A German government minister has decided to ditch his Tesla Model S after experiencing too much range anxiety.
Automotive News has discovered through Germany’s Freedom of Information Act that member of the Green Party and the environment minister of North Rhein-Westphalia, Johannes Remmel, started to use a fleet Model S to see how it would handle his usual driving routine.
Despite being a proponent of electric vehicles, Remmel returned the Model S after just 43 trips due to its insufficient range.
According to a senior aide, the car wasn’t suitable for the minister’s commutes, despite being advertised with a range of 500 km. In fact, the aide claims it was impossible for Remmel to even achieve 400 km on a single charge, meaning the minister could only travel for about 150 km before knowing he’d have to turn back in order to make it home without running out of charge.
What’s more, it is reported that in one instance, Remmel was forced to stop for about 90 minutes to top up just 10 kWh of energy at a conventional charging station. When you’re a busy government minister, that’s obviously a grave inconvenience.
We know that in perfect hypermiling conditions, the Model S 100D can travel over 1,000 km on a charge. However, Remmel’s experience shows that range anxiety remains an issue for some drivers.
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