Running on Empty

Our family has lots of lessons. Currently the kids have (combined) the following activities: Kumon reading, Karate, a Bo weapons class, Russian Math for algebra and geometry, piano lessons for each, drum lessons, drama class, science club, and the town theatrical production. This translates to a lot of running around town.
On the evening of Limey's first commute to work we not only had to drop Heath off at Russian math and come back home, but the remaining three in the family decided to add a snowshoeing seminar into the schedule! That was our second trip into town and back. Finally it was time to pick Heath and his friend up from math, drop the friend at his home, then head up the mile long hill to our house.
We don't have our 240 volt outlet installed yet, so we were only able to get the range up to 34 before heading out for 26.5 miles in errands. It seems like the range holds pretty steady in town, but drops precipitously coming up the road to our house. At 16 miles the following indicators came on: a yellow warning triangle light, an orange fuel pump with an electelectric cord, and the range indicator started blinking.

At 8 miles a pleasant but serious female voice came through the speaker and said, "Your battery is very low. Would you like to search for a nearby charging station?" Since the nearest charging station was our garage a half mile away, this was not necessary. However, I don't think you'd be able to run out of battery without knowing it. Especially once you enter the "Turtle Mode" of Nissan LEAF legend. I've yet to see it in person, but the manual shows an honest to goodness turtle icon that will come up to let you know why the car is turning off most extraneous features and is crawling along.

Yesterday's Statistics
 

• Description: Not driven, trickle charging
• Starting Range: 7 miles
• Miles Driven: 00 miles
• Ending Range: 71 miles
• High Temperature: 62
• Low Temperature: 36
• Wind: 26
• Average MPKWh: 3.9
• Average MPG: 24.5
• Energy Cost/KWh (Wind): $0.0899
• Delivery Cost/KWh: $0.092
• Unleaded Regular/Gallon MA: $3.406
• Savings/Mile: $0.092
• Total Savings: $0.00
• Lifetime Savings: $16.74 

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