I’ve been figuring out how to slow down my life since I arose from my deathbed in 2014. That was when I had an “aha” moment about my mortality, and I should take time to enjoy what the world has to offer rather than rushing around from place to place.
I didn’t know that an Electric Vehicle (EV) would be in my future, and ended up writing a book about my experiences called On the Trail: Electric Vehicle Anxiety and Advice, Navigating 2,600 miles over open and desolate highways. My experiences are a cautionary tale about aspects of EV driving that the sales people might not tell you.
My 2015 VW Sportwagen gas tank was close to “E,” and I stopped by the Loaf and Jug filling station to use my loyalty points which are at a minimum good for three cents off per gallon.
“$40?” I thought. That was double what I paid before. I don’t drive that much and knew I’d pay more because of the various economic uncertainties, but not that much more.
I began researching EVs, thinking now would be an excellent time to trade in my internal combustion engine (ICE) VW. I thought that would be my last car, but even after seven years, maintenance costs would loom, like changing the timing belt. I just bought new tires, too.
I did some research into EVs. There were the Teslas on one end. Used models are $40K to $75K but in exchange, the driving range is 300 miles. For a starving artist, those were out of my price range. I could buy a lot of Uber rides, plane tickets and hotel rooms for those prices.
A 2021 Nissan Leaf on Carfax dot com was advertised in Longmont. I decided to check it out on Friday afternoon. Sure enough, it was on the lot. After talking to Ben, the sales guy, he wouldn’t let me out of his store without the title to that EV.
He offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse. The trade-in value was nearly what I paid for the VW, plus he gave a pretty good discount. I drove it off the log, not knowing what to expect.
I learned about the various charging stations and that driving an EV around town was like an ICE car. The battery range was 240 miles which I thought was a good compromise between the Tesla and others with ranges in the 150 miles. The Leaf range would be more than enough to get to Denver or Fort Collins and back.
What about a road trip? I’d been planning a couple of treks around Wyoming for two conferences and stops on my “Beyond Heart Mountain” book tour.
I’ll recount the first day of my first outing. I read that long EV drives require some preplanning. I plotted out my routes. My first stop was Casper, Wyoming, 278 miles from Boulder. I left Boulder with a full charge and reached Cheyenne with 150 miles of range. My idea was to charge at the Nissan dealer, which had a Level 2 charger. The Level 2 charger rate is about 10 miles per hour. I had a meeting that lasted two hours and would charge then.
As bad news would have it, I didn’t plug in correctly and lost two hours. After my meeting, I sat there for three hours to get 180 miles of battery range. That would have been enough to make it to Casper, but I knew there would be wind and charged for two more hours.
I became impatient and took off. When I made it to Glenrock, 24 miles from Casper, my battery indicator estimated that I’d be 11 miles short. I was anxious about that. It was getting to be dusk, and I pulled off at Glenrock looking for an electric socket on the exterior of a building and ended up creeping into an RV campground. I sat there for four hours at a 110-volt socket that provided only five miles per hour of charge. The owner allowed me to charge up for $30.
I got back on I-25 and crept into Casper with 1 percent battery to spare. It was now 10:00 p.m. The Casper Nissan is right off the highway, I pulled in there and charged for an hour, not knowing if the hotel had any outside plug.
I rolled into the Ramkota and checked in at 11:30 p.m. after 15 hours on the road and charging. The drive in an ICE car usually is five hours.
Little did I know that slowing down my life would ironically mean triple the stress. The second time I made this drive three weeks later, I cut the drive time to 11 hours.
I was interviewed by a news reporter the other day. The story was picked up by a variety of the conservative outlets like Breitbart and Fox News. They viewed my experiences as negative and anti-EV.
I can see how my story could be spun in that direction, but my experiences show how much farther the industry has to go before EVs become mainstream. Anyone who would rather fight than switch should rest at lease. ICE vehicles will be around for decades and not being obsolete anytime soon.
Beyond Heart Mountain 