Driving your first electric car is sort of like your first time—oh, nevermind. The 2012 Nissan Leaf wasn’t the first electric car your scribe here had ever driven. That honor belongs to the BMW ActiveE 1 Series. But it was the second, and that has to count for something, right?
More important, however, was the fact that the Leaf was piloted through 150 miles in a weekend, challenging my psyche as “range anxiety” took its toll. I suppose you don’t believe in range anxiety, but it’s very real. If you don’t know what range anxiety is, it’s the feeling you’re going to be lost on the side of the highway as your car runs out of electricity without the hope of finding a charging station in with your last few miles of range.
And that almost happened.
From receiving the finger from a fellow motorist in a Range Rover to trying the best cookies the local Nissan service department had to offer to having to charge the Leaf with a wall socket, I experienced the triumphs and tribulations of living as an electric car driver. I experienced life as a greenie. I experienced the future.
And unless you’ve driven an electric car already, it’s probably nothing like what you imagine it to be. Read the full Road Test of the 2012 Nissan Leaf SL here for a firsthand account of what’s really involved when it comes to plugging in and abandoning the gas pump.
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