11 Year Tesla Death Anniversary Photos & Stories — Denmark to Curaçao to South Dakota

Tesla Death Anniversary events took place from Curaçao to Denmark last month. If you don’t understand what Tesla’s Death Anniversary is, catch up on the topic here and here. Below is a summary of some of the fun events and some wonderful pictures.

Denmark:
Thisted–Nykøbing Mors

At the event in Denmark, 3 politicians competing in the national election showed up. “We tried our best to educate them about EVs, and Tesla specifically,” Søren Ellemann Hansen, one of the organizers, told us. “Hopefully they will spread the message that fossil fuels are stupid, and hopefully they realized that if we need to stop fossil fuel use in 12 years, since a car is 16 years old on average, all fossil car sales should have been band 4 years ago. Electric is now and the future, and fossils are the past.” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

The organizers tried to give the politicians some insight into the environmental and economic benefits of electric vehicles, and are now hoping that those politicians take those lessons forward in order to move away from business as usual. Denmark seems to be one of the places where politicians are really looking to do so.

“So, hopefully the 11th ‘death anniversary’ of Tesla wasn’t in vain here in Denmark. Because we had a possibility to influence 3/179 of the government. 🙂 We did also have a fun and a productive day. … We did it for the fun part 🙂 the rest was a bonus,” Søren added, noting that they didn’t expect any politicians to show up.

Twin Cities, Minnesota:
MN Tesla Club

Approximately a dozen people (and 10 cars) showed up for the event in the Twin Cities. “One was a good friend of mine who is a petrol-head,” Brian Anderson told us, “and a guy in the group let him test drive his Performance Model 3. It was the first time in a P3 for me also (I still haven’t driven it despite offers because I don’t want to ruin my Model 3 LR ownership experience). Wow! Both Eric and I were really impressed! Eric will likely buy an EV within the next year.” That’s what we’re talkin’ about! Score #2 for the 11th Annual* Tesla Death Anniversary Extravaganza! (*starting this year)

Salt Lake City, Utah:
SLC Cars & Coffee Canyon Run

Our friends in Utah had a great time, as well. “It was awesome! We had about 15 people show up, including a few prospective buyers. We also had a few random people stop to talk to us at the coffee shop,” Megan Galetold CleanTechnica.

“On the ride up the canyon, Xtreme Heights (a drone photographer) happened to see us in our convoy and turned his drone towards us, catching an amazingly high view, which was added to our video compilation.”

The photos and video below were taken by Taun Stewart, Ryan Fritsch, Angie Teerlink, and Megan Gale.

Rapid City, South Dakota:
Custer Tesla Rally 2019

Yes, South Dakota. This event, the Custer Tesla Rally, was a sequel from 2018 that ran May 17–18. It featured some of the coolest looking Teslas I’ve ever seen, real pieces of art (see below).

There are a bunch of pictures below courtesy of our local connection, Brian Kopp. Local station KOTA TV also reported on this fun event for about 30 seconds: “Custer welcomes the silence of Tesla rally.” In the coverage, the news anchor says, “The Tesla rally continues to grow in popularity and Dolsee Davenport, the Executive Director of the Custer Area Chamber, says they expect nearly 85 cars this year, which is an increase by 30 from 2018.”

“It is the beginning of summer for us and to see the town full and 85 Tesla cars in town is incredible,” said Dolsee Davenport.

In an email to CleanTechnica, Brian Kopp added, “it was a blast, very cold, but very fun.” Brian also appeared briefly in the KOTA TV video linked above — he was giving people show & tell sessions in his dad’s Model 3, including rides to the nearby Supercharger. Unsurprisingly, there were people at the event who had never been in a Tesla before. That’s the point of these great events — get more butts in seats!

“There are oodles more photos on facebook from the sound of silence (rally name) page,” Brian notes. Also, there’s this Google photo album and here’s a video of Brian “walking through the ~70 Teslas up at the Crazy Horse Memorial. The shots under the covering at Mt Rushmore are the new solar panels covering the one parking area.”

Curaçao:
Launch of Nationwide EV Association

I went to Curaçao, a beautiful Caribbean island country I don’t recall previously learning about, for the launch of an EV association there.

The country and nearby island nation Aruba have some genuine EV leadership rolling. There’s an EV-only electric car dealership — with many used electric cars imported from California, Florida, and Europe.

The Curaçao utility company, which has some electric vehicles in its fleet already, announced at the event that it would host a slick, easy-to-use mobile charging app for charging stations across the island.

And several local EV owners provided EV test drives. Getting butts in seats!

I was the keynote speaker and gave the following presentation: