Well, this morning o got up with the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning. I was hoping that my wonderful Pepé would be able to bring me to Wexford and back again. No, not on one single charge, but with the assistance of the FCP located in the Wexford Car Centre. Everything was ready to go. I had my granny cord, my free phone number for road side assistance from my insurance company and a fully charged Nissan Leaf. The on-board navigation system did not complain or grumble about the 148 Km journey from my house to the charging point, and so, I headed on my 'epic' journey.
I put the car into Eco mode, giving me 10% more range, kept the air conditioning system off and kept my speed to an average of 70kph. The first thing I noticed is that it is very possible to travel along a motorway at 70-75 kph. In fact, I was kind of surprised but no one seemed to care that I was travelling this slowly. Actually, what I noticed is that most people seem to travel at this speed (on average) around junctions or sharper bends. Of course people do tend to floor it on the straighter strips. Anywho, after getting used to a slower than normal speed, even for me, the thing I really started to noticed was terrain! Terrain, I think I heard you repeat? Yes, terrain. You see the auld distance-to-empty meter fluctuated widely depending on the terrain of the motorway. At point I went from 130km left to 112km to 154km! This is quite a difference. And it was this difference that started to panic me the closer and closer I got to the mid way point. When I starting getting into distance readings where, if they were accurate I would certainly not reach my destination, I decided to tuck tail and run back home to safety. After travelling 72km I found somewhere to turn around and started my way back home.
What I have learned from this is simple. While it may be possible for Pepé to reach this distance (and I am pretty sure he could do so if I reduced my speed to 60kph!) I am not comfortable with such a low margin for error. This is consistent with my policy with most things in life. Of course, at no point before I purchased this car did I ever intend to attempt such a journey without a FCP at the mid way point of Arklow Town. And hopefully that FCP will be put down soon. But for now, I will have to continue to borrow my boyfriend's car for my weekly Blackwater cello lesson.
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