Thursday saw the Tesla owners of Vancouver Island come together for the first time. This meeting was triggered by a practical reason: Tesla found one Model S in Europe with the passenger seat belt not properly attached. In good old Tesla fashion, they decided to have all Tesla cars checked, even though there was only this one non-crash/ non-injury incident and the likelihood of a repeat was very slim. For us in Victoria BC, it meant that a Tesla Ranger would come to the Island from Vancouver to check the 30+ Tesla cars calling this their home base. In good old Tesla-Owner fashion, we thought about how we could help Tesla and decided to meet in one spot to make the process more convenient, more fun, and faster. Thus, our first Tesla Owner Meeting in Victoria BC came to be.

Over some Good Earth coffee and solar-energy-baked Tesla Cookies, we quickly connected through our shared enthusiasm for our Tesla cars. Tesla owners are a social bunch; we love to share our Tesla experience. We never get tired of sharing how much we love our cars in comparison to other premium sedans we drove before. There were fellow bloggers, fellow videographers, we reunited with people who asked for our advice prior to ordering their own Tesla online, and we finally met people we so far only knew via Facebook posts. At the peak, we had 16 Tesla cars together in one spot. An awesome sight!

A few things became obvious: Tesla cars sell themselves through test drives. So many now-owners were sold on the car during their first few minutes driving a Model S. While most of us got into Tesla cars because they are so much fun to drive (among other reasons), another aspect of Tesla ownership almost secretly stole itself into our hearts: Over night, many of us developed a new environmental interest and our thinking almost automatically turned towards “what else?” For many, that meant installing solar panels on their house roofs. That’s certainly how it all started for Rolf and myself. Tesla power walls are probably next. Some of us are going even further, building a net zero load house.

The meeting also saw the unveiling of my TeslaXCanada.com car sticker – a surprise in more ways than one – thus marking the “official” start of Rolf’s and my new blog. Rolf and I will cross Canada in a Tesla in the summer of 2016 to promote sustainable energy, electric cars and our beautiful country. Blogging will already start with our “practice run” to Ft. Lauderdale in January as there’s lots to learn about how to best document our travels. Rolf took this event’s opportunity to shoot videos and take pictures. I didn’t let him bring his drone, though, that’ll start in January… 😉

When Rolf and I left 3 ½ hours later, 24 of the 30+ Tesla cars on Vancouver Island had been inspected with not one issue found. The Tesla Ranger stayed on to service the remaining cars upon arrival. Needless to say, we left very quietly with not one particle of CO2 emitted.