement and mostly run in electric mode.

The Model 3 has been deployed to traffic, where its ability to accelerate quickly from a standing start is valuable from the perspective of officer and public safety, described in more detail in an earlier post here. Chief Foti put more specific numbers to it at the meeting.  The police Model 3 will go from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds. The faster the police vehicle can accelerate to overtake a speeder and the shorter the distance to catch up to the offender, the lower the risk. Describing the safety issue as “huge,” he states that he may only have to drive at 65 MPH with the Tesla instead of 85 MPH, and travel two-tenths of a mile rather than six or seven-tenths of a mile.

Traffic is a big issue locally. There is plenty of it. The department receives numerous complaints of dangerous driving from residents. Chief Foti described Westport as a “cut-through” town, given that  I-95 and the Merritt Parkway cross the town, not to mention Route 1 and the two train stations. When there is a backup (which happens all the time), the map apps direct traffic onto local roads. There is a lot of speeding, distracted driving, and incivility.

The Model 3 is being used for either one or two shifts per day, every day. Even if the car has been on duty for 16 hours, there is still plenty of time overnight to fully recharge the battery.

This particular patrol car is not a “black and white.” It is dark gray with police decals, a design that “doesn’t stick out until you want it to stick out.”

Custom Model 3 Equipment Spec

Whelen engineering developed a lot of custom equipment for this car due to its being the first of its kind project. They didn’t charge the town since they view it as a pilot. In order to show their work to other prospective municipal customers, they have purchased their own vehicle. They spent about 200 hours working on this customization, but once this is in regular production, that is expected to be reduced by 80 to 90 percent. This vendor already has another order, though it is for a fire chief’s car.

BMW i8 Cabriolet

The Tesla wasn’t the only interesting vehicle to make an appearance. Club member Joe Stroll brought his gold BMW i8 Cabriolet.

Electric Vehicle Test Track at the New York Auto Show

UPDATE: This show has been postponed due to COVID-19 and is now scheduled for August 28 – September 6, with press days Aug. 26, 27.

Con Edison, the New York utility, is sponsoring the Electric Vehicle Test Track, as well as booth space for non-profit EV organizations from the tri-state area. Drive Electric Long Island is spearheading this, along with some of its coalition partners. The EV Club of CT has been invited to participate.

There will be a lot of EVs present and we look forward to the chance to speak with some of these companies about their plans and exchange experiences and ideas with other EVangelist groups.

A ticket to the auto show costs $17 for an adult. Club-members who volunteer for a shift at the booth will get a free ticket to the exhibition.

Tesla Model 3 Police Vehicle Appearance

The Tesla Model 3 police vehicle, as has been reported previously, has drawn an unbelievable amount of attention, whether at the CT Conference of Municipalities, inquiries from around the world, or local interest. It is safe to say that the Westport Police, supported by town leadership, have gotten way more than 75 kWh worth of mileage as a result of their innovative move. We have learned that the Police Model 3 will be making an appearance at the NY Auto Show. Tesla is covering the cost. We’ll publish more detail when available.

The show runs from April 10 through 19th, from 10 AM to 10 PM at the Jacob Javits Center on 11th Avenue in New York City.

Open for Business – Tesla leasing in Milford

Tesla held its official kickoff of leasing vehicles directly to customers from its service center in Milford, CT.

The festivities opened with Mayor Ben Blake of Milford touting that the town has more EV charging stations than any town in CT and is the supercharger capitol of the state.

Bruce Becker, president of the EV Club of CT, moderated the event, noting that Tesla accounts for the majority of the increase in EV registrations year over year.

There were also speakers from CT DEEP, The Sierra Club, and the CT League of Conservation Voters.

Prospective leasing customers are permitted to take a test drive.

It is technically called a demonstration drive, and the wording in the liability release is a little different reflecting the fact that it is in the service of a prospective lease, but it’s a test drive.

The first step to direct sales?

Tesla is still not permitted to sell directly to consumers, unlike in our neighboring states of New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and, for that matter, the majority of the country. What prevents Tesla from doing so are the so-named dealer franchise laws that were written decades ago to protect the dealerships from their own affiliated manufacturers. Those old laws did not address leasing which didn’t exist. Nonetheless, Tesla was careful, making sure they were legally buttoned up before taking this step. To be sure, this is only a first step, a foot in the door toward changing the law to permit direct sales. With other EV companies preparing to sell directly to consumers, if we in CT want to make a significant impact on emissions reduction, if consumers are to be given choice, it is only a matter of time.

Further coverage can be found in this article in the New Haven Business Journal.