Inverse Range Anxiety – Seriously?

We took delivery of our ActiveE yesterday evening from New Country BMW in Hartford.  After delivery we went out to dinner in West Hartford, then began the journey home.  The total trip was just over 70 miles that were almost exclusively highway. 

Sidebar – we still don’t have our EVSE yet (the Clipper Creek CS-40 is scheduled to be delivered next Monday), so we’re relying on 120v charging for the time being.

Upon arriving home, the remaining range was 14 miles.  I was scheduled to be in Manhattan today, and a certain someone had decided that she wanted to drive the car to a luncheon today to show it off to the girls.  I wasn’t sure that was a good idea without a road test first.  That way we could go over the important stuff – like starting the car and getting it in gear, not to mention regen braking.  So we took it out for a spin with her behind the wheel and returned to the house with 8 miles of range left. 

After the drive a discussion ensued as to whether she could make it to work, then to lunch.  “But there’s still eight miles of range left”, she said, “and it’s going to charge all night.”  “We need to understand how far the car will go before we push it to the end of the batteries”, I countered.  Not knowing how much range would be available after charging overnight, I recommended that if she went to work that she should probably go with her Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), then pick up the ActiveE on the way to lunch.

As it turned out there was enough range this morning to drop me off at the train station and do all the driving she wanted to today.  As we drove to the train station at some ungodly hour this morning, we discussed the seemingly rapid change in her driving philosophy.  You see, this is someone who would panic when the low fuel warning light would come on in the ICE – even though there were two gallons of gas and 40 miles of range left.  And now after almost 10 minutes behind the wheel it’s turned into “but there’s still eight miles of range left”.

Clearly this will change the more she drives the ActiveE, but for now, range anxiety?  Somebody don’t got no stinkin’ range anxiety.