One particular of the major boosters of electrical automobiles in Congress is a Republican symbolizing a rural extend of east Kentucky. The Congressman is also a legit Tesla hacker with a YouTube channel, two MIT engineering levels, and serves on the US Home Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure. So what does he assume about the Tesla Cybertruck, and what new jobs can we appear ahead to on his farm?
Congressman Thomas Massie commenced younger with electrical automobiles. He joined the MIT photo voltaic automobile staff in 1989, serving to make and race the photo voltaic automobile from Florida to Michigan in GM Sunrayce United states 1990. He was a Tesla early adopter, placing down a $five,000 deposit in 2010 on a Design S, sight unseen. He picked it up in January 2013, VIN #3347, and has been driving it at any time due to the fact. Even in the pre-Supercharger times, he applied his Design S to journey back again and forth in between Kentucky and DC, sleeping in the back again though charging at RV heaps. On his YouTube channel, he’s showcased building his own homebrew Powerwall with a salvaged Design S 85 battery. He has Kentucky’s formal 𠇏riend of Coal” license plate, exhibiting that he’s proudly supporting his coal state constituents by driving an EV.
Congressman Massie supports coal miners by driving electrical, found in this article with Kentucky’s formal 𠇏riends of Coal” license plate
(notice: this job interview is edited and condensed from a for a longer period discussion)
Q: So, 1st feelings on the Tesla Cybertruck?
A: Very first effect is that I like that it’s stainless metal. For a great deal of electrical autos, the lifestyle of the drivetrain is calculated in many years. It’ll outlast the physique. So stainless metal was a great decision. I’m pretty fascinated to see the towing set up. I will need it to pull a fifth wheel trailer. I travel a 240-mile roundtrip with a loaded 16’ foot cattle hauler, so I’m keen to see what variety of assortment I𠆝 get. I’m also definitely curious about Tesla’s ‘Cyberquad’ ATV. I have a Polaris Ranger that I’ve been organizing on EV changing.
Q: Can you notify us far more about changing your Polaris ATV?
A: I𠆝 use two Tesla Design S battery modules. The Design S pack has 16 modules, I𠆝 use two them, operate it at 48V, and almost certainly use the Briggs and Stratton 48V electrical motor that’s out there. I by now have just one for my son’s go-kart. Two modules would equivalent 10kWh of potential.
Q: What about utilizing a Design three battery?
A: The Design three battery is fewer hacker-pleasant (hacking becoming a great detail, regardless of its terrible identify these times) mainly because it has four modules as a substitute of 16, and the modules aren’t all the very same voltage. Just about every Design S battery module is 24V, you can wire them up effortlessly in a quantity of configurations. The Design three battery has four modules, and they’re all increased voltage than most off-the-shelf business inverters now. It doesn’t lend by itself to compatibility with 48V. You see this mirrored on eBay, the Design S battery goes for far more.
Q: Have you viewed as investing in your Design S for a Design three so you can insert to your dwelling electrical power storage?
A: I’ve attempted the Design three, but I favor the Design S. I assume Tesla nailed it with the Design S. I substantially favor the trip high-quality. I’m retaining my 2012 Design S for now.
Q:਎lon just tweeted that the Cybertruck will have a solar roof option to add 15 miles of range per day, what do you assume of that?
A: I individually definitely like that alternative. I’m a little bit bothered by battery phantom drain. Acquiring sufficient photo voltaic to offset that is a pretty great advancement. Individuals are applied to locating the very same volume of gasoline in their automobile even soon after they’ve been absent for a thirty day period.
Thomas Massie in the MIT photo voltaic automobile he aided make in 1990.
Q: You’ve obtained practical experience with photo voltaic autos, can you notify us about that?
A: I joined the MIT photo voltaic automobile staff in 1989, and the following yr we entered the automobile in the GM Sunrayce. We competed with 32 groups, racing from Florida to Michigan. Our automobile experienced about 900W of photo voltaic, and if it was sunny out, we could travel 32mph at split even – the automobile’s amp meter would study zero. That was these types of a interesting sensation. The battery was a silver-zinc battery built for torpedoes. The captain of our staff was James Worden, who went on to observed Solectria. His organization purchased Chevy Metros, took out the electricity coach, and resold them as EVs, he was a genuine EV pioneer.
Q: What’s one more aspect you𠆝 like to see in the Cybertruck?
A: One particular detail I want to see for all Teslas is a way to far more seamlessly combine charging with photo voltaic. It’s specially vital when you’re off-grid, like I am at the farm. Acquiring my Tesla crank up its charging when the solar is beating down, and wind down its charging when the clouds occur in. I set a stable point out relay in the circuit breaker in my household, wired to the 240V outlet I use for my Tesla. When the solar is blaring, I transform it on, and when I shed the solar, I can slash it. But if you do this much too normally (far more than two times a working day), the Tesla will assume it’s related to a defective outlet and refuse to cost.
Q:਍o you assume the Cybertruck will be a strike in Kentucky?
A: One particular of the matters that draws in enterprises to Kentucky is our small charge of electrical energy, so that need to enable men and women go electrical in this article. I assume driving electrical with a 𠇏riends of Coal” license plate also allows men and women make a link in between driving electrical and supporting homegrown, domestically produced electricity.
Q: I noticed that the latest video tour of your farm. You have a creek on your residence, have you at any time appeared into micro-hydro?
A: I’ve surveyed the creek several moments to see its elevation fall. I designed a makeshift weir (ed notice – a weir, or small head dam, is a barrier throughout the width of a river that alters the circulation features of drinking water) to evaluate the peak, estimate the quantity of drinking water touring by means of the creek. But every single time I appeared at it, I concluded putting in far more photo voltaic or battery storage would make far more feeling. I am however pursuing pumped hydro for saved electrical power. I designed a pond with a vertical elevation 200ft increased than my household. I ran a two” line from it, significant sufficient to make it possible for a significant circulation at 88PSI. (ed notice – this is pretty interesting, coal state is by now dwelling to “the world’s largest battery” in the form of a pumped hydro station in SW Virginia)
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