Christopher Read and his Tesla Model S with a mountain bike affixed is ready for power… where is the power? /ANDRU MCCRACKEN

By Andru McCracken


Christopher Read, a mountain biking Tesla Owner based in Hinton, Alberta is pleased that Valemount has a new level 3 charging station.

Read hoped to use the new charging station on Saturday, but while all the pieces are there, it hasn’t been commissioned yet.

Read said it wasn’t a problem because he had enough of a charge to get back as far as Jasper, he also has charging options at the Best Western hotel and has some friends in town where he can charge overnight.

Read travels 80,000 km per year, much of it commuting from Hinton to Edson for work.”  He reports the Tesla is saving him $15,000 per year.

He has got a little bit of static from his fellow Albertans.

“A couple of times a big diesel pickup truck is stopped beside me at a stoplight, and then they start making their smoke,” he said. “But I have so much power I leave them in their own cloud of dumbness.”

Read’s electric sedan is speedy. It can get up to 100 kilometres per hour in under four seconds leaving most production vehicles in the dust.