Will we make it home?!?!
We own a Tesla Model 3. In fact, our current car is the second one we have owned. We bought a 2020 Tesla Model 3 in 2019 and drove it for nearly 4 years before trading it for the present car. We loved the first one, but the 4-year warranty was about to expire and we felt that it might be dollar-wise to trade for a new one.
Yesterday we drove down to a Ford dealer some 65 miles from our home and traded our GMC ICE truck for a Ford Lightning electric pickup truck.
The salesperson was pleasant and helpful in conducting the sale, and the paperwork and insurance switch went smoothly. She then got in one of the back seats of the truck and showed us how to turn on the heat, which, because the outdoor temperature was 4 degrees F., felt wonderful. She noted that the range indicator (how many miles you can expect to travel given the amount of charge the battery has) was 149 miles. "You can practically go all the way home and back if you want to!"
We own a Tesla Model 3. In fact, our current car is the second one we have owned. We bought a 2020 Tesla Model 3 in 2019 and drove it for nearly 4 years before trading it for the present car. We loved the first one, but the 4-year warranty was about to expire and we felt that it might be dollar-wise to trade for a new one.
Yesterday we drove down to a Ford dealer some 65 miles from our home and traded our GMC ICE truck for a Ford Lightning electric pickup truck.
THE TUG HILL PLATEAU HAD 3' OF SNOW FALL IN TWO DAYS
The salesperson was pleasant and helpful in conducting the sale, and the paperwork and insurance switch went smoothly. She then got in one of the back seats of the truck and showed us how to turn on the heat, which, because the outdoor temperature was 4 degrees F., felt wonderful. She noted that the range indicator (how many miles you can expect to travel given the amount of charge the battery has) was 149 miles. "You can practically go all the way home and back if you want to!"
We later came to understand why the vehicle's estimator of range (how many miles you can go before needing to recharge) is referred to by Lightning owners as the Guess-O-Meter.
It was about 4:30 and the deep-freeze was continuing as we pulled away from the dealer, and it wasn’t very long before we noted that the Lightning was using 2-3 miles of its supposed range for every mile we were driving! The farther we drove, the more this was becoming worrisome, so we turned down the car interior heat to preserve more of the battery charge.
When we reached a town twelve miles from home we were able to connect to what was supposed to be a Level 2 charger, but we had not known how to preheat the battery for charging (something you always do in a Tesla), and the car either didn't take the charge, or the charger wasn't working, or it was working but the rate of charge was so slow that it wasn't registering. (The outdoor temperature was 0 degrees F). With 22 miles of range left on the battery, we did make the 12 miles home where we plugged the Lightning into an outlet in the garage. (We could have taken the Tesla out of the garage and used its power cord to charge the Lightning overnight, but because we have no plans to drive either vehicle for a couple of days, we just used the 110 outlet to trickle-charge the new truck).
Are we nuts? Yeah, well, maybe, but we are trying to do all we can to keep the world livable for our grandchildren. Promoting non-ICE is what we think we can do. I must admit I woke up on Saturday morning wondering if we had made an expensive mistake in buying the truck.
As I write this some days later I am convinced that we will love the truck once we figure it out. As we experienced the drive home, it became apparent that the salesperson and the dealership where we bought it do not have sufficient EV training and knowledge to advise or sell to potential EV buyers. If they had, they would have seen to it that the Lightning was FULLY charged before we drove away.
We will eventually share what we learn plus a checklist or summary of necessary information with the dealership because we want them to continue selling EVs. Had we not been experienced EV owners who know how great EVs are/should be, today we would be on our way back to the dealer and furious. Well, actually, we COULDN’T be driving the 65 miles back to the dealer because it’s still just above zero degrees and the Lightning is still not charged enough to make that trip.
It was about 4:30 and the deep-freeze was continuing as we pulled away from the dealer, and it wasn’t very long before we noted that the Lightning was using 2-3 miles of its supposed range for every mile we were driving! The farther we drove, the more this was becoming worrisome, so we turned down the car interior heat to preserve more of the battery charge.
When we reached a town twelve miles from home we were able to connect to what was supposed to be a Level 2 charger, but we had not known how to preheat the battery for charging (something you always do in a Tesla), and the car either didn't take the charge, or the charger wasn't working, or it was working but the rate of charge was so slow that it wasn't registering. (The outdoor temperature was 0 degrees F). With 22 miles of range left on the battery, we did make the 12 miles home where we plugged the Lightning into an outlet in the garage. (We could have taken the Tesla out of the garage and used its power cord to charge the Lightning overnight, but because we have no plans to drive either vehicle for a couple of days, we just used the 110 outlet to trickle-charge the new truck).
Are we nuts? Yeah, well, maybe, but we are trying to do all we can to keep the world livable for our grandchildren. Promoting non-ICE is what we think we can do. I must admit I woke up on Saturday morning wondering if we had made an expensive mistake in buying the truck.
As I write this some days later I am convinced that we will love the truck once we figure it out. As we experienced the drive home, it became apparent that the salesperson and the dealership where we bought it do not have sufficient EV training and knowledge to advise or sell to potential EV buyers. If they had, they would have seen to it that the Lightning was FULLY charged before we drove away.
We will eventually share what we learn plus a checklist or summary of necessary information with the dealership because we want them to continue selling EVs. Had we not been experienced EV owners who know how great EVs are/should be, today we would be on our way back to the dealer and furious. Well, actually, we COULDN’T be driving the 65 miles back to the dealer because it’s still just above zero degrees and the Lightning is still not charged enough to make that trip.
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