- Jun 29, 2013
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I have owned a Nissan leaf for the better part of two and a half years. Whilst commuting back and forth to Boston from ( Nope....not gonna give that out )
I was quite fortunate to work for an employer there who offered free charging on the campus. So even though I did have some range anxiety I always knew I could get charged up with enough juice to make it back home once I made it to work.
The dealership nearby my house where I bought the car offered free high speed charging for the life of the car as part of the sales deal. They have since reneged on that deal and they will be talking to my lawyer soon enough but I digress.
So nowadays... no longer making the commute and working much closer to home I simply charge at the house on a 120 volt charger. It's slow but if you wait overnight you can pick up 40 to 50% of what you need. Occasionally I go to the EVgo nearby and pay for 600 volt hookup that takes me up to 80% in about 30 minutes. This is where the story really begins.
So today I found myself a bit low in battery storage and not really wanting to wait overnight....Off I went to the EVgo several miles from the house to hook up for what I figured would be 30 to 45 minutes. I've learned to use the time to get things done like crunching numbers for work or studying technical manuals that will be useful to me in my particular field of engineering.
Approximately 10 minutes into my hookup I got a quick knock on the window which startled me as I was absorbed in the manual that I was reviewing.
It was an Indian fellow.... I rolled down the window .... An easy smile and a strong "quickie mart" English dialect managed to squeeze out a friendly question: " Will you be long?".....
Not wanting to offend the fellow but also not really wanting to leave just yet I told him probably about 15 minutes. I was secretly aggravated because I did not want to be rushed but now I felt pressured. He accepted the answer gracefully and so I rolled the window back up and went back to my studies. Within a minute or two I noticed a repetitious motion toward the nose end of my car. It was my friendly Indian neighbor nervously pacing back and forth 5 ft from my face. I thought to myself " you have to be kidding right? "......
In addition to his metronome-like motion he would occasionally stop and look at the face of the charging machine to examine how much charge I had taken and how much longer it would be. Now with my gaze fixed on him through the windshield he looked up smiled and waved. I was flabbergasted. The pacing continued with the occasional loop around the back of the car every four or five cycles. There was no longer any hope of concentrating on what I was doing and the feeling of being pressured was growing along with my aggravation.
To make matters worse several new arrivals we're lining themselves up behind me which made the Indian fellow quite nervous so he quickly jumped into his car and pulled up within probably less than a foot of my driver side door parallel to my car. I assumed he was sending a message to the other would be patrons that he was absolutely next in line.
As I looked up in the rear view mirror I could see yet another arrival positioning himself for the kill with the several that were already there creeping up steadily closing the gap between my rear fender and The respective noses of each vehicle in effect creating a predatory circle.
That's it I said to myself I'm out of here.... So I rolled down the window and called to my no name Indian friend: "would you please move your car so I can get out and disconnect?".... He quickly obliged but found himself mightily cramped by the other would be chargers who were unwilling to give an inch either to him or to each other. I almost didn't have any room to reverse but managing to pull back just a few feet I was able to angle out and turn away from the charger sufficiently enough to pull forward and keep going.
What I saw on the rear view mirror was astonishing. My little Indian friend had made a quick dash in with his nose beating the competition only by a few feet so that he was in the middle of three surrounding cars all of whom had tried to capitalize on the space I left behind. I could hear horns and some raised voices but had no interest in sticking around for the rest. Since I had taken roughly only half of what I really wanted to get I just went home and plugged into my 120 volt charger settling for the wiait. Soon I will be having a level 2 charger installed which will cut down on the need for 12 and 15 hour charging sessions.
Having said all of that however and noticing the quick increase in the number of electric cars around me these days I can't imagine that this situation is unique or that it's going to get any better.
Jo
I was quite fortunate to work for an employer there who offered free charging on the campus. So even though I did have some range anxiety I always knew I could get charged up with enough juice to make it back home once I made it to work.
The dealership nearby my house where I bought the car offered free high speed charging for the life of the car as part of the sales deal. They have since reneged on that deal and they will be talking to my lawyer soon enough but I digress.
So nowadays... no longer making the commute and working much closer to home I simply charge at the house on a 120 volt charger. It's slow but if you wait overnight you can pick up 40 to 50% of what you need. Occasionally I go to the EVgo nearby and pay for 600 volt hookup that takes me up to 80% in about 30 minutes. This is where the story really begins.
So today I found myself a bit low in battery storage and not really wanting to wait overnight....Off I went to the EVgo several miles from the house to hook up for what I figured would be 30 to 45 minutes. I've learned to use the time to get things done like crunching numbers for work or studying technical manuals that will be useful to me in my particular field of engineering.
Approximately 10 minutes into my hookup I got a quick knock on the window which startled me as I was absorbed in the manual that I was reviewing.
It was an Indian fellow.... I rolled down the window .... An easy smile and a strong "quickie mart" English dialect managed to squeeze out a friendly question: " Will you be long?".....
Not wanting to offend the fellow but also not really wanting to leave just yet I told him probably about 15 minutes. I was secretly aggravated because I did not want to be rushed but now I felt pressured. He accepted the answer gracefully and so I rolled the window back up and went back to my studies. Within a minute or two I noticed a repetitious motion toward the nose end of my car. It was my friendly Indian neighbor nervously pacing back and forth 5 ft from my face. I thought to myself " you have to be kidding right? "......
In addition to his metronome-like motion he would occasionally stop and look at the face of the charging machine to examine how much charge I had taken and how much longer it would be. Now with my gaze fixed on him through the windshield he looked up smiled and waved. I was flabbergasted. The pacing continued with the occasional loop around the back of the car every four or five cycles. There was no longer any hope of concentrating on what I was doing and the feeling of being pressured was growing along with my aggravation.
To make matters worse several new arrivals we're lining themselves up behind me which made the Indian fellow quite nervous so he quickly jumped into his car and pulled up within probably less than a foot of my driver side door parallel to my car. I assumed he was sending a message to the other would be patrons that he was absolutely next in line.
As I looked up in the rear view mirror I could see yet another arrival positioning himself for the kill with the several that were already there creeping up steadily closing the gap between my rear fender and The respective noses of each vehicle in effect creating a predatory circle.
That's it I said to myself I'm out of here.... So I rolled down the window and called to my no name Indian friend: "would you please move your car so I can get out and disconnect?".... He quickly obliged but found himself mightily cramped by the other would be chargers who were unwilling to give an inch either to him or to each other. I almost didn't have any room to reverse but managing to pull back just a few feet I was able to angle out and turn away from the charger sufficiently enough to pull forward and keep going.
What I saw on the rear view mirror was astonishing. My little Indian friend had made a quick dash in with his nose beating the competition only by a few feet so that he was in the middle of three surrounding cars all of whom had tried to capitalize on the space I left behind. I could hear horns and some raised voices but had no interest in sticking around for the rest. Since I had taken roughly only half of what I really wanted to get I just went home and plugged into my 120 volt charger settling for the wiait. Soon I will be having a level 2 charger installed which will cut down on the need for 12 and 15 hour charging sessions.
Having said all of that however and noticing the quick increase in the number of electric cars around me these days I can't imagine that this situation is unique or that it's going to get any better.
Jo
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