Winter is here. That should not really be a surprise should it? We opened the curtains this morning to a couple of inches of snow and so begins the ritual of clearing the drive.
Now herein lies a problem. As you can see from the picture, we have a very steep drive. You will also note from the picture a snowy Nissan Leaf sitting at the bottom of the hill. It is true that I didn’t expect to get it up the drive...our other cars struggle too. In fact, it is only our four wheel drive that can make it. So it is unfair to judge an otherwise excellent vehicle on this little episode. However, it does raise a very good point.
Snow is not unexpected around here, although we have to admit to being caught out this morning. We fully expect our drive to be rendered inaccessible for up to eight weeks every year when it snows or is icy. The rest of the road network is much better protected and ability to drive safely is maintained by the local county council pretty much all round the year. We are prepared and when snow is forecast, we move our cars to the top of the drive and park them in a layby adjacent to our boundary by the road. We could have done this for the electric car too and continued to use the car as long as road conditions were favourable. However, this is where the electric car system hits a fundamental flaw. If the car is at the top of the drive, the charge cable is not long enough. The 5m cable attached to the Podpoint is ridiculously short and inflexible for general usage, and utterly useless in these circumstances. I have been advised that a longer cable would be a “special” and incur additional cost, and unlikely to be ready before the end of our trial. The portable charge system supplied with the car has the same length of cable and the extensive car instructions advise against the use of extension cables when charging the vehicle.
As a result we could potentially have a car available for our use, but no means of charging it. We are now faced with the silly situation of waiting for the snow to melt so we can continue to use the car.
Whilst we really like the Nissan Leaf, who would buy a car you can only use for ten months of the year? A well thought out car is being let down by poorly thought out infrastructure.
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