The Hanson family includes: Back: Eric, Vanessa and Kelli. Front: Annika, dog Caplin and Ava. Charging the vehicle at one of the Super Charger stations on their trip. GPS system on dash showing the Super Charging station route to Minnesota.

Electricity not just for bulbs anymore

As Bonnie Hanson sat in a lawn chair under the shade of a large pine tree in front of her Minneota residence, she mused about the car her son Eric had recently purchased. “I thought I had educated a smart son,” she joked.

“But he went and bought a car with no engine.”

Hanson actually purchased a 2016 Tesla X electric car for his wife, Kelli. The family, which also includes 12-year-old daughter Vanessa, and fraternal eight-year-old twin daughters Annika and Ava, took the vehicle from their home near Portland, OR, to Minneota to visit.

Although they never had to stop for gas, they did have to recharge the batteries, which are a series of pods that are fitted under the vehicle approximately every 250 miles. “It was about a 1,700-mile trip,” said Eric Hanson.

“But we had to go off course a little to charge the batteries at Super Chargers, similar to gas pumps. They are set up by Tesla across the country and they charge the batteries must faster than 110 or 220 outlets.”

The closest Super Charger to Minneota is in Worthington or the Twin Cities. The vehicle’s computer system informs the driver how much charge is left in the batteries, the approximate distance the car can travel with the current charge under normal driving conditions, and the closest Super Charger to the present location.

“If you drive faster, you use up a little more battery,” Hanson explained. “When we’re home, we just charge the battery overnight in the 220 outlet used for a dryer.” The disadvantage of a lengthy trip is the slight out-of-way stops for charges. But the advantages far outweigh that little inconvenience.

Besides not having to stop for gas, owners of an electric car don’t have to pop the hood to check the oil or the fluid levels for something like anti-freeze and automatic transmission. In fact, if you pop the hood on this car, all you will find is a storage compartment and a little blue plastic screw cap in one corner.

“That’s for the windshield fluid,” Hanson said about the cap. “There’s not much else to check except for the tire pressure.”

If there ever is an electrical malfunction, a Tesla mechanic would have to be called from the nearest place, in this case the Twin Cities. As Eric was showing some of the features on the vehicle, curiosity got the best of Bonnie Hanson’s neighbors from both sides and they soon came over to see what all the commotion was about.

Eric’s favorite feature on the car is the automatic pilot in which the driver can be hands-free to have a snack, read a book, or just take in the sights.

Because it’s currently illegal to not have a driver in the seat, every so often the computerized dashboard will indicate that the driver must place his hands temporarily on the wheel to show he is seated behind the wheel. If not, the car automatically slows down and comes to a stop.

The Tesla also slows down as it enters a city limit; with the GPS reading the speed limits. Once the vehicle leaves the city limits, it automatically speeds up again. And if the vehicle catches up to another vehicle on the highway, it automatically slows down and keeps a programmed distance behind. “If you’re driving on the freeway, for instance, you can set it to automatically change lanes to go around slower drivers,” said Eric.

“The cameras will read where the cars are in the other lane and then change when there is an opening.” Unlike a battery-powered golf cart, this vehicle goes from 0-60 miles-per-hour in 2.9 seconds. “In Montana (where there is unlimited speed limits), I had it up to 114 just to see how it would do,” said Eric. Vanessa Hanson, who admitted that the long trip to grandma’s house in Minneota “felt like we were in the car forever” is enamored with the “wings” on the vehicle.

The two back doors open straight up, similar to a DeLorean, to allow taller passengers easier access to get in and out of the vehicle. Once the doors are open, they resemble wings. And because the vehicle is black, the Hanson daughters named it the “Batmobile.”

“The girls call me Batman and Kelli is Batmom,” said Eric, who is a regional sales representative for Loprex, a manufacturing company in Portland.

One of the outlandish features Tesla built into the vehicle is a light show to Christmas music. All the lights on the outside of the car flash off and on to the music. At a certain part of the song, the “winged doors” open and begin to flap. The front doors, which open in the conventional way, also open and shut to the music. A downloaded app allows the owner to perform most of the vehicle’s functions from a Smartphone.

“We went into a restaurant one time and started playing the Christmas music,” laughed Eric.

“There wasn’t anyone in the car so it was kind of funny to watch the reactions of the people outside.” The all-wheel drive Tesla is an SUV that seats seven people, including three bucket seats in the back and two more in a third row.

One of the third-row seats was removed in order to fit the family dog’s kennel.

“The dog (Caplin, a poodle mix) rode on my lap most of the time,” laughed Kelli.

There is an abundance of storage space in the front and back. There is also a panoramic windshield that allows passengers an unparalleled view of the stars and sky above. Another one of the features of the Tesla is the ability to control the inside temperature, even when the passengers aren’t in it.

“If it was a real hot day and we were going into a store, we could program it to be 70 degrees in the vehicle so we could leave the dog in there if we wanted to,” said Eric.

The car’s front and rear camera sensors also allow it to “parallel park” by itself once the driver has programmed the proper settings. And all this can be yours for $118,000.

Eric grew up and graduated from high school in Portland. When his mother and late father moved to Minneota, he lived with them from 1989-92 while attending Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

It will be interesting to see what the Hansons will be driving the next time they visit the area.

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