Robert’s LEAF diary – week 4: That deflated feeling… where’s
Enviado: 25 ago 2011, 12:15
Robert’s LEAF diary – week 4: That deflated feeling… where’s the electric pump thingy?
"I’ve noticed this week how massive leaps in technology can sometimes expose the most fundamental technical weaknesses, which can leave you feeling badly deflated.
By Robert Llewellyn on May 19, 2011 12:49 PM
I had to go to the dentist yesterday morning, not something I was relishing, plus I had to get home for a conference call and everything was a bit tight.
Last week I was recording a section of a new programme about living with electric cars and I stated how important it was to plan your journey a little ahead of time, making sure you don’t have to rush so your battery range won’t suffer.
All good, sensible middle-aged advice. Until you start to drive calmly down the road on your well-planned trip and hear a rather ominous clicky, something-stuck-in-the-tyre type noise.
I pulled over and got out only to find a long strip of wire that six years ago I had cut from an un-needed fence. How it got into the tyre I am never going to know, but it was there. Not a nail, a bit of fence wire. Why? Why me, why now, why today!
I pondered on what to do. If it was a nail I could leave it in but it was a long strip of whippy wire that was going to thrash around if I drove any further. I had to extract it and hope it hadn’t gone in too far.
‘Hisssss’. It had gone in too far.
I quickly turned around and drove the LEAF back to my house before the tyre went totally flat. The LEAF doesn’t have a spare, not even one of those puny ‘get you home’ emergency pram wheels, it has a an electric pump thingy. See the technical prowess on display here: ‘An electric pump thingy’.
I’d been shown it when I took possession of the car, I knew where it was but I hadn’t listened so I had no idea how to use it. I scratched my head. There was nothing for it; I was actually going to have to… read the manual.
I’m so glad I was alone, if a bloke had seen me reading the manual, well, it would have been humiliating. I rushed around to the boot and extracted the emergency electric pump thingy and the bottle of rubberised goo that goes with it, and it was, thankfully, fairly straightforward. I plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket and turned it on. The little fella went ballistic, pumping away like a fanatic. It took about 2 minutes to pump the tyre up. Brilliant.
I then did that thing that all men like to do; I gave the tyre a kick. I have no idea what this is supposed to tell me, but it was obviously inflated so I got in and drove, keeping under 50 miles an hour as per the instructions in the manual. I’d never admit I read that in the manual, I’d just pretend I always knew.
“Yeah, you shouldn‘t go over fifty when you’ve got a temporary repair to the vehicle’s tyre.”
I got to the dentist seven minutes late and experienced some actual, measurable pain in the lie-back chair. The procedure, I won’t go into it but believe me it wasn’t cosmetic and took a little longer than I’d anticipated.
Afterwards I tried to make my conference call but I was too late, a whole office full of important executives had been kept waiting. That’s it, my career is over. Some close friends would point out that this is no big shakes as it never really started.
So, having this amazing piece of technology at my disposal made no difference yesterday. I screwed up: I should have disposed of that bit of wire properly six years ago; I should have left myself more time to cope with unseen changes; I should have re-scheduled the conference call.
And due to the fact that the bottle of gunge has done the trick, the lovely chaps at my local tyre shop couldn’t find the hole. I’ve had to order a new tyre, as they don’t stock the super low rolling resistance tyres fitted to the Nissan LEAF because they mainly do tractors and Land Rovers.
Apart from the disaster of yesterday, my life with the LEAF has been remarkably uneventful; I’m attempting longer and longer trips without a second thought. The LEAF’s advertised range of 100 miles is clearly achievable, although I haven’t quite done it yet. I did 92 miles the other day with the Mrs in the passenger seat. We drove along through the beautiful countryside without a second thought. We had the windows open and heard birdsong in woodland as we passed. Yes, it is that quiet.
We saw some old some pals… yadda yadda kids, schools, yadda yadda property prices, Cameron, Pakistan, Bin Laden and vegetarianism. Yes, we’re that middle class. No re-charge, we returned home and only during the last 10 miles or so the topic of range anxiety popped up, but having both got to know the car well enough, we knew we’d be okay.
The summer is going to be a joyous relaxing period of electric motoring, a phrase I’ve recently used to camera which shows me not only how middle class I am, but how wretchedly middle-aged. Electric motoring. How tartan blankety. How picnic in that lay-by on the A406 with two folding chairs and a thermos.
Yes, a summer of electric motoring, but how it will hold up in the winter is another matter. I haven’t used the heater yet and although you can pre-heat the car when it’s still plugged in, I know we are going to want to use it on longer drives. When we’ve used the heater during the first few times we drove the LEAF, you can watch the estimated range drop by at least 10 miles.
I lastly want to point out that we’re using this car every day in a remote, rural location and our nearest public charger is in Oxford, 55 miles away. We drive all over the place, we don’t feel restricted and I don’t think the lack of charging infrastructure causes a massive problem.
Obviously if there were more 16 AMP charging points in the right locations, at motorway service stations or in supermarket car parks, we would use the LEAF exclusively. I can see that in two or three years, having one electric car is going to be a truly serious alternative for a hell of a lot of people.
