I’m so tired of people saying that you just leave your car to charge for an hour or two while you go shopping, or sightseeing, or have a nice little Lunch somewhere.
As well as having MS I also have Anterolysthesis, Facet Joint Disease, a spinal cyst (possibly 2 now – it’s under investigation), and a fractured and compacted coccyx with associated radicular pain along the spinal cord. I can’t lift my wheelchair out of the boot, and even if I could I can’t self-propel myself further than about 20 feet across a perfectly flat and level floor (e.g. within the house or along Hospital corridors) because I can’t bend and lift or risk twisting my spine (why sports seats are vital for me as they keep my spine straight and stop sideways movement). DH always has to take time off work to take me to Hospital appointments, and now even GP and Dental appointments, just in case I can’t park by right by the door. He often has to dump me off by the door with the ‘chair and then go park my car somewhere else, walk back, and push me through the Hossie. And then do the same in reverse going home afterwards. I hate that he has to do that.
When I’m out by myself (which I love) and have to venture out of my car I have to walk, and I have to finish everything in under 10 minutes or my spine packs up and I’m pretty much bed-bound for the next 3 days to a month. Filling the car with petrol I can do, if it’s Pay at the Pump (which is why I only use 2 garages). A tank of petrol gives me a range of over 400 miles and, so far, I’ve never had to drive further than 330 miles. But I do
Because the base of my spine is smashed up I can’t sit on a bench or at a picnic table, or in a cafe unless the seats are armchairs (which I can’t know in advance and can’t waste my limited energy hoofing up and down trying to find out). If I have to wait UP T AN HOUR for my car to recharge a little bit then I will just have to sit in the car while it charges.
So every trip I take in a fully electric car will be limited by the battery range, and at the moment the average range isn’t enough for me.