EVangelizing
Lots of stuff to cover today, but a little background info is needed. Back in 2022, while attending the Electrify Expo, in Austin, I had the pleasure of seeing a great presentation given by Chris Harto of Consumer Reports. I was struck by one statistic in his presentation: 40% of Americans, without any experience with electric vehicles, say they’ll never buy an EV. That’s how political EVs had become, due to our culture wars. It continues to this day. The good news is that seeing one in their neighborhood, knowing someone who drives one, riding in one a few times and driving one a few times reduces that resistance (pun intended) to just 4%. In other words, personal experience is much more powerful than culture wars.
Is that 4% still disinterested in EVs deluded or insane? No! Some people have use cases, such as having to tow heavy trailers long distances on a regular basis, that were not suitable for the charging infrastructure and charging speeds of 2022.
That presentation reinvigorated my EVangelizing and love of EV road trips. (more on this later…)
Fast forward to 2026.
In 2021, the National Electric Vehicle Initiative (NEVI) program was created to provide federal funds to quickly increase the number of chargers in our country, starting along the interstate highway system. Later phases of the program would expand charging locations to include areas not serviced by the interstate highways. Each state was required to develop its own plans, to consider local needs.
The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TXDOT) plan was recognized by the federal government as one of the best and thanks to it, it has become much easier to get around Texas in an EV. To illustrate this, in 2025 Texas EV took an EV road trip from Shreveport, Louisiana to El Paso, Texas. To make it more challenging, we routed the trip through the beautiful and wild Big Bend area of Texas, passing through Terlingua. (Unfortunately, we missed their famous chili cook off by a few days.) This was challenging due to the fact that once we left Alpine, Texas there were no EV chargers for 279 miles.
The highways in that area also have high speed limits and lots of hills and valleys to traverse. Of course, being EV veterans, we took portable Level 2 EV chargers with us, so we could charge at RV parks, state parks with RV connections and mobile home parks, basically anywhere with a 240 volt outlet. It was a great trip! If you’ve been wanting to stretch your EV’s legs, here are some resources which will give you tips on how to properly plan your route and some items you can take along with you to charge where there aren’t any chargers:
- https://www.theev-angelist.com/ev-road-trips-in-texas-and-beyond/
- https://www.theev-angelist.com/my-swiss-army-knife-of-ev-charging/
- https://youtu.be/r2kzcM0aY5M
Now, back to EVangelizing:
A couple years ago, the house next door sold and I went over to welcome the new neighbors to the neighborhood and offer any assistance they might need. I gave them my business card so they’d have my phone number. They asked about The EVangelist, so I explained my work here and at Texas EV Alliance. That started lots of questions about the practicality of EVs. At the time, I didn’t know that the husband (Jamey) was interested in EVs but the wife (Emily) had concerns. We had a fun conversation about EVs and I answered every question they posed. We became fast friends.
And that’s where I left it.
A year later, they shared with me that they were wanting to test drive various EVs and wanted to know dealers they could trust. I sent them to my former employer, Classic Chevrolet and gave them the name of a salesperson who understood EVs and was trustworthy.
Then, my wife and I left for San Miguel de Allende in Mexico for a week-long celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary. When we got back, Emily said there was something she needed to show me. I walked next door and she opened the garage to show her new Mustang Mach-e! Of course, I asked if they had visited the Chevy dealership I mentioned. They had, but the salesperson I recommended was off work the day they visited and the salesperson they spoke with had no EV knowledge and appeared to be completely uninterested in selling an EV, so they left and went to a nearby Ford dealer and bought their new EV. It is still very important to work with a salesperson who understands EVs.
Emily absolutely loved her new EV and Jamey said that when it became his time to get a new car, he’d be looking at EVs as well.
EVangelizing is really just that, talking with friends without trying to push them.
Delivery Day
Yesterday, I went on a short 6 hour road trip with my wife (Bonnie), Jamey and Emily. Our mission was to go to Tesla’s “Direct Delivery” area to pick up Jamey’s new Model Y! Jamey and Emily had purchased bus tickets for the trip, but I wanted to tag along and use the drive to show them some of the features of their new EV by driving them in my Model Y. I also thought it’d be a great warm-up for a much longer road trip I was going to take in just a few more days. (see below)
The delivery area is located across the highway from the Texas Tesla Giga Factory, also known as “Giga Texas,” which is quite impressive. (I wonder if Texas A&M persuaded Tesla to name it that… “Gig ’em, Aggies!”)
It was an easy drive down. Bonnie and I dropped them off for their introduction to their Tesla and we drove home. After their purchase, they drove home in their new EV, stopping to charge once since their Tesla was not charged to 100% when they picked it up. They said the drive and charging were uneventful.
Our Next EV Road Trip
Our next road trip will be to Salt Lake City to return two of our granddaughters to their our daughter Jessica, who lives in SLC. The trip is about 1,200 miles each way, so it’ll be similar to the 2,500 mile Texas EV Border-to-Border EV Road Trip mentioned above. As you can see in the top image, there are three routes we are considering. We’ll probably take a different route home so we can do more sightseeing. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta will be going on when we head home… We’ll probably be posting to social media (Facebook and YouTube) along the way, so stay tuned for this next adventure.
The Favor
When Jamey told me he was going to order a Tesla, he asked if there was any referral bonus available to me. I checked and found that Tesla DOES have a referral program that rewards the referrer as well as the buyer! The referral has to happen before the order is placed. If someone has helped you make the decision to buy a Tesla by giving you a test drive, answering your questions, etc., PLEASE reward that person by asking them to give you their referral link. If they, like me, didn’t realize there was a referral program, they give you the link by:
- Opening the Tesla App (v4.36.1 or later)
- Tapping the menu in the top right corner (the three, horizontal lines)
- Selecting Refer and Earn
- and tapping Refer Now to copy or text their unique link to you.
It’s really easy to do. The new buyer’s reward varies by Tesla model being purchased, so refer to the Tesla website for the latest info. The person making the referral (you) earns $250 in Tesla Credits (or $500 if the buyer adds an FSD purchase). There is a limit to how many referral bonuses you can receive, so again, refer to the Tesla website for the latest info.
What I am asking: If your decision to go EV was not influenced by a friend but my blog has helped, please contact me for one of my referral codes. I’ll use the Tesla credit for Supercharging to continue to “spread the Good News of EVs” far and wide! If I have already exceeded my allowed referrals, I’ll let you know that so you can use someone else’s code and still earn your buyer’s bonus.
