The Empty Battery Anxiety Thread

goz83

I thought I would start a thread for people to log their close calls and their charge fails.

Topaz at the M50/M1 junction is circa 3-4klms from me. I wanted to take a spin to Leixlip and had 20klms on the clock.....15 when I got to Topaz. The DC was offline. I rang ecars and no luck. They said Airport was busy and Glasnevin Tooaz was closest FCP.

Bucketing rain and halfway there, I wished Inhad gone home and cancelled my trip. I soldiered on. Battery down to 7% at Griffith Ave. after 5% it no longer showed percentage. Anxious moments, windows fogging. Car sat nav and phone sat nav giving different directions. :eek:

I see the familiar lights of a CP across from Glasnevin cemetery. I plug in but it's a slow CP. my phone tells me that the topaz is 0.3 klms up the road. I unplug and drive to Topaz. It's free thank God. Here I sit at 76% and rising. Glad I kept going. Off to Leixlip in a few minutes.

What's your story?

n97 mini

None thankfully. Pre planning on routes I've not done before helps, but nothing beats familiarity... Knowing how much % required to get from FCP to FCP and knowing which FCPs are busy, and on what days.

Having a 6.6kw capable Leaf helps too as I know if I can find an SCP I won't need a hotel! Incidentally the car seems to charge faster than 6.6kw. Last time I used an SCP it went from 20% to 91% in 1hr40. The maths suggest (assuming 21kw usable) I should have picked up about 52%.

Gumbo

Please read my thread:)

Anyway, the nearest FCP from topaz on N32 is Topaz on Finglas Dual Carraige Way at Glasnevin. It was down all last week, so glad to see it's back up and running.

Just wondering how glasnevin avenue came into it? N32, M50, Finglas exit and straight down the Finglas dual carriage way.

My story from last week.

kceire wrote: »

On another distressing note.
VRT Inspection today.

Car on 11% last night so I said feck it, I'll drive to clonshaugh Topaz and fast charge it. I'll have enough then for the day and tomorrow.

Got into car at 11 this morning on 10% and got on M50 at Ballymun. Straightaway range dropped to -- and % dropped to -- also.

Got to Topaz. Screen says "please remove from car" so I assumed that somebody didn't bother finishing properly. Unit in constant state of recovery. Rang eCar, reset unit, still recovering.

Said feck it and drove to NCT.
Got vrt and back into car and a proposed 4.2km journey home.
Car displayed turtle mode immediately but thought I'd still make the 4km.
Got 2.8km into journey and BOOM, battery dead.

So now I know my ultimate drive range when teenage mutant hero turtles appear!

Problem there is that you'd have to be within 2.5km of a charger of some sort.

Rang breakdown. Towed to house.
Granny charging now.

Moral of the story.
I should have charged last night or this morning when I woke up.
Don't rely on public infrastructure.
I know my ultimate limit on distance now with low battery.

Tea and chocolate biscuits now while I listen to the partner mouthing about how I bought a piece of crap and that she getting into her diesel to driver wherever the bell she wants

n97 mini

Incidentally if I was you I would have charged to only maybe 40% before heading to Leixlip and the stopped at SuperValu Lucan on the way home. Charging from low SOC is much faster.

cros13

Yup, never ran out either... went into turtle twice on the old 24kWh leaf, once was deliberate and once was 100 meters from home on a particularly chilly december night.

I regularly hit below 10km on the i3 but again that's deliberate.

My dad ran out (his first and only time in three years of EV driving) on the roundabout beside the Portlaoise Midway rapid charger after he decided to skip Junction 14 on the way back from a round trip to Dublin having left Dublin with only 50% state of charge into a 60km/h headwind and pouring rain (30kWh Leaf and he could set records for hypermiling). I was about 20 minutes behind him, called Nissan for him and arrived just in time to help load it for the less than 200 meter drive to the rapid.

goz83 wrote: »

They said Airport was busy and Glasnevin Tooaz was closest FCP.

I would have gone to the airport anyway... eCars telematics data can't be trusted... it's only 2km away by the back road and whoever was on it could have finished or be close to it by then. When in doubt hit for the physically closest rapid unless you know for certain it's down. BTW... when was this... I was at the clonshaugh topaz at 14:00 today and it was fine... Leaf charged before as well.

KCross

cros13 wrote: »

My dad ran out (his first and only time in three years of EV driving) on the roundabout beside the Portlaoise Midway rapid charger after he decided to skip Junction 14 on the way back from a round trip to Dublin having left Dublin with only 50% state of charge into a 60km/h headwind and pouring rain (30kWh Leaf and he could set records for hypermiling). I was about 20 minutes behind him, called Nissan for him and arrived just in time to help load it for the less than 200 meter drive to the rapid.

In case it happens, is it ok to tow a Leaf?

