Glad you are all OK.
I've fortunately had no real mechanical issues with my car, but I can see there is no way in this world I'd get my wife to drive one. We planned a family trip over Christmas of c.170 miles total and the forecasts warned of snow. (I'm in the UK and the forecasts are as reliable as reading tea-leaves).
I pressured my wife into leaving her Audi Q7 at home and taking the Tesla (saves on fuel after all). Of course for once the weather report was correct, and the conditions really hurt my battery range (I have a lowly 60). Despite plugging into a 2kW portable charger whilst at my parents and gaining 30 miles (in the summer I can do the whole trip easily and have 20 miles remaining), the last few miles were touch and go. I could see this 40 miles out, so started having to ration the AC, really didn't go down well... from that point home I had to listen to constant loop of "I told you so..."
When we finally did get home I couldn't get the car up my driveway to my home charger, and with 2 miles left on the clock, I had to phone round some friends to see if they would put my car up for the night on a slow charge...
She never liked the thought of me getting a Tesla, and whilst events like this I put down to an adventure/challenge, she just sees it as an inconvenience, and unfortunately this trip reinforced her EV prejudices.
In fairness I'm also not be brave enough to become an all EV family at the moment. Superchargers here are fairly spotty, and destination charging is a joke. Sometimes pragmatism has to overtake idealism, so while she is happy to ride round in an ICE, it actually works out very well for me.
As I said before, I totally sympathize with osama - in more ways than one, while that Porsche surely is a nice looking car, it would more than just kill me to write that check for it, I would - ironically - self-combust, but on the other hand a couple's outlook on things may not be the same and that's a fact of life too. My wife drives her ICE and I hope we keep it as long as necessary before all-BEV is possible, without ever buying another.
I could recommend a plug-in hybrid of some sort, if all else fails, as a compromise she'd be happy with and I guess would only maim me, not kill, but I would prefer not to support such strategies by old car makers. smac mentioned Audi, it really pains me to see how little they try. Vorsprung durch Technik my a**. At least some other Germans try a little, but it is still so small steps.
smac's story is very familiar too. What is an adventure to one, is an inconvenience to another. I have been in some minor range-related trouble over my similar bias to avoid ICE use as much as possible and made my share of overly optimistic and, frankly, foolishly brave miscalculations (no flatbeds, though) and heard no end of it at the time. I also reference to the previous studies on the average male trust towards technology being higher than the average female trust, which may explain a little why the scenario probably a little more often plays out this way gender-wise. There is also likely some average difference in use scenarios for cars (say, hauling family vs. driving alone) adding to that effect that probably has, on average, gender-specific characteristics.
All that said, experience brings with it confidence and I fully expect that as our BEV experiences mature, and the infrastructure around us matures and becomes more familiar, my wife's perspective too will change. After all, she doesn't like an ICE car because she likes smelly gasses and miniature explosions moving vehicles, she wants transportation she feels comfortable with and currently - and for all her life - that has been an ICE car. Comfort levels torwards BEVs will go up over time if the likes of Tesla and the society in general play their cards right.
Most important, though, are the children. As we grew up fueling our parent's cars, if we were so lucky on an exciting visit to this grand place called the gas station, the next generation learns to plug-in - and it will become second nature, I hope. So, Tesla/BEV owners, educate your kids and grandkids.
Just a little clarity... if you had 2 miles left, why couldn't you get up the driveway? Snow? Seems like a not a Tesla specific issue... In fact, I'm not sure the Tesla was an issue at all for your trip since it looks like you made it round trip after your slow charge. Aside from cutting back on heat, seems more range anxiety than anything.
The problem with that is, though, it becomes a Tesla (or BEV) specific issue when the infrastructure and convention to remedy the low-range situations is lacking and the primary solution (fast charging on route or home charging in this case) lacks or fails. An ICE you would just drive to a gas station, the one - or the likes of which - you've learned to use since you learned driving and if that one isn't open, you just take it to whichever of the dozen you occasionally use nearby. To an extent, same with car maintenance, which is still very scarce on non-existent for BEVs or Teslas in many places. In almost all of the civilized world there is significant ICE infrastructure and much, much less so for EVs at this point. Add to this the fact that Tesla doesn't represent the long-existing car-maker pool either, which is part of the infrastructure that exists, so it has even less infrastructure in many places - for example, no current ability to charge from DC chargers where supercharging isn't available and many places where a distant ranger is the only service center there is.
With a Tesla, depending on the region, you may or may not have a charging station or a backup charging station nearby. And what smac's wife, for example, (even smac by the sound of it) definitely lacks is convention - even if there is a charging station somewhere, they may not know where or how to operate it or when it is open etc., because it is all quite new and things take planning instead of just doing it by gut-feel alone. A gas station one can usually find by sight alone anywhere they go, and you kind of have a mental map of them in your region, much less so with an EV charging station that remains quite invisible, a secret club of sorts. The society in general is still just trying to find the right way to operate EV charging in many places, with the little charging that there is still being in a sort of pilot mode, tucked away somewhere where it fit (as opposed to a visible lot being reserved for it by city planners) etc. And even if you find a charger, you may find out it is not compatible with your car. Thanks to our lovely ICE industry (urgh), Europe is probably five years behind the average U.S. situation. Now, Tesla superchargers are of course a happily visible exception to this and effort that is spearheading good change, but that isn't readily available everywhere. And superchargers won't be compatible with other cars. Think if gas stations only supported some car brands...
It doesn't help that charging an EV is currently quite slow, compared to what people are used to when filling up their ICE. If you don't see the benefits, or appreciate them enough, you may only see added inconvenience and wait.
For me, and by the sound of it for a lot of us here, all that planning and research and technical details and adapters and experiencing the growing pains of a world recreating its skin so to speak, is very exciting. As smac said, it is an adventure and many of us probably are taking part partly because it is an adventure. But for someone who isn't interested in finding out the details of what and where they get charging and service, and learning a whole new set of new tricks while living in this still-niche fringe, it becomes very offputting fast. In any case, most people don't want a niche solution for anything that they aren't particular about - they often want a convenient, mainstream solution, one that other people use too.
It is probably reminiscent of what driving an ICE was some 100+ years ago, infrastructure-wise. I'm pretty sure some spousal arguments arised over the use of horses vs. an automobile.
I have nothing against horses, but I hope one day not in the too distant future finding support infrastructure for an ICE is as hard as it is today to find a place for your horses to drink outside your favourite watering hole.
