Do you know that you must keep your battery charged?

[dpeilow]

I think this reinforces the need for some kind of smartphone app.

We know there is a data link from the car to Tesla's servers. They need an app or SMS service that says "your battery will be irreversibly trashed if you don't plug in within 2 hours" or whatever.

[strider]

Is this true? Did they really track the car without the owner's consent and dispatch somebody to charge the car? (With a big generator, presumably, or, did they tow the car somewhere to be charged?) Seem kind of far-fetched to me.

You have to enable the GSM modem to allow Tesla to monitor it. There are 3 settings: On/Off/On for 6 hours. So if the owner enabled remote access via the GSM modem then Tesla had his permission to access the car.

[JRod0802]

When I bought my Roadster I WAS clearly informed that I needed to keep the car plugged in at all times. My concern is about people buying the car used.

You would think it would trivial for Tesla to shut everything down once the battery hit a certain level of charge - leave enough juice in there to keep the batteries from dying and make it so that you have to have the vehicle towed or a Ranger show up and connect to the diag port to wake it up and start charging. This just can't be that hard. Tesla's "response" on Jalopnik was terrible IMO.

Yeah, I guess I wasn't thinking of the used cars. You've got a good point.

[HawaNY]

The Roadster was at 68% when we left and at 55% (range mode, so relative to full usable battery capacity) when we returned. That's a nice even 0.5% loss per day. This means I could drive the Roadster down to 50%, and leave it sitting for nearly 80 days and still be above 10%.


Interesting, thanks. Why did it draw down at all if it was plugged in. Sorry if stupid question!

[strider]

Interesting, thanks. Why did it draw down at all if it was plugged in. Sorry if stupid question!

Storage mode on the Roadster targets 50% state of charge as this is the best level for the batteries to sit at long term. So since it never dropped below 50% it never charged.

[dpeilow]

The "blogger" Michael DeGusta actually writes for Business Insider - e.g. The REAL Death Of The Music Industry

Hasn't that site been consistently anti-Tesla over the years?

[doug]

I don't think these PR responses are particularly helpful.

Tesla Battery 'Bricking': The Real Story Behind The Scare

Q: Will a Tesla Roadster warn its owners if the pack is dangerously low?
A: Yes. And owners of Roadster 2.0 and 2.5 vehicles (the vast majority of the total) can set their cars up to send alerts to the owner as well. Tesla said:

Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if battery state of charge falls to a low level.

All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent state of charge.

The Roadster has potentially had this ability since June 2009 with the 2.0 because it has some cellular connectivity, but as far as I know Tesla has yet to do anything (visible to the customers) with it.

Q: What about other electric cars? Will the battery pack of a Nissan Leaf 'brick' as well?
A: Not according to Nissan. The company sent a statement, saying:

The Nissan LEAF battery pack will never discharge completely, thanks to an advanced battery management system designed to protect the battery from damage. One element of the battery management system is a failsafe wall that stops the battery from reaching zero state-of-charge, even after a period of unplugged storage.

Define "never." I'm sure you could "brick" a Leaf too.

[dpeilow]

More Twitter

Seems like a pretty deliberate attempt to stoke it up to me.

[tomsax]

Welcome to the forum!

Why did it draw down at all if it was plugged in.

In storage mode, it only charges when needed to keep the battery at 20% (or something in that area). Because the battery didn't get that low, it never charged.

The best way to preserve the Roadster's battery capacity when the car isn't being used is to maintain this lowish state of charge. (It's also best to store at cool temperatures.)

Note that if you use the "Reply With Quote" button it will quote that message in your post. You can them trim to just the part you want to follow up. Doing this makes it clearer what's your text and what text you're referring to, and gives readers a way to jump to the full original post (by clicking on the little arrows button).

[qwk]

When I bought my Roadster I WAS clearly informed that I needed to keep the car plugged in at all times. My concern is about people buying the car used.

You would think it would trivial for Tesla to shut everything down once the battery hit a certain level of charge - leave enough juice in there to keep the batteries from dying and make it so that you have to have the vehicle towed or a Ranger show up and connect to the diag port to wake it up and start charging. This just can't be that hard. Tesla's "response" on Jalopnik was terrible IMO.

Yes, Tesla's PR department is severely handicapped, kind of like whoever is in charge of their website.