First Person Admits Running Out Of Juice In An Electric Car

John Biggs

Biggs is the East Coast Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Poor Kelangst: he or she is the first person ever in the whole world to announce that they’ve depleted their Nissan Leaf’s batteries, a problem bolstered by the fact that some range calculations for the Leaf are inaccurate until you’ve driven the car a few hundred miles. The post, in which Kelangst writes “Part of me is amused that I may go down in history as the first dumbass to drive the car into submission. But I am slightly shaky and upset as I thought there should have been no problem getting home.” appeared on MyNissanLeaf and was followed up by helpful advice like “Did you try turning it on and off?”

As EVs get more popular – and they will – I think most of these range issues will iron themselves out. I’d hate to have been the first guy to put a noted diarist behind the wheel of an early Model T and watch as he ran out of petrol (“Egads! This autocar is a truly dreadful contraption but, let it be said, I do feel now like a right ass for not noticing the scrim of frost on her forequarters afore I began my sojourn!”)

via Engadget