As the owner of 4 electric vehicles, I have grown accustom to understanding and managing the range of my “mini fleet”. I have 2 Tesla’s that are pure electric (EV’s) , an i3 and Chevy Volt, (aka EVER’s) that means they have a gas extended range generator to get you out of trouble if you run out of battery….but back to my story.
This past Monday I was tasked to take my Dad from Long Island to the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC for a follow up visit after having spinal surgery. About half way through the trip I happened to look down and noticed my car hadn’t charged the night before, had some issue with my Voltec wall charger….yikes 15 miles remaining, OH NO! I stayed calm as I didn’t want to agitate my 84 year old Dad, but I ultimately had to let him in on my condition of Range Anxiety as I called the Tesla Roadside hotline.
Here’s the call….”Hi this is Jeremy, how can I help you?” I said “Jeremy, I am suffering from a severe case of range anxiety, I have my 84 year old Dad in my car and fear I am not going to make it back on my trip to the hospital, I need you to find me a parking garage with a charging station stat!” Jeremy was awesome, they must give therapy lessons to Tesla phone people because he started with, “OK, I see your car and your status, let’s start with turning off the heat and make sure you are not in Insane Mode, confirm you are in Sport Mode”, which I did.
“Now, it looks like you need to go 8 miles and you have 15 miles remaining, do not make any jack rabbit starts and keep it around 40 or under if you can, that is peak efficiency. I am emailing you a list of parking garages that have charging stations in your vicinity, it should be no problem.” I dropped off Dad, drove to the garage with the charging station, went to the appointment, got back to the car, which I monitored charging from the app and we were good to go with another 70 miles under my belt! Problem solved.
Later that day I decided to get a fast charge on a true Tesla charger at their Syosset, NY location, wow is that fast, my car was piling on 9-10 miles in range per minute! Best of all it is totally free!
EV’s are for purists, but Tesla makes it easy with their amazing range, for the faint of heart, consider an EVER if you are interested in this space, you always have a back up and you can get the hang of charging.
I am hosting an Electric Auto Association Car Show on Saturday April 23rd, at my LEED Platinum building in Woodbury, New York from 10am – 12 noon. I am often asked if my clean electric vehicle is using dirty energy. Come to my building and see our 295 solar panel array that feeds our electric car charging stations. Thank you Mr. Sun and EmPower Solar for the energy. Any other questions?