Vaguely remember seeing a video of one doing it and charging the battery via regen but not sure if that's good for it or not.

I'd be thinking just put it in neutral and tow it. Is that "allowed"?

n97 mini

kceire wrote: »

Please read my thread:)

Anyway, the nearest FCP from topaz on N32 is Topaz on Finglas Dual Carraige Way at Glasnevin. It was down all last week, so glad to see it's back up and running.

Just wondering how glasnevin avenue came into it? N32, M50, Finglas exit and straight down the Finglas dual carriage way.

My story from last week.

It's not that you can't rely on the public chargers... You can on some. After a while you build up a picture of which are likely to be busy or unreliable. Or ICEd.

isnottheword

KCross wrote: »

In case it happens, is it ok to tow a Leaf?

Nissan say don't tow - ever. However, like you said, there's a youtube video online from some Leaf Owner in the Netherlands - having his towed and getting it regen-ed into the bargain.

Gumbo

KCross wrote: »

In case it happens, is it ok to tow a Leaf?

Vaguely remember seeing a video of one doing it and charging the battery via regen but not sure if that's good for it or not.

I'd be thinking just put it in neutral and tow it. Is that "allowed"?

I've seen the same video. Was tempted to try it during the week when I was been towed but couldn't remember in the spur of the moment what to do. Did I turn the car on, just throw it into B etc

The tow guy towed me, purely because it was a 1km trip (or less). He said normally he wouldn't tow anything, he would wait for the flat bed to come.

n97 mini wrote: »

It's not that you can't rely on the public chargers... You can on some. After a while you build up a picture of which are likely to be busy or unreliable. Or ICEd.

Yeah, I'm kinda already building up a realistic range guide, and what chargers to use and when. For the moment, with no home charger, I've been lucky, I've gotten access to chargers in work all week so I've got 100% every evening going home.

I'm on the road over north Dublin tomorrow so I'll see how a days driving fairs out.

Evd-Burner

goz83 wrote:

Topaz at the M50/M1 junction is circa 3-4klms from me. I wanted to take a spin to Leixlip and had 20klms on the clock.....15 when I got to Topaz. The DC was offline. I rang ecars and no luck. They said Airport was busy and Glasnevin Tooaz was closest FCP.

I'm literally just after getting stung there as well. Landed there with 9%, airport was busy. I just about made it to nissan airside and parked up on the path as close as I can to the charge point. I only needed 5 mins on a fast charge to get home!

peposhi

Once we went for a trip to Carlow with an intention to charge at a SCP on the way back in Athy while visiting friends...
The train station SCP was out of order, not shown on the map. The private CP at the hotel on Dublin Rd - working but nobody had a clue how to open it...
So ended up driving to Junction 14 with 16% left. Foggy windows, no heating, no lights, no nothing. Crawled to the FCP with 1% in the battery shown on the screen when I plugged...
It was a close call...
Had to drive back to Athy to collect baba and mama and eventually head home...
Missed the party

goz83

cros13 wrote: »

BTW... when was this... I was at the clonshaugh topaz at 14:00 today and it was fine... Leaf charged before as well.

Would have been around 8pm. The DC was offline. I didn't do the airport because it was more out of my way than the Glasnevin FCP. I left there at 80% to Leixlip and got home with 13klms left. Was tempted to get a quick top up in Blanch, but decided to just get on home. Granny cable plugged in now. Free journey to pick up some silver. Nice work

n97 mini

peposhi wrote: »

Once we went for a trip to Carlow with an intention to charge at a SCP on the way back in Athy while visiting friends...
The train station SCP was out of order, not shown on the map. The private CP at the hotel on Dublin Rd - working but nobody had a clue how to open it...
So ended up driving to Junction 14 with 16% left. Foggy windows, no heating, no lights, no nothing. Crawled to the FCP with 1% in the battery shown on the screen when I plugged...
It was a close call...
Had to drive back to Athy to collect baba and mama and eventually head home...
Missed the party

Think how fast the car would have charged though!

peposhi

n97 mini wrote:

Think how fast the car would have charged though!

I needed 27% to get home, even 1hour on a slow charger in Athy would have been enough. I spent two hours driving up and down the county...

Shefwedfan

Just wondering what actually happens when the battery runs out? I guess car shuts itself off

Do you then have to ring insurance and get it towed to a plug? :P or has it ever happened to anyone?

cros13

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Just wondering what actually happens when the battery runs out? I guess car shuts itself off

Do you then have to ring insurance and get it towed to a plug? :P or has it ever happened to anyone?

Depends on the car.

Once you are under 4% state of charge the i3 progressively restricts motor power.

The Leaf goes into turtle mode at about 2% SoC, which is a restricted power output mode meant to allow you to pull over to a safe spot.

I'm almost 250,000km into the whole EV thing and I've never ran out.

