Thinking that a range estimate of 30 miles meant close to 30 miles, Jon Linkov left home with a kid to drop off at daycare and a commute to the office.
17 miles later, he was in turtle mode.
About 17 miles from startup, the potential range indicator had become three blinking dashes. I realized I was not going to make it to work, and decided to get off the highway. As I exited the Leaf entered "Turtle" mode, complete with a small, green turtle indicator light. I proceeded to limp the next 1.3 miles into town. The final humiliation came when a highway department mower passed me.
I can hear the true believers yelling at me already, since I didn't charge the car overnight. The thing is, we're charging all the plug-in cars at our facility, on 220-volt chargers that can log exactly how much just our cars are using. Planning a 46-mile round trip when the car suggested I had 60 miles available didn't seem too much to ask.
Range anxiety isn't a bugbear invented by the oil lobby. It's real. And Nissan really needs to refine their range estimation algorithm, because this is the sort of thing that fuels consumer backlash.
