Today’s first leg was over 130 km which is a bit on the edge for our Leaf since its battery technology is already outdated, and it has limited range compared to the current model. Still, we should have made it without problems since we were supposed to be able to get a full charge overnight. But we had a bad surprise in the morning, since at some point we lost power and the charger did not re-initialize when it came back. So for the 130+ km we had to cover, we had a charge of just 48. Thankfully, our charming CHAdeMO girls Natalia and Jolanda helped us with a fast charge (you can find their blog here) and we headed off with 139 km of range, confident that we would make it. Note to self: Check charging status of car on a regular basis even at night… We knew there had to be a drawback to being pioneers eventually.

As you can see above, we were driving very efficiently since according to Nissan, we already had planted five trees by the time we were halfway there. Still, the road was heading uphill steadily and sometimes we’d be out of range, sometimes not. With a light foot and lots of soaring and regenerating whenever we’d go downhill, we managed to reach the parking lot with 7km of range left, and by the time we had parked the car it had officially declared the battery as empty.

Now what else was there to do than talk our CHAdeMO girls into letting us have another charge? Easier said than done, since the queue was long and some people even tried to buy their way in by bringing flowers. (it didn’t work). In any event, due to this delay we had missed the official schedule and therefore decided to take a scenic drive and take a few pictures on the way. First off, note that our lunch stop was at the bottom of the Alps in view of the Neuschwanstein Castle.

We picked a few small roads and ended up going over two very nice mountain passes, only to find out that we’d soon be out of range again – but we knew all about it by then, didn’t we? In any event, we arrived at dinner with 11km left this time. no sweat. The landscape was beautiful and we passed through many picturesque villages.

seriously?

Perhaps we can just let the pictures speak this time… Below are my best shots. The quality isn’t perfect but between shooting in series out of a moving car and picture processing after midnight, there’s just no time to shoot raw and make it right. Hopefully most of you will be able to forgive me that fauxpas. As a closing remark, note that there’s another report by Tele 1 on this morning’s events. If you look closely you can see us fiddling around with the fast charger in the background during one of the interviews.

And now… enjoy (and yes, car needs a wash)