Gumbo

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Just wondering what actually happens when the battery runs out? I guess car shuts itself off

Do you then have to ring insurance and get it towed to a plug? :P or has it ever happened to anyone?

yes. All detailed in the posts above.

isnottheword

I've not been there thankfully. I do a long commute - which requires me to top up during work hours for the home leg. I just top up by enough - and also tend to 'empty' the last proportion of it by accelerating towards the end of the journey. This leaves me with a few per cent left. However, I know exactly what is needed at various stages of the journey - so it's not going to happen that I get caught out.

If I'm doing a longer journey or one that I'm not familiar with, I'll always err on the side of caution. I always like to have enough juice to get to a secondary CP in the event of the 1st being out of service. Rarely put myself in this position and i'm not entirely comfortable when I do.

To fail to plan is to plan to fail.

pwurple

Wow, I've never even seen 'turtle mode' thank goodness.
I had one close call, at the very start, before I had a charger installed at our house. I was at work, and realised I had to attend a removal that night. Should have been enough range, but I got lost because the weather was unholy. Driving wind, rain, freezing cold. I had the seats on, the steering wheel heating, the car heating on full blast, and I was flooring it to get to this place in Youghal. Got there anyway after a few detours, and on the way back to the city, got the low battery warning, so headed into midleton, where the ecar app said there was a charger. Drove around for 15 mins, could not find the blasted thing. Second battery warning light came on, and I gave up. Phoned a buddy who I knew lived in midleton, who (thank feck) knew where the charge point was hiding. Charged up and off I went again. 
Since then, with charger at home, at work, in the city center, at every place I go pretty much... no issues. And I'll never forget where that midleton one is.

KCross

pwurple wrote: »

... so headed into midleton, where the ecar app said there was a charger. Drove around for 15 mins, could not find the blasted thing. Second battery warning light came on, and I gave up. Phoned a buddy who I knew lived in midleton, who (thank feck) knew where the charge point was hiding. Charged up and off I went again. 
Since then, with charger at home, at work, in the city center, at every place I go pretty much... no issues. And I'll never forget where that midleton one is.

FYI: Midleton had two. They ripped one out.

There is only one now near the Supervalu. Is that the one you used?

And they recently painted it as well so its not ICE'd "anymore". It was constantly ICE'd.

DrPhilG

Only ever ran out once. Half a mile from home and was caused by sheer stupidity/laziness.

Collected my dad from a birthday party outside Strabane. Had to drop his friend off, then drop my dad home, then go home myself.

I calculated the route and decided I could make it home with just a short 10 minute stop in Lifford. Problem was when I got there it was late and I wasn't in the mood for hanging around, so I stayed for just over 5.

Dropped off the 2 passengers and headed for home, starting to think it would be a close call. But like an idiot I drove past Letterkenny and didn't bother stopping. The killer blow is that I live on top of a hill and my last mile is almost all steep uphill.

Got to the bottom of the hill with --- showing and guessing I had barely 5% left. I know from experience that I usually burn 5-6% going up that hill but still like a fool I continued. So I had 3 chances to save myself.

1 - Stay 5 minutes longer in Lifford
2 - Stop for 5 minutes in Letterkenny
3 - There is a hotel at the bottom of the hill that I could have called into and no doubt managed an extension lead/granny cable combo for half an hour.

Instead I took the chance and got about 3/4 of the way up the hill before turtle hit. Chance number 4, I could have done a 3 point turn in a laneway and rolled back down the hill, adding 1-2% from regen and then crawled into the hotel.

Nope, I kept going and it died barely 100 metres later as I was still on a steep uphill. Had to freewheel back into a driveway and call the pickup. Waited an hour for them to arrive, only for them to arrive with a tow truck rather than a flatbed. Guy said he would be another hour+ if he had to go back for a different truck. Cue a very quick google search for confirmation that the Leaf can be towed provided the front wheels are off the ground, and off we went.

Lesson learned. Jack Nicholson once said in the film "The Bucket List" that one of the rules an old person should live by is "never pass a bathroom". The same applies for long range EV driving and passing a charger.

DrPhilG

PS my first ever EV journey gave me serious range anxiety too.

I had a Leaf out for an extended test drive, took my aunt and father in law for a trip to Letterkenny. Completely overestimated the range of the car, and also the speed of the granny charge. I plugged in while at a friend's house in Letterkenny, but barely added 15% while I was there. Didn't fancy learning how to use the Letterkenny FCP for the first time with a sceptical audience, so I winged it back to Derry and dropped off the passengers. Just hitting VLBC at that point and didn't think I would make it to the FCP so headed up the town to the slow charger despite the fact that there was another slow charger 200 metres from my aunt's house (I didn't realise that) so I headed up the town and crawled into the Carlisle Road SCP, which I know now has been dead for 2 years.

Crept into the other SCP in the Diamond with tightly clenched cheeks!