The 1st 4 Months
Alright so let me bring you up to speed to where we are today and recap the first four months I have shared with Walter.
When I first got Walter I have never drove or even thought about getting an electric car. So I didn't know if I needed a "fast charger" (the 240v charger) as its most commonly called for home and just thought I could find a charger if needed to top off. So the car came with the "slow" emergency charger which you plug into your normal 120v outlet. The car will take about 23 hours to charge if fully dead. I drive 80 miles a day and drain the battery to about 15% which takes around 18 hours to charge. Now, that can become an issue and quite a nuisance to some people but for me it didn't much until we decided to change to an on peak off peak electric system, more on that later. So that being said I would arrive home from work around 7:30 and plug the car just in tome for it to be ready and fully charged for the next day. I leave for work around 2 and the car would be done charging around 1pm which is really pushing it, so I needed to make sure I plugged my car in no later than 8pm. This can put a damper on socializing after work and what not, so in a way its trouble some but again like I've said before, its a life style. There were many times I had to bring Walter to the mall a few hours before work to finish charging. With that theres always the risk of not getting a charging spot or some gas hog taking the space up so it was always a gamble.
One day I brought Walter to the mall to charge, I plug him in and head off to lunch. It was only going to take about an hour to charge so I decide to go stroll the mall and eat. I take my time eating and check my car via the Fiat mobile app and notice its not updating the status of my car, and says its not charging. I head to Walter to check whats going on, mind you I need to leave for work in 30 minuets. I get to Walter and notice the outer two charge lights are blinking and the charging light on the charger is off. I get in the car and see "system charge" displayed on the screen, basically meaning I can't turn the car on and drive it. I panic and call the service number and set up Walter to get towed to the dealer, while on the phone this lady trying to charge her car is nagging me for my spot. Mind you that the chargers faulted and non of them are working, hints why my car is messed up. I get off the phone with the super nice fiat people and try to start Walter and magically he works! I hurry and drive him home and switch cars and get to work on time! I took Walter in the next day and come to find out the charging module was fried. Luckily Walter was under warranty and everything was covered and Fiat provided me with a rental while Walter was getting worked on. The whole experience of getting him fixed and dealing with Fiat was so seamless and easy. They were so nice and just made everything so simple, it made me love Fiat even more. Since that little problem everything else has be perfect!!
Driving an electric car is very different from a gas car as in you have to always be aware of how heavy your foot is on the "gas" and how fast you're going depending how far you are traveling. With Walter he likes to cruse at a steady 55mph, meaning that where the fastest you can go without pulling much power from the battery. Now in a real world you can't really travel 55mph here in California unless you're lucky and get behind a semi truck. I tend to go the speed limit and push it up to 70mph and still am able to get pretty low pull from the battery which is nice. It is for sure a change from driving a gas car as where you can speed like no other and not have to really worry about gas because you can go nearly 300 miles on a tank. With a full charge or "tank" with an electric car you can get about 100 miles depending how you drive. Thats where the being aware of how fast and how much pedal to the metal you're doing because you need to make sure you can make a round trip if you can't charge.
With the first four months there has only been that small but big problem that happened but Fiat fixed the problem with no issue and no headache. Walter just had his 5,000 mile check up and had his tires rotated and is doing great! Batteries are keeping charge which is the biggest concern so with everything working great its time to continue our 3 year together!!
