When electric cars die in the wild (and trust us they will)- here is how to get moving again
The range anxiety didn’t start until I pulled up to the charging station. I had made it to the bank of electron hoses with about 15 miles to spare, but three of the six units weren’t working and a Nissan Leaf owner at the fourth slot was on the phone with the station’s customer service, looking far from cheerful. With my two small kids in the back, I dipped a credit card and pulled it out sopping wet — no dice. My mind frantically calculated contingencies like a Garmin on the fritz until I updated an app and was able to pay through the iPhone. With the hum of electrons zipping through the chord, my heartbeat returned to steady-state. Crisis averted.
Even without gas, running out of gas is still a thing — call it driving to zero. With a spike in electric vehicle adoption, as a wave of charging rookies hits the road, it will be increasingly common. Stranded drivers will be a particularly acute problem in North America, with its still insufficient network of often flawed charging hardware. Vast EV deserts are more the norm than the exception and error-codes — whether in the parking lot of your local Whole Foods or at any of the charger-outfitted rest stops along the east coast’s I-95 — are a given.
The cars, however, are as smart as they look. Near the end, they try desperately to save themselves. Most contemporary EVs do the math and automatically navigate to a nearby charger when range is getting tight. Many also have some form of “limp-home” function, a setting that shuts down all but the bare essential electric processes and adds a few miles of distance. Nissan calls this “turtle mode” — a plodding reptile pops up on the vehicle’s screen.
Even when the battery is all but dry, your car will drag itself along slowly; the
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