New Board Member Spotlight: Joe Sholtes
Joe Sholtes is one of our newest Board Members on the Board of Directors. He has chosen to lead the Membership Committee for 2024 and is hard at work already organizing plans to increase membership and value for current members. Joe is from Colonie in upstate New York. He is a father of two, works as a Public Safety Dispatcher and was a volunteer firefighter for 5 years. Fairly new to the EV world, he purchased his first EV in June of 2022, a Ford F-150 Lightning.
Joe's love for his EV encouraged him to reach out to other Lightning owners online and plan a meet-up at the Electrify America chargers in Chicopee, MA. That meeting became The Northeast Lightning Club, which grew into the Lightning Clubs of America. Their organization has begun to work closely with the Ford Motor Company to host events, give feedback directly to Ford, and give back to their communities. Joe is also a leading member of the NY Capital District Electric Vehicle Association Chapter, which has held the title of the largest registered attended National Drive Electric Week events for the past two years.
A few nights ago, Joe began to hear arcing in his power lines. He called a friend, who happens to be the Fire Chief, for help. The Chief stated a transformer was on fire on the main power lines into the Village he lives in. Based on his experience as a Public Safety Dispatcher, he realized that when they replace that transformer, it will be necessary to shut the power lines off to replace it. So Joe began to charge his F-150 Lightning a little early in anticipation for the power to be cut. Around 9PM the power was cut and before his wife was able to say "Oh, there goes the power" Joe was out the bedroom door. The F-150 Lightning has a feature called Pro Power On Board, which enabled bi-directional power transfer between the vehicle and the grid. That system provides 9.6 kW in total, which is able to power things from an RV, to an electric airplane, or in this case, a home during a power outage. Joe used a 30 amp NEMA L15-30 cable from the bed of the truck to his generator inlet installed on the house, engaged his interlock device on his breaker panel and got his home back up and running. It was only 25 degrees that night, so getting the heat back on was crucial. Joe offered his neighbors to hook up to the truck as well. The truck ran the house for 8 hours and 45 minutes and only sustained a loss of 6% state of charge.
Joe is looking forward to serving our chapters, supporting the organization in its mission and encourage the adoption of EVs to the masses. Welcome Joe!