Best Range Anxiety Story?

[JeffRay]

How about folks post their funny (not so funny at the time) range anxiety story? In my case, three times, I have hit the charging station with 1 or 2 miles left, in my first 75 days of driving the Be.

Friday, I was trying to get to my charging station but gave up because of holiday escape traffic around the Holland Tunnel which blocked access to my parking lot so I parked it on the street with 4 miles range showing to get 1 mile to my charging station. Today, I went out this morning and discovered my Be was gone! Stolen or towed? I called 311 and the very calm person told me it was towed. After waiting 30 minutes to "redeem" my car, I got in and saw that 3 miles was left. Only problem was the charging station was 3.1 miles away from the tow pound. Well, it is all highway so I figured I could get there. But no, the minute I stepped on the accelerator to get on the highway, the range went down to 2. Oops. I got off the highway and went local in search of a closer charging station. I found one via the PlugShare app, whereupon the range dropped to 1 mile with less than 1 mile of city traffic to go. OK, I left the car with the attendant who asked all the right questions and went to eat lunch. About a half hour into my pizza lunch, the ChargePoint app informed me the car was finally charging. Whew. It is now back in my lot happily charging.

Post your range saga here!

 

[bcurious]

Good one, JeffRay. Mine pales in comparison.

We live about 24 miles from our dealer. Scheduling our pickup of the car for initial delivery was a bit tricky since the were very busy with delivery preps that day, and there were workday and bus transportation schedules to coordinate as well. Part of the delay was that the car had to be fully charged for us. The car looked great indoors as we were introduced to some features and brief description of factory charger use. The dealership was closing for the day, our delivery was completed, they closed the doors for the day behind us. It was dark outside, and seasonably chilly. Two minutes later we pulled out into traffic and only then noticed that the guess-o-meter showed fewer miles remaining than with which we were comfortable trying to make it home, and a battery charged only about halfway. Echoes in my head of salesperson's statements about the car being "fully charged up" had to be quelled as I turned left in order to change direction and head for an area where I knew that charging was supposed to be available. We arrived with fewer miles remaining than it would take to return to the dealer. These were not my preferred conditions under which to discover that our local Tesla Supercharger station had no J1772 plugs, nor to discover that the common Chargepoint hardware in our region seems to frequently become not only ICE'd, but literally iced. Logging in to the Chargepoint app and signalling to begin a charge session was working, but the plug took several attempts to remove from the freestanding outdoor EVSE hardware, as it was held in place by frozen water. After a bit of a struggle, the equipment and vehicle finally became connected, and charging commenced at a rate of about 5000w. My wife loves grocery stores, and I like warm places and eating food, so we leisurely crossed the 6 lanes of traffic in the dark to a Trader Joe's store to pass some time and wait for enough juice to make it home much later than we'd anticipated doing so.

 

[JeffRay]

BC, man, I bet you were a little hot under the collar. I had a similar experience in picking up mine. Made an 11 a.m. appointment. Did not get out until 3 p.m. Reason, they forgot to charge the car. As it was, I left with only a 3/4 charge, more than enough to go the 4 miles home.

 

[SmartElectric]

I've blogged one of my "take it to zero" experiences in my Smart ED:
http://mysmartelectricdrive.blogspot.ca/2014/05/running-on-empty-cause-thats-way-i-roll.html

I've taken my Smart ED down to zero almost a dozen times now, and each time I knew that I'd be close, and a few times I just pushed it to see how close. Living on the edge!

Here's a funny clip of cramer running Jerry Seinfelds car past empty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuEdU_lrtZk

 

[Comanchepilot]

Wife wanted the car.

She drives 74.8 miles per day with no charging option at work in the garage.

we're in SoCal in the Foothills. But the commute is E/W on the 210. 37.4 miles each way.

Car bought for the carpool lane sticker.

She has driven a Volt the last 3 years. She routinely gets 42-44 miles out of the Volt electric charge.

This is gonna be interesting.

 

[JeffRay]

Hey CP, best make sure she is fully charged overnight at home or there will be h&*l to pay on her route back. Assume you have located some intermediate charging points on her route back home. I have rolled into dealer for my free charge with 1 or 2 miles indicated a handful to times. It was not fun and I have yet to experience running dry and figuring out if they just tow me to dealer or "jump" me.

For me, with enough experience, I generally head to a charging option when the gauge reads 25%. Only once have I had to search for an unknown charging station and rolled in with 1 mile left. Scary.