SEVA meeting minutes for June 9, 2026

[Grace Reamer]

Seattle Electric Vehicle Association

June 9, 2026 meeting minutes

SEVA President Stephen Johnsen opened the meeting at the University Village West Garage.

CAR SHOWS

• Green River Community College hosted a car show and Switch rally in May to celebrate their EV tech training program. They have new charging stations installed as well. Several high schools participated with the Switch vehicles they had built, and SEVA members exhibited EVs. 
• Burien Strawberry Festival and Father’s Day car show – June 21. Five cars are signed up, and more are welcome. Contact Grace Reamer to sign up at secr...@seattleeva.org.
• Gasless on Greenwood – June 27. Charlie Tsai is coordinating and has 22 cars signed up. Location is in front of Ken’s Market on Greenwood on both sides of the street near 70^th Street. Charlie will send out a parking plan to participants. Contact him to participate at trea...@seattleeva.org. The show runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

EVS – World EV Symposium 39, the largest EV convention in the world, was scheduled for June 21-24 in Long Beach, CA, but has been cancelled.

NEW MEMBERS – A new attendee has electric motorcycles, and newcomer Brian has three EVs.

LITHIUM BATTERY TECHNOLOGY – Stephen Johnsen shared details about safety for lithium batteries. Cheap scooters and bikes have had problems with battery fires.  Nissan Leafs and Chevy Bolts were recalled for battery safety after some fires. New York City and San Diego fire departments put out a video recently with statistics citing that most EV accidents do not involve fire, and of the few that do have fires, 60 percent do not involve the high-voltage lithium battery. Some more takeaways:

• EV owners should make sure they know how to operate the manual door release in case a fire shuts off the 12-volt battery and electronic door latches don't work.
• In case of an EV fire, move away from the car, and move other cars away from the car on fire.
• It is unusual for batteries to cause fires, but they catch fire when other components overheat or burn. 
• Dispose of old battery cells by immersing in a salt brine solution until they are fully drained. 
• Recycle lithium batteries at King County Hazardous Waste Disposal or One Green Planet in Renton.

NEXT MEETING – The July 14 meeting will be at the University Village West parking garage again. The program will include a new Subaru station wagon conversion using as many OEM parts as possible, plus a Nissan Leaf battery.