They can still get punctures, though."
Em: http://www.thechargingpoint.com/opinion ... hingy.html
"I’ve noticed this week how massive leaps in technology can sometimes expose the most fundamental technical weaknesses, which can leave you feeling badly deflated.
By Robert Llewellyn on May 19, 2011 12:49 PM
I had to go to the dentist yesterday morning, not something I was relishing, plus I had to get home for a conference call and everything was a bit tight.
Last week I was recording a section of a new programme about living with electric cars and I stated how important it was to plan your journey a little ahead of time, making sure you don’t have to rush so your battery range won’t suffer.
All good, sensible middle-aged advice. Until you start to drive calmly down the road on your well-planned trip and hear a rather ominous clicky, something-stuck-in-the-tyre type noise.
I pulled over and got out only to find a long strip of wire that six years ago I had cut from an un-needed fence. How it got into the tyre I am never going to know, but it was there. Not a nail, a bit of fence wire. Why? Why me, why now, why today!
I pondered on what to do. If it was a nail I could leave it in but it was a long strip of whippy wire that was going to thrash around if I drove any further. I had to extract it and hope it hadn’t gone in too far.
‘Hisssss’. It had gone in too far.
I quickly turned around and drove the LEAF back to my house before the tyre went totally flat. The LEAF doesn’t have a spare, not even one of those puny ‘get you home’ emergency pram wheels, it has a an electric pump thingy. See the technical prowess on display here: ‘An electric pump thingy’.
I’d been shown it when I took possession of the car, I knew where it was but I hadn’t listened so I had no idea how to use it. I scratched my head. There was nothing for it; I was actually going to have to… read the manual.
I’m so glad I was alone, if a bloke had seen me reading the manual, well, it would have been humiliating. I rushed around to the boot and extracted the emergency electric pump thingy and the bottle of rubberised goo that goes with it, and it was, thankfully, fairly straightforward. I plugged it into the cigarette lighter socket and turned it on. The little fella went ballistic, pumping away like a fanatic. It took about 2 minutes to pump the tyre up. Brilliant.
I then did that thing that all men like to do; I gave the tyre a kick. I have no idea what this is supposed to tell me, but it was obviously inflated so I got in and drove, keeping under 50 miles an hour as per the instructions in the manual. I’d never admit I read that in the manual, I’d just pretend I always knew.
“Yeah, you shouldn‘t go over fifty when you’ve got a temporary repair to the vehicle’s tyre.”
I got to the dentist seven minutes late and experienced some actual, measurable pain in the lie-back chair. The procedure, I won’t go into it but believe me it wasn’t cosmetic and took a little longer than I’d anticipated.
Afterwards I tried to make my conference call but I was too late, a whole office full of important executives had been kept waiting. That’s it, my career is over. Some close friends would point out that this is no big shakes as it never really started.
So, having this amazing piece of technology at my disposal made no difference yesterday. I screwed up: I should have disposed of that bit of wire properly six years ago; I should have left myself more time to cope with unseen changes; I should have re-scheduled the conference call.
And due to the fact that the bottle of gunge has done the trick, the lovely chaps at my local tyre shop couldn’t find the hole. I’ve had to order a new tyre, as they don’t stock the super low rolling resistance tyres fitted to the Nissan LEAF because they mainly do tractors and Land Rovers.
Apart from the disaster of yesterday, my life with the LEAF has been remarkably uneventful; I’m attempting longer and longer trips without a second thought. The LEAF’s advertised range of 100 miles is clearly achievable, although I haven’t quite done it yet. I did 92 miles the other day with the Mrs in the passenger seat. We drove along through the beautiful countryside without a second thought. We had the windows open and heard birdsong in woodland as we passed. Yes, it is that quiet.
We saw some old some pals… yadda yadda kids, schools, yadda yadda property prices, Cameron, Pakistan, Bin Laden and vegetarianism. Yes, we’re that middle class. No re-charge, we returned home and only during the last 10 miles or so the topic of range anxiety popped up, but having both got to know the car well enough, we knew we’d be okay.
The summer is going to be a joyous relaxing period of electric motoring, a phrase I’ve recently used to camera which shows me not only how middle class I am, but how wretchedly middle-aged. Electric motoring. How tartan blankety. How picnic in that lay-by on the A406 with two folding chairs and a thermos.
Yes, a summer of electric motoring, but how it will hold up in the winter is another matter. I haven’t used the heater yet and although you can pre-heat the car when it’s still plugged in, I know we are going to want to use it on longer drives. When we’ve used the heater during the first few times we drove the LEAF, you can watch the estimated range drop by at least 10 miles.
I lastly want to point out that we’re using this car every day in a remote, rural location and our nearest public charger is in Oxford, 55 miles away. We drive all over the place, we don’t feel restricted and I don’t think the lack of charging infrastructure causes a massive problem.
Obviously if there were more 16 AMP charging points in the right locations, at motorway service stations or in supermarket car parks, we would use the LEAF exclusively. I can see that in two or three years, having one electric car is going to be a truly serious alternative for a hell of a lot of people.
They can still get punctures, though."
Em: http://www.thechargingpoint.com/opinion ... hingy.html