Your thoughts on an upcoming EV Guest Drive - anyone have experience or have an opinion ?

[metroshot]

Received an email from a EV Navigator rep to be a host to show off my Lightning at the Glendale City Hall sponsored by Glendale Water & Power on a Saturday.

They said they have a variety of vehicles and want to have owners present, answer questions from the public, and to allow test drives.

They are offering $300 and lunch for the day.

What are your thoughts ?

Any positives / negatives ?

https://www.electric-car-insider.com/evpresenters/

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[Halbach]

Received an email from a EV Navigator rep to be a host to show off my Lightning at the Glendale City Hall sponsored by Glendale Water & Power on a Saturday.

They said they have a variety of vehicles and want to have owners present, answer questions from the public, and to allow test drives.

They are offering $300 and lunch for the day.

What are your thoughts ?

Any positives / negatives ?

https://www.electric-car-insider.com/evpresenters/

If my truck ever arrives I would be super into it! I don't even have it yet and I talk about it constantly. As for test drives, I would allow it as long as I was in the truck and they promise not to punch it at every stop light lol.

 

[RickLightning]

I've taken my car to multiple EV shows (some of them when my 2021 was for sale). Love answering questions. I rarely let anyone side. I would never let anyone drive it, period. You paid $80,000, and clearly don't need $300. The risk isn't worth it, period.

 

[Ostrichsak]

If my truck ever arrives I would be super into it! I don't even have it yet and I talk about it constantly. As for test drives, I would allow it as long as I was in the truck and they promise not to punch it at every stop light lol.

It will take a little while of owning an EV but you will come to the realization that it's not like an ICE vehicle where each time you punch it is one time closer to the big boom! lol You can romp on an EV all day every day and the only real negative is your horrid electron efficiency and probably a rapid approaching tire bill. That's about it though. Not only are they WAY faster but they're also more durable with fewer parts to fail.

 

[sotek2345]

Sounds like a great time! I did something similar with the Drive Electric we had locally here (no reimbursement though).

For the test drives, I agree with being in the vehicle.

 

[Halbach]

It will take a little while of owning an EV but you will come to the realization that it's not like an ICE vehicle where each time you punch it is one time closer to the big boom! lol You can romp on an EV all day every day and the only real negative is your horrid electron efficiency and probably a rapid approaching tire bill. That's about it though. Not only are they WAY faster but they're also more durable with fewer parts to fail.

You can romp on an EV all day with degradation to the battery just like degradation to ICE parts. It is very minor but it does add up over time. I work with motors and batteries enough to be conscientious enough of their current limitations (pun intended), all I was hoping for while letting someone take it for a ride is a little respect.

 

[Ostrichsak]

You can romp on an EV all day with degradation to the battery just like degradation to ICE parts. It is very minor but it does add up over time. I work with motors and batteries enough to be conscientious enough of their current limitations (pun intended), all I was hoping for while letting someone take it for a ride is a little respect.

Got some links to independent data that supports that "romping on it" as you put it will cause increased battery degradation over time as compared to the same conditions but not "romping on it" to prove this claim?

 

[metroshot]

Any way to limit heavy acceleration like a valet / guest mode ?

 

[RickLightning]

Any way to limit heavy acceleration like a valet / guest mode ?

No.

 

[Halbach]

Got some links to independent data that supports that "romping on it" as you put it will cause increased battery degradation over time as compared to the same conditions but not "romping on it" to prove this claim?

It is pretty common knowledge that the higher the discharge current is compared to the capacity of the battery, the faster it will experience capacity degradation. This is the reason you will see ER vehicles that are driven exactly the same as their SR counterparts experiencing less range loss over time. I see you have owned more EVs than I ever will so I'm guessing you doubt me, that's fine. There is something to be said for "real world" vs lab vs anecdotal evidence, but regardless it is your vehicle and thus your rules. This article would cover some basics. BU-501a: Discharge Characteristics of Li-ion - Battery University

 

[metroshot]

I asked the event organizer about insurance and was told they have 1M and 5M general liability insurance for the event but my vehicle's primary insurance (mine) will kick in if something happens.
Their insurance would only cover the deductible portion.

Sounds cheesy - why they can't cover it under a commercial insurance rider for the day - leaves me with a soured taste...

 

[NCevGuyF150]

Received an email from a EV Navigator rep to be a host to show off my Lightning at the Glendale City Hall sponsored by Glendale Water & Power on a Saturday.

They said they have a variety of vehicles and want to have owners present, answer questions from the public, and to allow test drives.

They are offering $300 and lunch for the day.

What are your thoughts ?

