Experimental Machine for AI

The advent of the Large Language Model (LLM) is in full swing within the tech community since the debut of ChatGPT by openAI. Platforms such as Google Colab, and similar variants from Amazon and Facebook allows software developer to experiment with LLM’s. The hosted model of the data center based GPU’s makes training and refinement of LLM’s tolerable.

What about using LLM on a local computer away from the cloud?

Projects such as llama.cpp by Georgi Gerganov makes it possible to run the Facebook open sourced Llama 2 model on a single MacBook. The existence of llama.cpp gives hope on creating a desktop that is powerful enough to some local development with LLM’s away from the cloud. This post documents an experimental procedure in building a desktop machine using parts readily available from the Internet to see if we can do some AI development with LLM’s.

Below is a list of sourced parts from EBay, Amazon and CanadaComputers, a local computer store. All prices are in Canadian dollars and includes relevant taxes.

ItemsPrice
NVIDIA Tesla P40 24GB GDDR5 Graphics Card (sourced from EBay)$275.70
Lian-Li Case O11D Mini -X Mid Tower Black (sourced from Amazon)$168.49
GDSTIME 7530 75mm x 30mm 7cm 3in 12V DC Brushless Small Mini Blower Cooling Fan for Projector, Sleeve Bearing 2PIN (sourced from Amazon)$16.94
CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 64GB (4 x 32GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4-25600) C16 1.35V Desktop Memory – Black (sourced from Amazon)$350.28
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 8-Core, 16-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor with Radeon Graphics (sourced from Amazon)$281.35
Noctua NH-D15 chromax.Black, Dual-Tower CPU Cooler (140mm, Black) (sourced from Amazon)$158.14
Asus AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) ATX motherboard with PCIe 4.0, dual M.2, 12+2 with Dr. MOS power stage, HDMI, DP, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Aura Sync RGB lighting (sourced from Amazon)$305.09
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB NVMe M.2 Internal SSD (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM) (sourced from Amazon)$217.72
Lian Li PS SP850 850W APFC 80+ GOLD Full modular SFX Power Supply, Black (sourced from CanadaComputers)$225.99
Miscellaneous 120mm case fans and cables purchased from CanadaComputers$63.17

The total cost of the above materials is $2,062.87 CAD.

The Nvidia Tesla P40 (Pascal Architecture) specializes for Inferencing limited to INT8 based operations and does not support any FP related operations, so it may not be optimal for machine learning. However recent claims have been made that INT8 / Q8_0 quantization can yield some promising results. Let us see what our experimentation will yield once the machine is built.

A custom design 3D fan shroud has to be designed and 3D printed because the P40 does not natively come with active cooling. The P40 is originally designed to operate in a data center so cooling is provided by the server chassis. The custom shroud design is posted on Thingiverse and some photos of the finished shroud is shown below.

Note that M3 screws were used to secure the shroud to the P40 GPU card. The GDSTIME fan came with the screws.

I also made a mistake by initially getting a 1000W ATX power supply that ended not fitting the case, because the case is built for SFX and SFX-L power supplies. Lesson learned!

Once the machine is built I performed a 12 hours MemTest86+. It turned out that running the memory at the XMP profile was a bit unstable. I had to clock the memory back from its 3200MHz rating to 3000MHz.

After more than 12 hours with 3 passes.

The BIOS settings had to be configured so that Resize BAR is ON. This is required for the P40 to function properly.

Turn on Resize BAR

The next step is to install Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS with Nvidia GPU and CUDA drivers. The latter was quite challenging. The traditional way of installing using the package manager did not work. The best way is to goto this site, and pick the run file like below:

Beside to use the runfile

The run file had to be run in recovery mode using the console because the installation will fail if an X11 window manager is running. Also all previous Nvidia drivers had to be removed and purged. The Ubuntu default installation process may have installed them.

A detail that was left out of the instructions is to set the appropriate shell paths once the installation is completed. The following changes were made with /etc/profile.d so that all users can benefit. If the login shell is using zsh, then /etc/zsh/zshenv has to be changed. Without this change, commands such as nvcc and other CUDA toolkit commands will not be found. The same is true for CUDA related share libraries.

