This is not a record you want to have! Steve just drove Chloe, our Nissan Leaf, down to 4 miles of remaining range.
I held the previous record at 6 miles of remaining range.
To be honest, I’m kind of proud of him. You see, he suffers from a debilitating case of range anxiety. And this disability applies to everything: when a bill is due, when a meeting is scheduled to start, when the car’s gas tank gets to a quarter tank. He simply can’t stand for anything to run down to the wire.
He has such bad range anxiety that, when I’m feeling devilish and he’s taking too long to get to the door to leave and go somewhere, I set the alarm to speed him up. That gives him 1 minute to get out of the house before the alarm is activated. It starts beeping, and he begins to rush about while anxiously grumbling that I am mean and cruel to him.
Truth is I adore him. But I do get some undefinable perverse pleasure out of punching his range anxiety button!1
Hats off! Down to 4 remaining miles, and he could still speak intelligently and walk without passing out.
I always wait to set the alarm until I’m confident he will make it out before setting off the alarm. ↩