Back Story.

When I traveled to Vancouver nearly a year ago to buy the first of the fleet I had a general idea of what I wanted to do but no solid business plan. I had a check for $54,000 in hand - which was a large chunk of my savings. I stood outside the Vancouver car dealer where I had negotiated the deal. Outside of my home, this was the largest purchase I had ever made. My enthusiasm might have been getting the best of me and so I decided to call my most trusted friends for advice. I realized that while the vision was sound I needed to hit the pause button and do some more business planning to ensure the first jump was a success.

I knew I needed to flush out the business model more in order to better prepare for success. I chose to buy a BMW i3 Range Extender instead for half the cost to test out everything EV. The journey home and then one year of EV ownership in every season of Alberta weather was a great learning opportunity and provided the time to refine my ideas. The journey from Vancouver to Edmonton in January, over the rocky mountains, and in an EV with a range of 130km in summer weather was only possible with the help of dedicated EV enthusiasts who helped me plan and execute the journey. The trip was aided by my buddy Matty McClatchie with technical/ logistics support from Uncle Dave, a local Vancouver electric car enthusiast and amazing human being. I found Dave’s contact online and reached out to him before my journey. Dave was one month out from a hearth transplant, but never missed a beat, helping reprogram our car for long distance travel, loading us up with ABBA music, and packing sandwiches for the journey. We couldn’t have done it without Uncle Dave. Well, $15 of electricity, $35 of fuel, and eight stops later, Matty and I were in Edmonton in -35C temperature. I both fell in love with this car and the EV drive but also learned an awful lot about the limitations of first generation electric vehicles, especially in Canadian winters. This adventure let me develop a much more focused business plan and try again. Now big things are on their way.