$cat /etc/profile.d/cuda-path.sh

export CUDA_HOME="/usr/local/cuda"

if [[ ! ${PATH} =~ .*cuda/bin.* ]]
then
    export PATH="${PATH}:/usr/local/cuda/bin"
fi

if [[ ! ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} =~ .*cuda/lib64.* ]]
then
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/usr/local/cuda/lib64"
fi

if [[ ! ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH} =~ .*/usr/local/lib.* ]]
then
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:/usr/local/lib"
fi

In this hardware configuration the AMD CPU has integrated graphics, and the P40 does not have any HDMI or DisplayPort connections. We need to change the X11 configuration so that it will only use the AMD CPU while dedicating the P40 GPU for CUDA based computation. The following configurations have to be made in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

$cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier      "AMD"
    Driver          "amdgpu"
    BusId           "PCI:10:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier      "AMD"
    Device          "AMD"
EndSection

The BusId can be obtained using the lspci command and be sure to change any hexadecimal notations to decimal in the configuration file. Without this xorg.conf configuration, the Ubuntu desktop will not start properly.

When everything is done properly, the command nvidia-smi should show the following:

Fri Aug 25 17:33:31 2023
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 535.86.10              Driver Version: 535.86.10    CUDA Version: 12.2     |
|-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                      |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+======================+======================|
|   0  Tesla P40                      Off | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  Off |
| N/A   22C    P8               9W / 250W |      0MiB / 24576MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                      |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                            |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                            GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                             Usage      |
|=======================================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                           |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The machine is now ready for user account configurations.

A quick video encoding using ffmpeg with hardware acceleration and CUDA was performed to test the GPU usage. It was a bit of a challenge to compile ffmpeg with CUDA support. This is when I found out that I was missing the PATH configurations made above.

For good measure, gpu-burn was run for an hour to ensure that the GPU is functioning correctly.

Next step is to download and setup the tool chain for LLM development. We will save that for another posting.

Update: The runfile (local) method did not preserve through a system update using apt. I had to re-perform the installation with deb (local) methodology. I guess after not using the GPU for the desktop, we no longer have to run the operating system in recovery mode to install using the deb (local) method.

Tesla Referral

The Tesla Electric Vehicles (EV’s) are getting really popular. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself with the chart below:

Statistic: Number of Tesla vehicles delivered worldwide from 1st quarter 2016 to 2nd quarter 2023 (in 1,000 units) | Statista
Find more statistics at Statista

The above trajectory is pretty clear.

We have had our 2023 Model Y for almost three months now and are very happy with the driving and ownership experience. Many of our family, friends, and neighbours have been asking about the vehicle.

I have always referred them to my blog here for our account of the Tesla purchasing and driving experience.

Now for a very shameless plug. Anyone who is interested enough to start the path of purchase, below is my referral code:

Chinese Visa

We are all set! Today, I received my 9 years Chinese Q2 Visa, which allows multiple entries with each entry lasting up to 180 days. Getting this visa requires some perseverance and a little sweat. I am going to document my experience here so others can benefit.

The first step is to goto https://visaforchina.cn:

And click on the New Application Form.

Pick the first bullet if you are starting a brand new application.

Pick the last bullet if you are want to edit a previous application.

The application is online and you will have to gather your present passport information. There are other information which you will need to consider:

