Melody and I had been looking at buying an all electric vehicle, and finally purchased one in April, but we really didn’t get to drive it for at least four weeks. We test drove a beautiful blue Audi Q4 electric vehicle April 19, and really liked it. The only problem was the one we were driving had been already sold and the only other ones on the lot were black, white, or gray. So we told them no deal. We only wanted the beautiful blue one. Not so fast, they said. We have one sitting on the lot in Palo Alto, California and have it sent up to Oregon, where you will be on the road in no time. “No time” in this case was the day before we departed on a trip to Europe. We bought the car on April 19, picked it up May 1, leaving it at my sister’s house, and then flew out May 2. When we returned on May 20, we picked up the Audi and headed home. We ended up buying the Sportback model, which came with a trailer hitch, perfect for our bike rack.

We live in Newport, Oregon, where we drive typically at most 3 miles to any event. It is only when we drive into the Willamette Valley that the mileage becomes an issue. The first time we drove into the Valley, we stayed at our daughter’s in Wilsonville. That night we plugged it in at their house and were set to go in the morning. The next trip involved driving to Portland for a theater performance, but we valet parked at a nearby Marriott and they charged it while we went to dinner and the play. Yay! Then finally the big test came. I had to drive to PDX (Portland International Airport) to drop Melody off for a trip to visit a friend. On my way back to Newport, I needed to find a real charging station in order to make the distance back to Newport. I stopped at a Fred Meyer store in Wilsonville, and in 20 minutes had it charged enough to get home. Not too bad.

One of the questions I had was, how far can we get on a “tank of electrons”? I did some studies based on the trip up to PDX, then home. Before leaving, the Audi said we could go 304 miles on a 99% charge. I ended up driving 159 miles to the airport, however, the Audi said I had used 205 miles. Ouch! That was 78% of the projected distance. Then I got the “tank” filled up at the charging station and drove home. Before the PDX experience, I had already run a test driving down to Waldport, then out to Corvallis and back, all without the need to stop for a charge. This was a total of 95 miles, although the Audi said I had used 125 miles, or 78% of the projected distance.

So from this I deduce that the mileage for the Audi is about 78% of projected distance. So a full tank is supposed to give us 309 miles on a 100% charge, but will really give us 78% of that or 241 miles. And that is if I run it down to 0. If we play it safe and take it down to 40 miles remaining, then we can go about 200 miles on a full charge. It is not ideal, but will meet most of our need.