Early morning wake-up call, today: I must be in Rivoli, near Torino) for a meeting and must leave in the wee hours.
Google says I must drive for about 177 kilometers: leaving from Pavia I will hop on the A7 and from there westward on the A4 avoiding the rush hour on the Milano orbital. Unfortunately the morning traffic is truly unpredictable and soon I realize a bottleneck might cost me some time, putting at risk my timeliness.
This is something I hate, so I accelerate to the speed limit (NEVER *ahem* surpassing it, of course) to catch up; on top of this, the weather is surprisingly cold: there’s only 4 °C when I leave, and the temperature stays stubbornly below 10 °C all the way to Torino.
Add the two things up, I reach my destination (seven minutes early :-D) with only 44% of my battery left: the on-board computer says I still have 200km of range, but I know he’s being generous, as it calculates range on the previous day’s consumption. As things are, to cover the return trip (identical to the one outgoing), I would have to stop at a charging station.
I’m not entirely sold on the idea of an unnecessary stop: the temperature is warmer and I am not in as much of a hurry as I was this morning. So I fire up Power Cruise Control and ask it for a driving strategy that allows me to go back without refueling: turns out that, as long as I stay below 120 km/h, I can make it home with 5kWh to spare, which is exactly what happens..
So don’t be stingy and buy it: you won’t use it all the time, but when it’s needed, it will save your day !
OneWedge 