  • Old passport with a previous Chinese Visa; You will need to provide a photo copy of this;
  • Choose whether you want a tourist (L) visa or Q1/Q2 for visiting family members. There are other visa’s such as commercial, work, student exchange, etc. If you are visiting China, then typically it is either L or Q2. For details of all Chinese visa types, click here.
  • A copy of your flight itinerary and your hotel reservation or tour details if you are applying for a tourist (L) visa;
  • An invitation letter from a relative in China that you are visiting if you are applying for a Q2 visa. There is a specific form that you or your relative need to fill out. If you are applying for a Q2, then the relative also need to provide a copy of their passport and their Chinese ID card;
  • Also have all your previous and current citizenship information or landing papers information;
  • Some pointers when filling out the application:
    • If you are born in China, make sure you provide your Chinese name in section 1.1E;
    • If you were ever a Chinese citizen, you will have to provide past Chinese nationality information;
    • If you are not, then you will also have to provide an explanation and proof that you are not a Chinese citizen;
    • For Canadian citizens, the National ID number (1.6B) should be left blank;
    • Ensure that Place of issue (1.7D) and Issuing authority (1.7E) matches your Canadian passport;
  • Your work history;
  • Your education history;
  • Your immediate family information including father, mother, spouse, and children;
  • Your travel companion information;
  • A photo of yourself that meets their specification. I had to scan and adjust the photo for the purpose of the online application;

The full application is eight pages long!

Once your application is completed online, you should print / save a copy in PDF format. The web site will automatically prompt you to make an appointment. You cannot make an appointment unless you have a completed application online. The appointments are made in 30 minutes interval, and the place is called the University Centre, located at 393 University Avenue, Toronto, ON. Suite 1501:

There is parking in the building, but you will have to enter from Centre Avenue. We now have been to this building three times, and we did not have any issues finding a free spot in the underground parking at the University Centre.

There is a check list from the website, so make sure you bring all the required documents and photos.

When you arrive at the centre, you will have to line up to have your documentation triaged or inspected. This queue will be between 15 to 45 minutes depending on how busy they are. I suggest that you arrive 30 minutes prior to your appointment if not earlier. There will be people who have appointments lining up outside of the centre before they open at 9am.

Once your documentation and application pass the first round inspection, you will receive a ticket number, which you will have to observe on their wall mounted monitors that are hung around the centre. When your number is called, your documentation is further inspected and this time processed. If everything is okay, then you will receive another payment ticket number. Once again you wait for this number to appear on their monitors. This time to provide payment for the application. In return for your payment, you will get a pickup slip for your passport and visa.

For whatever reason, if your application did not past their first inspection, you will have to modify the application online and re-queue for triage. There are counters available at their office. If you bring your laptop, you can make changes to your online applications, and have it printed at Staples on the ground level at a building South of the University Centre.

Including ourselves, we also observed many people having issues with the applications and have to make modifications. Since I did not have my laptop with me, I had to come back the next day with the rectified application. I feel sorry for the seniors there who were not technically savvy and are lost in this process. If you have a senior who wants to get a visa to China, they WILL NEED help from someone who can complete the online application.

Our total effort include:

  • Getting a visa photo taken (0.5 – 1 hour);
  • Filling the application online, the first application took some time, subsequent applications will go a lot faster (4 – 6 hours);
  • Obtaining the invitation letter and have it filled out (0.5 – 1 hour);
  • First visit to the visa centre (2 hours + 2 hours of travel);
  • Second visit to the visa centre (2 hours +2 hours of travel);
  • Third visit to the visa centre to pickup visa (0.5 hour + 2 hours of travel);

Roughly speaking it was (for us) about 4 half days contributed to this exercise, and this did not include getting our Canadian passports renewed to ensure that we have the maximum time frame on the Q2 visa.

Get your mind psyched so that you are not too stressed in this endeavour!

Driving the Tesla to Montreal

Last Friday, we took the Tesla out to Montreal. On this trip we will really get to test the Supercharger network.

We left Richmond Hill at around 7am with a full charge of 100%. While on the highway, I took full advantage of the basic Autopilot feature, specifically the Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) and Auto Steering. The TACC worked really well, but there were two instances where it did brake for some reason that was not evident to me. The Auto Steering for the most part really take the edge off of driving long distances. However its forcefulness of always driving in the centre of the lane is a bit scary, especially when passing tractor trailers. Normally when I drive and pass a truck, I typically stay more towards the left of the lane. I needed up turning off Auto Steer while passing trucks at times. I hope Tesla can add this lane “bias” as a future software option.

