Whereas Tesla has turn into wildly standard worldwide, it seems there are pockets of locations the place the model stays comparatively unknown. When a Tesla Mannequin Y turned up and began charging from an utility pole in a tiny city in rural Montana, it precipitated a bit of pleasure among the many locals, even making it to the entrance web page of the newspapers.
Chad Lauterbach and his girlfriend Allis Markham are a Californian couple with the EV bug. Once they drove to Ekalaka for a dinosaur competition, they determined to dump his fossil-fuel-guzzling Toyota Land Cruiser for his Tesla Mannequin Y for the journey. This was regardless of realizing charging alternatives got here far and in between, particularly in distant Ekalaka.
Nonetheless, on arrival, the couple was delighted to discover a utility pole with a public electrical outlet, which they shortly latched on. This was regardless of Markham’s warning that the locals may turn into pissed off by “just a few jerk from California, doing what jerks from California do.”
True to Markham’s warning, the electrical Mannequin Y quickly drew consideration. It received a splash on the native paper’s entrance web page, the Ekalaka Eagle, which referred to it as a UEV or unidentified electrical automobile. It was steered that the Tesla was the primary EV to cost in Ekalaka. The author additionally slipped in that the couple might need but to pay for the electrical energy consumed.
Anxious to revive their broken Californian popularity, the couple approached the native utility and provided to pay for his or her charging session. Regardless of being advised to not fear about it, Lauterbach and Markham paid $60. The cost needed to be made in money as a result of they couldn’t settle for bank cards.
The story has a very good ending because the supervisor of the utility revealed there had been plans to put in an EV charger. Maybe it will spur the agricultural city of Ekalaka to get its first public EV charging station?