I would like to open this first post with the fact that I am a proud EV owner. Below is a photo of my 2022 Hyundai Kona Electric, which was used when I got it.
It boasts a 258 mile range, and I get great mileage without even trying. I drive it around in Sport mode 24/7, with regen set to zero, and the A/C at whatever I feel like. Despite all that, I get an average of 4 miles/kWh. For comparison, the Rivian R1T gets 2.1 mi/kWh.
Today, though, was quite the story. My brother was coming in to LAX. The round trip from home to LAX and back was 25 miles. My car said I had 51 miles of range. I think you can see where this was going. Unfortunately for me, the range estimate is, well, an estimate. It's going off of all that it can, and I'm not using the car's built in maps, so it doesn't know where I'm going. For all it knows, I'm going to go in a straight level line to my destination. Maybe then I could go 51 miles.
The road to LAX is neither straight nor level. I waited in line at LAX, A/C on. After half an hour in holiday airport traffic, I was on my way home. The way home is entirely uphill. Slightly for a while, but my house is on a hill. Getting off the 101, the car said 19 miles of range left, and Apple Maps (CarPlay) said home was less than 10 miles away. Everything was going to be just fine. That was until I hit the base of the hill. The car chimed in to warn me, "Power Limited". I had seen that before, but only when I was close to my charger. This time, though, I could feel my acceleration hit a ceiling. By the time I reached the top of the hill, I was going less than 10 miles an hour, flooring it. The range display said "---".
I made it to the top, and it was all downhill from there. Literally and not figuratively, thankfully. I was able to plug into the home charger, and wasn't quite left stranded. If I had just run the A/C just a little harder in the line at LAX, I wonder if that would have been enough to stop me from getting to the top of the hill.
This story thankfully had a good ending, and this was really a lesson in making sure I leave the house with a full battery every time, and of course to factor the hill I live on into the range calculations in my head.
Now if you're reading this and thinking "and that's why I'll never get an electric car!", you're missing the point. A huge benefit of having an EV is leaving the house every day with a full "tank", and never having to worry about fuel. I was just an idiot and didn't plug in my car after each drive. Multiple times. In a row. Seriously, this is as simple as plugging in your phone at night, except the phone can last a week.