I also got use to passing with the basic Autopilot. I did not purchase the Enhanced Autopilot which will perform automated lane changes. I think this was a good call, as the Auto Steer is already a bit scary for me. We will have to warm up to the automated driving features a little more before we really adopt the new technologies. The jerkiness has improved as I got the timing down between signalling the lane change and re-engaging the Auto Steer once I am on the new lane.

Our first charge was at Gananogue, Ontario at fast Tesla Supercharger.

Tesla Supercharger at Gananogue

This was a very convenient location, as it was close to a McDonald’s. The charger was very fast. The car reported that it was ready to continue on the journey before we finished our breakfast. The charge time was less than 25 minutes, and the cost was slightly above $21. We had 30% on the battery when we arrived, and we left with 85%, which was enough for me to drive all the way to my uncle’s place in Montreal. I arrived with 26% battery left.

I decided to top the car off to 80% so that we don’t have to worry about our state of charge during our stay in Montreal. We went to Cote Vertu mall to perform another charge at its supercharging station.

Tesla Supercharger at Cote Vertu Mall

So the charging station here seemed older, and the handle plugs seemed a bit vandalized. Our first attempt stopped at 50+% for some reason, and I had to return to the car from the mall to plug it in again at a different station, which worked fine until 80%. This was the only “weird” incident I had with the Superchargers throughout the entire trip.

On the way back, we stopped by at the Cornwall supercharger, which was not ideal, because it was pretty far off the highway (more than 3km). It turned out to be a blessing in disguise since there was traffic on HWY 401, so it was good timing. We only charged for less than 10 minutes, just so that we get it top off enough to get to Gananogue again.

Tesla Supercharger at Cornwall

I got back home with around 15% of battery left. I plan to have the car back at home with a minimalist comfortable state of charge as possible because after all, we have solar power to charge the car back up.

While in Montreal, we also played with our J1772 charging adapter that came with the car. This adapter allows us to use a non-Tesla charger. The “Electric Circuit by Hydro Quebec” chargers were peppered throughout the island of Montreal. We found a convenient cluster of 4 chargers near where we stayed (~2km), and slow charged (5kW) our car for $1/hour. We left our car there for about 3 hours and got about 15kWh (~20%+). The slower charge is better for the battery any ways, and we spent the hours at my aunt’s place enjoying congee and more food.

Electric Circuit J1772 charger at Parc Pierre-Elliot-Trudeau in Cote-St-Luc

Another good story to tell is while visiting the Rene-Levesque Park, it was fairly difficult to find parking. However, there were an empty spot reserved for electric vehicles, so I took it! While we walked the park, the Tesla was happily charging at 5kW, so cool. Okay it cost me $0.80 for the charge, so it was not completely free, but can’t complain.

Charger at Rene-Lévesque Park with “Free Parking”

We did not have the opportunity to test our CCS Combo 1 adapter, which I purchased from Tesla just before our Montreal trip.

Combined Charging System (CCS) 1 adapter

The above adapter will allow us to get fast DC charging from a non-Tesla supercharger. Last night, we found one at the Hyundai Canada office near Hwy 7 and 404. This place is close to my parent’s place. The adapter worked well, and we did less than $3 charge there at a respectable rate of 50kW. However being a newbie, I should have charged it up for at least $5, since this is the “minimum” charge. Silly me!

We stayed for about 10 minutes and got about 10% more on the battery.

75 Frontenac Drive – Hyundai Canada

With this new found experience and successful tests of different charging methodologies, I think we are good to go for a cross Canada return trip to Vancouver in September!

Short Road Trip to University of Waterloo

This morning we wanted to show our son what the University of Waterloo campus looked like. This is also an excellent opportunity to get use to our new Tesla Model Y along with its Autopilot functionality.

As the above pictures show, the campus is a ghost town, but it was nice that most of the buildings were still opened and we took the opportunity to walk around.

Aside from the typical Toronto traffic, the drive itself was pretty uneventful. While on Highway 401, I had the car on both Auto Steer and Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) for more than 80% of the trip. For the most part it worked well, but I did notice a few points:

  • Passing trucks seem to be a lot closer than I like when I manually pass a semi on the highway;
  • When in Auto Steer, the car seem to initiate the turn a little later than what I would normally do; and
  • Finally, one can get really use to TACC and forget to press the brake when TACC is off;
  • I love TACC when in traffic – it is a godsend!

