Baby You Can Charge My Car

Juicing Up My Electric Car in L.A.

Waking up at 4 a.m. in the parking lot outside the engineering department at Cal State L.A. wasn’t supposed to be part of the ownership experience when I bought a 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car last year. But there I was on a warm summer night as my cell phone beeped with an update from the car, telling me it was fully charged and ready for another 80-100 miles of go time.

This was my fault. When I bought the “car of the future,” I ignored the best advice of the …