Since the production of their first electric sports cars in 2004, American auto manufacturer Tesla has become a household name. Their products have made headlines, but not always in the right reasons. In a country like Canada, electrics, which suffer from range limitations and poor cold-weather performance, have always had their flaws. Join Autumn Nyiri and Leslie Kendall from the Petersen Automotive Museum as they discuss the history of this electric car giant, and its successes and failures on Canadian roads.
This online talk will take place over Zoom and is part of the Canadian Automotive Museum's Third Thursday lecture series. These online talks are free and open to the public, but registration is required. The Canadian Automotive Museum is a registered Canadian charity and a suggested donation of $10 goes toward covering the cost of hosting these virtual events. Donors who make an annual contribution of over $25 will receive a charitable tax receipt.
About our speakers:
Born and raised in Southern California, Autumn Nyiri headed to the east coast to attend Columbia University’s masters program in Museum Anthropology. She worked her way up through the curatorial department at the Museum of the City of New York over the course of 15+ years, eventually becoming Director of Curatorial Affairs. In 2019 she returned to Los Angeles to serve as Associate Curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum, where she channels her love of history and culture into telling the stories of automobiles.
Born in San Diego, California, Leslie Kendall has had an insatiable, life-long interest in automotive history. After earning an MBA that led to an unfulfilling career in mortgage banking, he left to volunteer full-time at the San Diego Automotive Museum where he was hired on as curator after only eight months. Kendall was invited to join the Petersen Automotive Museum implementation team in April 1993 and in October 1995 was named Chief Curator. Now the museum’s Chief Historian, he is an author; a regular contributor to automotive media outlets; a concours d’Elegance judge at events around the country; and a frequent consultant on automotive history-related public- and private-sector projects.