I’ve always anticipated that a certain amount of trepidation would accompany an extended stay at LAX for my LEAF. Not only would I be leaving my precious vehicle all alone for a couple of weeks, but I would also have to deal with the dilemma of whether to charge or not, knowing that a 70-plus mile round-trip from my house might well turn out to be optimistic being as I’d be loaded down with the additional weight of a companion and some 200lbs worth of luggage (we don’t tend to travel light).
You see, the current set-up at LAX offers two lots with EV parking – either you can park in the open lot (Lot 1), where access to J1772 compliant EVSEs can be had but with the added perils of bird poop or soot from jet fuel contaminating your beautiful paintwork. Or you could park in an enclosed lot (Lot 6) with it’s numerous EVSEs, not a single one of which is compatible with the LEAF.
I’d always thought winging it, and parking in the latter, keeping my fingers crossed that there would be sufficient charge to get home would be the way to go. So on Sunday the 15th I pulled into the lot and parked for our 11 day visit to the UK, joining a couple of MINI Es and a handful of RAV4s.
Being as my wife has a placard for her heart condition, I parked in one of several disabled EV spots, thinking that it would present the least chance of inconveniencing a RAV4 driver, since I wouldn’t be charging. Not that I think it really mattered much – the lot has like 20 EV spots in all (at least 3 of which are also for disabled drivers). It’s just a shame that none has a J1772 connector yet.
I had decided that my drive would be slow and steady in both directions, with speeds at 65mph or under, and without climate control. I also decided against using of the cruise control, reasoning that I could probably feather the throttle better than the electronics could. It was interesting to see what the extra weight did to energy consumption, cutting into the next highest “bubble” in the dash display power meter while I tired to keep a constant speed, none of which helped my comfort level when it came to range. But I had told myself if I could reach LAX without using more than half my battery, I had a pretty good shot at the trip home taking no more.
But as it happened, I needn’t have worried too much - I arrived at LAX just as the battery meter dropped onto the fifth bar, meaning that I would have nearly 7 full bars for the drive home. Actually, and this may surprise some of you, I gained some charge back while the car was sat rather than loosing some – a status update a few days later indicated 8 bars left rather than the 7 I had when I walked away from the car. And I was actually able to get 2 miles out of that self-regeneration before I once again lost bar eight.
Getting away from LAX is about what we’ve been led to expect, with the parking attendant wanting the car’s plate number and the information from your driver’s license, along with a home phone number. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about folks who will now know that whenever I’m parked at LAX my house is likely to be empty having that kind of information, but I guess I can only hope that everyone concerned is above-board. The one thing I can say for sure is that I liked saving the $330 it would have cost me to park there, and the convenience of having my car that close to the terminal.
So the bottom line on the whole escapade was that I reached the gate to my community with the low fuel warning just coming on, and after just dipping into the first of the two remaining red bars on the SOC meter, showing a total distance driven of 71.5 miles. My conservative guess is that I could have had anywhere from 6 to 10 miles remaining before “turtle”, maybe more. Someday I will have to do the same drive without the passenger and luggage to see how the whole thing would play out with less weight in the car.
You see, the current set-up at LAX offers two lots with EV parking – either you can park in the open lot (Lot 1), where access to J1772 compliant EVSEs can be had but with the added perils of bird poop or soot from jet fuel contaminating your beautiful paintwork. Or you could park in an enclosed lot (Lot 6) with it’s numerous EVSEs, not a single one of which is compatible with the LEAF.
I’d always thought winging it, and parking in the latter, keeping my fingers crossed that there would be sufficient charge to get home would be the way to go. So on Sunday the 15th I pulled into the lot and parked for our 11 day visit to the UK, joining a couple of MINI Es and a handful of RAV4s.
Being as my wife has a placard for her heart condition, I parked in one of several disabled EV spots, thinking that it would present the least chance of inconveniencing a RAV4 driver, since I wouldn’t be charging. Not that I think it really mattered much – the lot has like 20 EV spots in all (at least 3 of which are also for disabled drivers). It’s just a shame that none has a J1772 connector yet.
I had decided that my drive would be slow and steady in both directions, with speeds at 65mph or under, and without climate control. I also decided against using of the cruise control, reasoning that I could probably feather the throttle better than the electronics could. It was interesting to see what the extra weight did to energy consumption, cutting into the next highest “bubble” in the dash display power meter while I tired to keep a constant speed, none of which helped my comfort level when it came to range. But I had told myself if I could reach LAX without using more than half my battery, I had a pretty good shot at the trip home taking no more.
But as it happened, I needn’t have worried too much - I arrived at LAX just as the battery meter dropped onto the fifth bar, meaning that I would have nearly 7 full bars for the drive home. Actually, and this may surprise some of you, I gained some charge back while the car was sat rather than loosing some – a status update a few days later indicated 8 bars left rather than the 7 I had when I walked away from the car. And I was actually able to get 2 miles out of that self-regeneration before I once again lost bar eight.
Getting away from LAX is about what we’ve been led to expect, with the parking attendant wanting the car’s plate number and the information from your driver’s license, along with a home phone number. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about folks who will now know that whenever I’m parked at LAX my house is likely to be empty having that kind of information, but I guess I can only hope that everyone concerned is above-board. The one thing I can say for sure is that I liked saving the $330 it would have cost me to park there, and the convenience of having my car that close to the terminal.
So the bottom line on the whole escapade was that I reached the gate to my community with the low fuel warning just coming on, and after just dipping into the first of the two remaining red bars on the SOC meter, showing a total distance driven of 71.5 miles. My conservative guess is that I could have had anywhere from 6 to 10 miles remaining before “turtle”, maybe more. Someday I will have to do the same drive without the passenger and luggage to see how the whole thing would play out with less weight in the car.
