Mygreenwheels

So writes Alan Boyle on Cosmic Log. When he followed up with "What could be worse than getting a robotic nagging for letting an electric car's batteries run down too low?" I started thinking he's a man that needs to get out more. Nonetheless it's worth reading about his experience if you are ever bothered by 'range anxiety' when considering the pros and cons of driving an electric car.

Boyle was test-driving a Nissan Leaf which told him at the outset of his journey that he had enough battery power for 29 more miles, ten  miles over the journey he was about to make. Having been warned that the miles seem to 'shrink away precipitously' once the Leaf gets below the 25-mile range, he was pleasantly surprised to make it to his destination with 20 miles left on the clock.

I know from my experience of driving a Think electric car that you can squeeze a lot more mileage out of the battery by taking things carefully and shutting down any unnecessary power guzzling functions. I even experienced what's called "Turtle" mode when you're really getting down to your last bit of usable juice and the car starts progressively limiting your top speed and acceleration rate to try and get you to that charge station. I was on the home stretch at the time, so I could observe without mounting panic!

Nissan Leaf 'low battery' message, courtesy of PlugincarsCurious to see what happened if he pushed it to the limit, Boyle kept driving up and down in front of his hotel. The car's audio nagging apparently started with eight miles to go: "Very low battery. Would you like to search for a nearby charging station?" Other messages followed on the display screen, ending with "Cannot provide information because your battery is low". When the range read-out finally conked out and started blinking dashes instead, he decided to call it a day.

In this instance the car had offered him a search facility on the display to locate the nearest charging station, but in fact it only offered him outlets where it had previously been charged. This seems like a good call for an iPhone app that can show you where to find the nearest one ... except that his phone battery was flat too. Just as well that he was at his hotel.

Plugincars makes this valid point: "If you drove a Nissan LEAF uphill at 80 miles an hour with the A/C cranking full blast and five large adults in the car, you might only get 45 miles of range out of its battery. Alternatively, if you drove a steady 45 miles an hour over a completely flat route on a 60 degree day with no climate control, you might see as many as 135 miles of range."

I'm not sure if I've actually reassured anyone with range anxiety, but we can all take comfort from the certainty that range will quickly increase. With so many car and battery makers in the electric car race now that's a safe bet.