[bennelson]

Ok, I had a little time available this afternoon, and the weather was nicer today than it has been in the last week, so I thought I would take a shot at dragging the Metro to the Emissions Test Station.

If you recall, I filled out the paperwork a while back for a "Emissions Testing Exemption". I filled out the form, and included a brief letter stating that the car had no gas, engine, or tailpipe, and if they would kindly exempt me from testing. I also included half a dozen photos showing the removed engine, and installed motor and batteries.

Several weeks later, I got a stock letter saying to please bring in my vehicle to any test center to see if it would qualify for a "technical exemption". Of course, in my original letter to the DMV, I did mention that I was on the other side of the country and wouldn't even be able to drive to the test station on a single charge. That is just one of many tidbits of information they didn't know because, as far as I can tell, THEY NEVER EVEN READ MY LETTER!

So now, of course, I need to design a towing setup for the car. This cost me about $70 for a tow bar, and two days of work on the car. Fortunately, the day I was working on it, three fellow EVers' showed up to help me with it, bringing welders and materials. Not that I'm complaining...(yet). The tow bar is something I wanted anyways to be able to tow the car up to the annual energy fair and other events.

So off I go today, hitching the car up to the S10 and driving to the other side of the county to the test station.

No waiting! Surely this is a good sign!
Is step up to the clerk's window and present my letter from Madison and my pile of rejected paperwork, and briefly state that I would like an emissions exemption.

The grouchy, older, female clerk scratches her head, mumbling about how she has never seen such a thing before, and asking why I came here, even though the letter from the State directly told me to come to the test station.

Apparently, I "don't fit in the box" and the grouchy, older, female clerk, hands me off to the somewhat friendly, younger, female clerk.

She spends about 10 minutes reading and re-reading the two pages of - "Please give me an exemption" and "Take it to your local test station".

Finally, she calls somebody at the state, gets his voicemail, then finally his cell phone number, then finally talks to the person directly on the phone.

She mis-explains the situation once or twice before the voice on the other side of the phone asks her to just have me talk directly to him.

On the phone, I have "Joe", who has something to do with unusual vehicle tests. He explains to me that even though my car has no petroleum being combusted, it still has to pass emissions testing. Of course THAT testing can only be done at some other mystery location.

I ask what EXACTLY is done in this testing, and find out that they are basically planning on plugging in to the OBDII to see if there are any "check engine codes"!!!

Now I have to make an appointment to drag the car into Milwaukee County to the "Technical Diagnostic Center". But I can't do that right now, because I have to talk to Joe's boss about it, and he's out of town right now.

I also DID find out that if I converted a gasoline car to diesel, I would have NO PROBLEMS with emissions. They don't test diesel conversions period. You just have to show them that there is a diesel engine in it and that it takes diesel fuel!

While standing in line waiting for clerk number two to figure out what she was doing, clerk # three told me, no joke, "It may be electric, but it still has to pass emissions"

Joe implied that my vehicle may qualify as an LEV - Low Emissions Vehicle.

It doesn't use gas! How is that so hard to understand!!!!

Ah, Bureaucracy, our tax dollars at work...

When I was done on the phone with Joe, he had me put clerk #2 back on the line. She was instructed to go take a look at the car.

We went outside. I popped the hood and pointed out the fact that there was no engine under there. I also pointed out how the airbags, seatbelts, and all safety features were still intact. I don't think she knew the difference between an electric motor and a gasoline engine...


OK - end of rant. To be fair, most of the government people I have dealt with so far have been pretty nice, but they sure aren't making anything easy for me!!!!

The only real positive thing I can see so far is that I might end up with some sort of odd qualification that will allow me to drive the car by myself in the carpool lane!