Driving an Electric Car - A Firsthand Account of Range Anxiety

So, when you are running an non-profit promoting electric driving you have to walk the talk, right? I decided to take that to heart and drive the Mitsubishi i-MiEV from Toronto to a place just outside Orangeville for the weekend. It was about a 75 km trip from our house and the range on a full charge is about 130 km, so I figured it should be no problem.

So, with an i-MiEV, kindly provided to Plug'n Drive by Mitsubishi, I brought the EV home the night before to charge up overnight. I have no garage but, yes, a 110V plug outside of the house can do it.
When I pulled up, I realized our basketball net meant that the cord couldn't quite reach, so I figured an extension cord would do the job and I left it to 'fill up' over night. When I went out in the morning I discovered that I hadn't charged the car at all. So, I made a few calls and found out that extension cords are a no no.

My husband and I moved the basketball net - no small feat - and then I was able to get close enough to plug in directly. Great! Except, it was 8 a.m. and I wanted to get going. So, we got packed up and inside the i-MiEV I managed to fit my son, our dog in a doggie crate, our bags and me (The i-MiEV is a lot bigger than it looks).

Ok, the car wasn't fully charged, but that's ok because I knew there was a quick charger at Mitsubishi's Headquarters at HWY 427 and Eglinton Ave., which wasn't too far out of my way. So, I decided not to wait and headed to Mitsubishi. I got there and the quick charger was available and easy to use. We charged and in 15 minutes it was done. Amazing! Except for one small detail - I forgot that it only gets you to 80% not 100%.

Hmmm - given where I am going that will be close. But I was on the way so I was going to try it. So I hopped on HWY 410 North. It was 35 degrees outside and I wanted to turn on the air conditioning. The problem is that the combination of a/c and highway driving is really bad on range, so we were going to have to go without a/c on one of the hottest days of the year. We get off the highway and use the eco-mode on the side roads and that bought us a bit more range.

I was getting nervous as the charge had dropped to the last bar and I was still 10 kms away. With my heart pounding we pulled into the driveway with the dash blinking at me crying, "Charge Me!". But, we made it.

Lesson learned, when driving electric you need to plan ahead :)

Cara Clairman
President and CEO