Any positives / negatives ?

https://www.electric-car-insider.com/evpresenters/

I think it’s an awesome idea for a community event, educating people about electric vehicles and charging them

 

[PrimeRisk]

I asked the event organizer about insurance and was told they have 1M and 5M general liability insurance for the event but my vehicle's primary insurance (mine) will kick in if something happens.
Their insurance would only cover the deductible portion.

Sounds cheesy - why they can't cover it under a commercial insurance rider for the day - leaves me with a soured taste...

A policy like that would be prohibitively expensive for the organizers to carry if they could even get one. I can't imagine an insurance company willing to underwrite dozens of potential vehicles and drivers that they have no data on. On top of that, you generally cannot insure something that doesn't belong to you. That is why they are only carrying a general liability policy for the event.

I'd be all good with hanging out for a day letting people check the Truck out and answering questions, but test drives would be out of the question under those arrangements. Since they are paying you something to be there AND provide test drives, it could get into a grey area that you are renting the vehicle. Most auto insurers explicitly preclude coverage for rental activity unless you have a specific rider for that activity or a different policy that covers you for rental activity. People who rent their vehicles on Turo have the option of buying additional insurance through Turo if their personal auto coverage precludes the activity, but it is expensive and comes with a significant deductible. Why is this coverage offered through Turo? Because you need it.

If you really want to participate, you'd be better off refuse any payment for being there because if something happens, you would be covered by your auto policy just like you would if you loaned your truck to a friend. Insurance companies are masters of finding loopholes to not pay out on their policies. (Source: Personal experience)

Story time:

My wife and I own rentals, including some Short-Term Rental units in Myrtle Beach, SC. We store a 2002 Chevy Suburban at one of the properties in a detached garage and allow some friends and family to occasionally use the vehicle and stay in one of our places. Unfortunately one of our friends using the vehicle got rear-ended by a rental vehicle while sitting at a red light. Clearly the other driver's fault and they were ticketed.

The damage to our Suburban was not huge, only a couple thousand. The damage to the 2024 F-150 that rear-ended them was quite significant and it had to be towed away. Let's hear it for older vehicles that still have real bumpers. You'd think that I was covered 6 ways from Sunday...you would also be wrong.

a) The driver should have been insured
b) It's a rental vehicle, so the rental company is insured (technically self-insured)
c) Our friends have their own car insurance that would cover as they have uninsured motorist coverage
d) We have our own policy, including uninsured motorist

Here's how we worked through the layers:

a) The driver provided insurance information to the police and it was included in the accident report. It was, as I'm sure you have figured out, expired. I talked to the guy and his response was "Sue me if you can find me."

b) I filed against the rental company, Enterprise, and they dragged their feet for about 6 weeks and finally came back stating that they were denying my claim as the driver was not the person that rented the car, so they considered them an unauthorized driver and they disclaimed any liability. My attorney explained that in SC, this falls under the same liability laws as a stolen vehicle. If someone crashes your car and they aren't authorized to drive it, it's considered stolen and the owner of the vehicle bares no liability if it is involved in an accident. So, Enterprise gets to skate, but I don't see that as unreasonable. Everyone agreed that if the renter had crashed into us and it turned out that they didn't have valid insurance, then Enterprise would have paid.

c) Our friend's insurance company disclaimed any liability because there was an active policy on the vehicle being driven and they were not at fault. I didn't actually try to file against our friend's policy, but since A & B were strike-outs, our friends talked to their agent about the possibility.

d) Our insurance company provided a huge amount of static about the deal for our friends being out there. They were particularly interested in the arrangement for them staying in one of our properties and the usage of the vehicle during a telephone deposition. They were going down the path to disclaim liability as they said I was renting the vehicle to our friends. This all hinged on the fact that while we don't charge a rental fee to our friends to stay in our places, we do ask them to pay for the cleaning fee. The claims adjuster wanted to twist our ask for the cleaning fee to be paid on the property into a rental activity for the property AND the vehicle. As we are not covered for rental activity on the vehicle policy, they initially denied our claim.

We had to have our attorney to write a letter to our insurance company explaining that they would never be able to prove renal activity of the vehicle (as it wasn't) and that we had "f*ck-you" money to sue them out of principal even if it cost us $10,000 and we never recovered a cent. My attorney in South Carolina is a Honey Badger in a $2000 suit with a really, really big mean streak. She is worth every cent.

Our insurance company saw the light and repaired the vehicle less our $500 deductible as an uninsured motorist claim. They are pursuing action to recover against the driver, not that I care. As a final end to my dealings with my carrier, I had them to payout on a rental for 2 weeks while the vehicle was in the shop and pushed the issue of an equivalent vehicle. They wanted to stick me with the standard econo-box, but we have a 9-passenger SUV, so the closest they could provide was a Mercedes Sprinter van. The rental bill was more than the repair.

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