We also took the opportunity to do a quick test supercharge in Cambridge, Ontario at 22 Pinebush Rd, Cambridge, ON N1R 8K5.

We really did not have to charge, since our Long Range model had enough juice to go there and back. We just wanted to experience what supercharging is like. It was super simple! We added 10kWh for $3.93, and that took about 6 minutes. During this time, I showed my wife how to do it.

Another experiment that we did was I ran Waze on my iPhone in concurrent with Tesla’s navigation routing and mapping. Albeit I currently have a sample size of one, but my feeling is that Waze is still better at this point in terms of traffic awareness and routing abilities. Also Tesla maps do not show obstructions, speed traps, and other goodness of Waze. I will be doing more of this comparison on our trip to Montreal next Friday.

Tesla Delivery Day

Today is the day! We departed our house at 10:45 am and arrived at 2 Chrislea Road, Vaughan, Ontario at 11:20am to pick up our new Model Y 2023. I drove into the service centre that was literally filled with Tesla vehicles to the point where we could not park at the service centre. We had to park at the next lot and walked over.

Location of the Tesla Vaughan Service Centre

It was not too bad, as if “someone up there” has arranged to put the rain on pause, while we walked into South entrance.

The first greeting counter

At the greeting counter, I was handed some paper work and told to sign at the relevant locations, which I did. The reception was a well oiled process. After the paperwork was handed over along with my bank draft at the second counter, I was handed the “card keys”, ownership paper, and my chaperone took me to the car. They didn’t even check if I had proper insurance!

Chaperoned to my new Model Y

He helped me to pair my iPhone 14 Pro to the car. Gave me a few tips on operating the wipers, and asked me if I had any questions, which I said “no.” I got into the car and adjusted my seats and mirrors, and we were on our way! I am certain, if I had any questions, he would have been of great help. However, I followed Tesla’s advice and watched all the delivery day videos, so I knew what I had to do. He did tell me that today at this centre, they are going to move over a hundred vehicles. This is more vehicles than any other dealerships in a single month. GM better up their game plan!

I dropped my wife off to her Toyota Prius Prime, and then routed the car to drop my neighbour off to pick up his 10 years old Tesla Model S that was being worked on. My neighbour being a Tesla champion and expert came along with us and was of great guidance to us through the delivery process. Thank you Johnny!

My beautiful wife in front of the Service Centre

On the way home, I established the data link (Premium Connectivity) and turned on Auto Steer. I had to drive a little ways for the car to calibrate itself before I can turn on the cruise control and auto steer. This feature was super handy when I got stuck at a traffic jam on the way home. My new Tesla was able to follow the car in front of me while I was bumper to bumper in the jam.

Once I got home, I tested the Mobile Charger to make sure that it was working and stuck the charger in the trunk, which is where it will live and use during road trips. I added my wife as a second driver, and we added profiles for myself and my wife, and went out for a late lunch. It was very weird to go out without any keys. I can now use my iPhone for both car and home locks.

Now we have two green vehicles in our garage.

Tesla Model Y 2023 (left), and Toyota Prius Prime 2020 (right)

Sorry Subaru Impreza 2013, you will now have to park in the drive way for now.

I have scheduled the charger to kick in at 5am tomorrow so that we can take a small road trip to the University of Waterloo tomorrow. We wanted to show my second son the campus as he considers his options for September.

Tesla charging through the Wall Connector at 40A (~9kW)

One last thing, I also configured the car with my home’s WiFi, and thought it was pretty cute to have the car showing my solar power generation status using my custom power dashboard.

Tesla displaying my solar power generation stats using the in car’s browser

Tomorrow to Waterloo, Ontario, and next week we’ll be going to Montreal! Going to look forward to our Supercharging experience.

New 1.5Gbps Internet Service

On April, 4th, I received a promotional offer from Rogers offering Ignite Internet service at 1.5Gbps plus Streaming for $114.99 per month.

