Battery - how low have you gone?

[Gomev]

My 5 standard can do 220 easily in Summer but I go with the 2 miles per 1% as well, just makes it easier to calculate remaining range. The lowest I've gone is about 8% at the end of a long trip, done that a few times now.

Yep, it's a lot easier to go low when returning home if you have a home charger, or even on street charging nearby.

 

[Gomev]

My latest journey home, not quite as low as some, but no squeaky bum either.

 

[Rolfe]

I used to be expert at coasting into a petrol station running on fumes. I knew to a T just how far I could go once the range meter said no miles left. Not even trying that in an EV. The lowest I have gone so far is 19% after a Gridserve charger broke down on me at Gretna and I looked at the 67% it had let me have, and realised I could get home on that no problem anyway.

The difference is that I had a can of petrol in the boot - which I seldom needed to use. And that - one hair-raising Christmas Eve excepted - I could rely on the petrol pump I was heading for actually to be working when I got there. Also, most of the time, it's possible to rescue yourself if you run out. A lift to a petrol station from a passing motorist. Last time, a bus home and a return in a friend's car with a can of the stuff.

The sheer embarrassment of being left at the side of the road in a bricked EV is something I don't feel ready to risk. And there really should be no need for it, given the entirely different way we approach fuelling our EVs and the fact that (at least round here) EV charging points are significantly more common than petrol stations.

If I ever find myself at a non-functioning charge point without enough range to get to another I'm going to sit there and phone the operator until the thing is fixed rather than drive on. I'd rather leave the car there and get a lift or a bus or a taxi home (or to my destination) than run out on the road.

Maybe I'll get more foolhardy as I become more experienced, but right now, no.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Outbound journeys I tend to be more cautious and make sure I have plenty of electrons. Howeward bound, I check the miles on the sat-nav and the miles on the guessometer and wing it, knowing I can charge at home, or worst case, I know where the local chargers are.

 

[Rolfe]

I know where the local chargers are but I still have slight nightmares about being stuck in a windswept park in Carnwath in the dark, trying to phone ChargePlace Scotland, and not getting an answer.