This morning, at 9:00am I arrived at Willow Park school in my Tesla Model X, aptly named LOLGAS.

The principal, Melinda, is an old family friend welcomed me with a huge smile and ushered me into where I parked infront of the year six classroom of room 3.

 

The children were well mannered, and extremely enthralled with the presentation.  I was somewhat sad to learn that only three of the children had ever been in an Electric Vehicle.  They all knew what a Tesla was, and they all knew who Elon Musk was.  They also knew plenty about the performance and intricacies of driving EV.

 

What we covered:

 

• EV use clean New Zealand energy to drive (80% renewables in NZ and more in the south island thanks to all the hydro power)
• Fastest 0-100km production car on the road
• EV cost between 7K and 300K so there is a wide range of EV available now in New Zealand
• We discussed AI (artificial intelligence) and deep learning as well as the implications of autonomous cars and maximizing efficiencies by having fewer cars on the roads
• We discussed ROI (return on investment) on a $60,000 fast charging 50kW machine
• We discussed the importance of STEM subjects for everyone
• We discussed particulate matter and the inefficiency and health issues related to fossil fuels
• We discussed clean and quiet EV driving

The class had excellent questions and were incredibly engaged throughout the short presentation.

 

The teacher was welcoming and helpful and at the end of the presentation said she was going to speak to her husband about purchasing an EV as a second car.

In general, it was a fun and informative morning.  The children enjoyed the car and particularly found the gull wing doors interesting.

 

Thank you kindly to Willow Park school for the opportunity to come and speak with these intelligent and well behaved kids.

Kind Regards,

 

Dee West

solPR and ChargeNet NZ