I procrastinated a bit because I wanted to make sure that I can actually make use of this service. However, when I checked my bill for April, I noticed that my total monthly charges is at $102.99.

Note the above price prior to discount is at $117.99. I was curious to see if Rogers can get me a good deal without the Streaming service. I called Rogers support line and received a person who was not very helpful and simply just quoted conditions and deals to me. AI will do a number of these types of people soon.

I decided to try an alternative route by using Twitter (@RogersHelp). I direct messaged Rogers on Twitter and received wonderful help. They offered me the 1.5Gbps service at only $104.99 (with a 24 months commitment). This will be somewhat on par with my current payment and I will get 50% more throughput.

There is another question. Will my networking equipment make use of the 1.5Gbps? My networking setup has the Rogers Ignite WiFi Gateway (ARRIS Group, XB7 Modem) and is connected with a Cat5e cable to my Unifi Dream Machine Pro, using one of its 1Gbps RJ45 port.

Cat5e
Cat5e Rogers XB7 Modem Unifi Dream Machine (UDM) Pro(Firewall / Router)
Internet
Internet
Home Network
Home Network Text is not SVG – cannot display

How can we overcome the 1Gbps limit on the UDM Pro’s RJ45 port? Luckily the UDM Pro has an 10G SFP+ port as well. I went to Amazon and purchased a 10G SFP+ RJ45 Copper Module Transceiver.

The above will auto negotiate a 2.5Gbps to 10Gbps connection from the XB7 to my UDM Pro. Of course I will not be getting 2.5G or 10G speeds. These are just the physical maximum per the respective devices. Rogers will throttle my inbound and outbound traffic to 1.5Gbps and 50Mbps respectively.

After installing the SFP+ module and rewire the existing Cat5e cable, I had to reboot the both the XB7 modem and the UDM Pro. Once everything came back up, I had another problem. How do I test that I actually get 1.5Gbps? I cannot do it from any WiFi devices or any wired devices in my house because they are all limited to the 1Gbps port speed from my networking switches. Once again, Unifi had thought of this already and provide a speed test functionality on its management dashboard.

The tested speed seems to be better than expected.

So you can see from the above screen shot, that we are now getting what we are paying for. I also performed a double test from two different machines that are routed to a switch that has a 10Gbps connection to my UDM Pro, and each machine received a 700Mbps to 800Mbps download speed, which is around 1.5Gbps in aggregate. Mission accomplished.

Unifi just came out with a new firmware update that enable the UDM Pro to perform load balancing of more than one WAN connection. When the SkyLink service becomes more economically feasible, we can attach a satellite based internet service as a compliment to the existing Rogers service. This way during a power outage, we can continue to get Internet.

Covid Came Knocking

My self-test on April 24th, 2023

On the evening of April 17, 2023, I started to feel really tired and cold. That evening my body went through periods of chills, and the next morning I woke up with a stiff body and painful joints. It took a lot of energy to check the phone and reschedule my appointments.

By Thursday, the fever is gone and coughing is under control, but the body felt week. Small exertions created a spell of dizziness. There were also random periods of cold sweats during the day. Thursday was also the day when I last took anything for the “flu”.

Others in the family started showing symptoms on Wednesday and Thursday. My wife tested herself for Covid over the weekend and showed positive. I tested myself yesterday (1 week after first sign of symptoms), and also showed positive. My sons did the same self-test with the same positive results.

After three years of avoiding Covid, our family finally caught it, inescapable. I am glad that the symptoms, in my opinion, are certainly more mild than some past flus that I have experienced. Hopefully we will all be back up and running soon.

Subsequent Tests:

2023-04-26
2023-04-28

Still positive 9 days from first symptoms. However at 11 days (April 28), I tested negative!

Tesla Order Update

It looks like Transport Canada has updated their eligible vehicles for their Incentives for Zero-Emission Vehicles Program.

From Transport Canada

From above, it is clear that the Model Y Long Range AWD is now eligible! This is great news. I will be able to save $5000 from the purchase price.

When I checked my Tesla account, I can see that my order has been updated.

