I now know what Christopher Columbus must have felt like when he sailed to the edge of the earth and feared he might fall off. Yesterday I took a trip OTP (outside the perimeter). It was waaaaay outside the perimeter.
I would normally have taken the Tesla, which has plenty of range on a charge, but Steve had it out of town on a business trip. I had the Leaf. Would it make the trip and back? I really had serious doubts.
Just doing the math, it should work. I should be able to get to my destination and back home again without charging. But battery range is a tricky thing. Going up and down hills affects charge. Going at highway speed really affects the charge on the Leaf, which much prefers stop-and-go traffic. It seems to regenerate a lot of charge in stop-and-go.
But my trip was going to be mostly interstate. I used cruise control set at 55mph. I was the slowest car on I-75 by far.
I started with 77 miles range on a full charge. When I arrived, I had 41 miles of predicted range remaining. From destination to home was only 23 miles. I had used 36 miles of predicted range to go the actual 23 miles. I was worried. This was going to be very close.
When I got down to 8 miles range remaining, all hell broke loose on the dashboard: beeping sounds, warning icons, warning messages, blinking lights… But I made it!
When I arrived home, I had 6 miles range remaining. Goodness! Too close for comfort.
