Do you know that you must keep your battery charged?

[NigelM]

....if the car has been standing still for x weeks and the battery has a low SoC, I think it would be wise to turn everything off before it dies. Unless someone happens to crash into the car so hard as to puncture the battery pack this will be the better option.

You wouldn't say that if you were sitting in Florida. In Norway you don't have to worry about >100F temperatures damaging your batteries. I can control whether my car is plugged in or not, I can't control the weather.

[NigelM]

Tesla bricked battery story may have a short circuit

Worth a couple of quotes from the article:

Yesterday's outrageous attack on electric vehicles didn't come from the GOP (for a change), but from a seemingly disinterested blogger, one Michael Degusta. His charges against Tesla include suggesting that its cars will have "eventual, inevitable, catastrophic battery failure," lambasting the company for poor warranty service, accusing Tesla of tracking its owners without consent, and intimating that the company is not only failing to provide owners with proper notice of this phenomenon but also covering up the whole sordid affair....

Yet all may not be what it seems. Late yesterday, an e-mail surfaced on Green Car Reports, in which a disgruntled owner who bricked his battery pleads his case to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

...Drucker has since spoken with Autopia about his car, admitting that he drove his Roadster down to a 25 percent charge, then left it parked for six weeks, something the owner's manual specifically warns against.

Now, let's turn our attention towards Degusta, who noted at the end of his screed, "No one has paid me to write this article" and pointed out that his blog is not advertising-supported. That's an important point, as it's clearly designed to give readers the impression that Degusta is an unbiased outsider....

Yet, a few minutes spent with Google shows that Drucker and Degusta are also business partners,.... It also turns up this article, from the November 15, 2000, issue of Insurance & Technology magazine, a profile of Drucker, in which he is quoted describing Degusta as his "partner in crime."....

[JRP3]

So which would you rather have, your cells kept cool until they are drained so low they can't run the cooling systems, and then continue to discharge to zero, or to have the active cooling stop, before they reach zero, and have them sit at elevated temperatures for a while while still holding some charge? Sitting at zero means a dead pack, sitting at low SOC, even with elevated temperatures, does not.

[NigelM]

Hypothetically: I would know that I need to plug my car in. I don't want to worry about destroying the battery through elevated temperatures.

JRP3, it's a pointless question to me as I cannot conceive of a situation where I would leave my car with a low SOC for any length of time.

[JRP3]

Nigel,
The point is they should be able to do both in a fashion. Keep the cells cool until they reach a dangerously low SOC, then disconnect all loads in order to save the pack. "Managing" the pack to death makes no sense.

[Lloyd]

Tesla said in my post that the battery management in the new models is more advanced and will allow the vehicle to sit unattended and not plugged in for longer periods of time. While they did not specifically say what JRP3 is saying, they indicated as such. Without going off in a tissy, lets see what they come up with and then complain if it is not up to our expectations! JMO!

[NigelM]

Now would be a really good time to release the Design Studio.....

[Tommy]

I could of posted over at the vanity plates thread but thought it more appropriate here: This one is still available in CA


Attachment 4446

[AnOutsider]

Nigel,
The point is they should be able to do both in a fashion. Keep the cells cool until they reach a dangerously low SOC, then disconnect all loads in order to save the pack. "Managing" the pack to death makes no sense.

Exactly what I was arguing with my low heart rate analogy.

[NigelM]

Nigel,
The point is they should be able to do both in a fashion. Keep the cells cool until they reach a dangerously low SOC, then disconnect all loads in order to save the pack. "Managing" the pack to death makes no sense.

1. We're going round in circles....I hear what you're saying and you know much more about the technical side of batteries than I do, but your suggestion simply shortens the window of time to get back to the car and plug it in. I'm saying I'd rather just plug in.

2. I still cannot conceive of any circumstance where I would leave my car with a low SOC for any length of time.

3. From *Lloyd's* post it sounds like Tesla knows what they're doing.

Sorry, no offence intended and absolutely not related to *JRP's* posts, but I can't bring myself to read this thread anymore.