That is of course excellent news. However there is a downside. The delivery date is now pushed out to be between late July and early September, so fingers crossed that we’ll be getting it sooner rather than later.

Above estimate as of April 25th, 2023

Update May 1, 2023:

Above estimate as of May 1st, 2023

Update May 6, 2023:

Received an email update indicating “Final Payment is now ready”. Went to the Tesla site and into my account and received the bank wire info. We will call the bank on Monday to arrange the transfer.

Above is displayed as of May 6th, 2023

Update May 14, 2023:

I received a text message this morning:

I chose the 20th, and we are temporarily booked for 11:30am for delivery. I have not received a VIN number as of yet. Hope to get this soon, as I will need it for augmenting our auto insurance.

The Pursuit of a BEV

This is our journey to buy a full Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV).

When Tesla announced their Model 3 back in 2016, I was one of the first to place a $1,000 reservation for one. The promise was for an electric vehicle costing $35,000 USD. In the spring of 2018 when the first delivery to Canada happened, the price was $64,100 CAD for the Long Range Model 3. This is not the AWD version, and with the taxes it will exceed $70K. The on the road – all in – price from one of our neighbours exceeded $80K when his vehicle got delivered. Okay, at the time there was a $15K incentive from the government.

The final sticker shock was a bit of a surprise, and we were still probably not ready for a full electric vehicle at the time. We checked out the Nissan Leaf, the Hyundai Kona, and the Kia Niro. These were all in high demand with waiting lists exceeding a year. We waited for the Subaru Impreza Hybrid, which never made it to Ontario, and the availability in Quebec was spotty at best.

In a moment of pure coincidence, we got hold of a Toyota Prius Prime on October, 2019. This is our first Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV). We decided on a PHEV to get our feet wet with EV tech but also mitigated our fear of range anxiety. We felt less stress with a hybrid, and the small plugin battery which offers a limited range of the 35 to 45km. This short range will make do for 90% of our trips, which are mainly grocery runs, errands, and trips to local restaurants. We thought this PHEV will be perfect for us.

The experience driving in EV mode with the Toyota has made gas station visits an extreme rarity. We are talking like two partial fill ups during 2020, and probably less than 10 fill ups to date (all partials), and we are on its fourth year driving the Toyota.

We love the PHEV experience so much that on July 27, 2021, we placed a reservation on a RAV4 Prime at Richmond Hill Toyota and were warned that the wait will be very long.

Hedging our bets, we later placed another reservation on a KIA EV6 at KIA Stouffville on September 2, 2022. We thought the EV6 would be in a similar price range of the RAV4 Prime. You can read more about our reservation experience here.

On March 7, 2023, I received a call from my contact at Richmond Hill Toyota and he told me he had a 2023 RAV4 Prime XSE available. The price was $66,073 CAD all in. In January, Tesla dropped their price on the Model Y Long Range AWD to $69,900 CAD (from $85,000). Since we already have a fossil car, a 2013 Subaru Impreza; and a PHEV, the 2020 Toyota Prius Prime, we decided to pull the trigger and reserved the Tesla Model Y on the same day. Below is the configuration and the price breakdown.

Basic configuration (click to enlarge)
Price Details (click to enlarge)

The $81K price tag is higher than the $66K of the RAV4, but I figured that I will probably not buy another car for a very long time. At my age, I minus will cease the waiting and enjoy what life remains. Assuming Tesla meet its commitment on delivery timeframes, we should be getting the car before July, fingers crossed!

I also pulled the trigger in getting the mobile charger, wall connector, and the All-Weather Interior Liners. As a matter of fact, the interior liners already arrived and the charge accessories have already been shipped. We will hit the ground running (or driving). In the meantime, we are back in the waiting game again. May the EV gods be kind to us.

I am already super addicted to YouTube channels that are sharing other people’s Tesla experiences. My wife and I are already quite excited and may even partake on a few road trips with the new purchase. Perhaps testing out the Supercharging network to Montreal, and then an across Canada trip from Toronto to Calgary and perhaps even to Vancouver. We will see.

I will update with another post when the car arrives!