Do you know that you must keep your battery charged?

[Norbert]

When you drive a Roadster to "0-miles" shown in Range mode, there is actually about 5% to 8% state of charge remaining in the battery, in order to prevent the inevitable. That safety buffer has already been thought of and implemented in the vehicle since day 1.

I think you are the first to say that. How do you know?

[markwj]

I think you are the first to say that. How do you know?

Define 0 SOC. It is not 0 volts.

[Doug_G]

I think you are the first to say that. How do you know?

That's well known. When you hit somewhere around 25 km of ideal range, the VDS flashes up an error saying something like "battery low - range estimate uncertain", and then displays 0 on the odometer and no range estimate on the VDS.

[dsm363]

When you drive a Roadster to "0-miles" shown in Range mode, there is actually about 5% to 8% state of charge remaining in the battery, in order to prevent the inevitable. That safety buffer has already been thought of and implemented in the vehicle since day 1.

I was referring to the Model S and guessing Tesla will add an additional buffer on top of that. They could reset 'zero' at 5% above the Roadster's 0% after range mode. You'd have to agree to continue to keep going and Tesla could point out that you agreed to continue driving then still didn't plug the car in for 2 months for example. I have no knowledge of what they're actually going to do of course though.

[Norbert]

That's well known. When you hit somewhere around 25 km of ideal range, the VDS flashes up an error saying something like "battery low - range estimate uncertain", and then displays 0 on the odometer and no range estimate on the VDS.

Ah, yes, remember now, but you can still drive even further, IIRC.

[vfx]

And driving to "0" is not the same as parking to "0".

[Norbert]

I was referring to the Model S and guessing Tesla will add an additional buffer on top of that. They could reset 'zero' at 5% above the Roadster's 0% after range mode. You'd have to agree to continue to keep going and Tesla could point out that you agreed to continue driving then still didn't plug the car in for 2 months for example. I have no knowledge of what they're actually going to do of course though.

I don't think they'll offset zero:

Of course you can drive a Model S to 0 percent charge, but even in that circumstance, if you plug it in within 30 days, the battery will recover normally.

Plug It In | Blog | Tesla Motors

But maybe they add a legal confirmation dialog at 5% or so. Means you would have to stop, though, and when you need the last electrons to reach the next charger, and are on a highway, maybe that's not what you want to do?

[dsm363]

I don't think they'll offset zero:


Plug It In | Blog | Tesla Motors

But maybe they add a legal confirmation dialog at 5% or so. Means you would have to stop, though, and when you need the last electrons to reach the next charger, and are on a highway, maybe that's not what you want to do?

You're probably right. I would imagine they 17" would just flash and complain until you acknowledged it. I don't think they'll cut power while on the highway, especially since there would be no technical reason to do so with power still left. We'll see that they do I guess.

[JRP3]

I highly doubt they are actually letting you take the cells to zero SOC, even if they are letting you think so. I can almost guarantee there has always been a bit of buffer at the bottom, there is no good reason to allow the driver to take a cell to zero SOC so they can drive the car another couple of miles.

[dsm363]

I highly doubt they are actually letting you take the cells to zero SOC, even if they are letting you think so. I can almost guarantee there has always been a bit of buffer at the bottom, there is no good reason to allow the driver to take a cell to zero SOC so they can drive the car another couple of miles.

I didn't mean down to zero SOC at the cell level I guess. the Roadster doesn't do this, right? I thought they don't even use the max or min of the cell. I meant they may reset the 'zero' baseline which is actually 5% SOC but that's a guess from their blog. Maybe they'll still call 5% "5%" and warn you then and allow you to agree to continue to 0% ideal miles which still has a smal buffer below it allowing your Model S to sit for 30 days unplugged.