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Model S Battery almost impossible to "brick"

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I'm sure that this got posted over on THE "bricking" thread (400+ posts by now), but for the sake of future searches and clarity it's worth a mention here:

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/plug-it

Even in cases of neglect, the latest Tesla batteries are industry leaders. The earliest Roadsters will take over two months to discharge if parked at a 50 percent charge without being plugged in. From that starting point, Tesla has consistently innovated and improved our battery technology. For example, a Model S battery parked with 50 percent charge would approach full discharge only after about 12 months. Model S batteries also have the ability to protect themselves as they approach very low charge levels by going into a “deep sleep” mode that lowers the loss even further. A Model S will not allow its battery to fall below about 5 percent charge. At that point the car can still sit for many months. 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.

Tesla didn't come up with that piece of technology overnight. The above paragraph alone must be enough to convince any skeptic that Tesla knows what they are doing.....
 
That's great news about the Model S. Almost entirely unlikely that it would ever brick. And really, who could even go a few weeks (let alone months) without wanting to drive (and therefore charge) this beautiful car? No chance anyone would let it just sit unused :)

I know this is likely excited hyperbole, but there are plenty of instances where this would happen. I'm just happy to hear it's unlikely. 12+ months is more than enough. Interesting they quote from 50% though. I wonder if it's a similar number above 50% but 50% is the point where the pack first starts to limit draw? If so, from 100% you might see a sharp drop to 50, then taper off.
 
Thanks for posting this Nigel. After reading and re-reading the "bricking" thread I had some concerns. We have to thank the early Roadster buyers for helping pave the road to these advances.

Yes, thank you early Roadster owners, especially 1-500, for being the pioneers and paving the way for the rest of us.
 
The Media is trying to ruin tesla =(

You are painting with a rather broad brush. Some media outlets such as Jalopnik seem to have an agenda. Others such as Green Car Reports have a more balanced approach. In most cases, especially on-line media, they are merely repeating other's accounts without any independent confirmation facts or refutation of distortions whatsoever.

Larry
 
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I do wonder why Jalopnik is such a douche.
People fear change. If it was the late 1800's they'd be saying the same thing about ICEs. "Only rich people can afford them." "The range is terrible." "There aren't enough places to refuel them." "If you smoke around them they will catch on fire and explode!" (Replace smoke with "leave unplugged" and catch on fire with "bricked" and you have the EV version).
 
People fear change. If it was the late 1800's they'd be saying the same thing about ICEs. "Only rich people can afford them." "The range is terrible." "There aren't enough places to refuel them." "If you smoke around them they will catch on fire and explode!" (Replace smoke with "leave unplugged" and catch on fire with "bricked" and you have the EV version).

The five stages of grief (denial/anger/negotiation/depression/acceptance) are based on the stages people go through to accept any change. You're absolutely right - people fear change and many times we don't even recognize it as that.

Take for instance how we (almost) all reacted to the falcon doors. I knew I was getting an X, but I stood there at the unveiling thinking, 'do I like those?? why am I feeling negative? is there anything wrong with them other than they're different? .. etc' ... and a few days later, we're all over our initial falcon door reaction because (my theory, anyway) they look familiar.

We are all rather amusing. :)
 
People fear change. If it was the late 1800's they'd be saying the same thing about ICEs. "Only rich people can afford them." "The range is terrible." "There aren't enough places to refuel them." "If you smoke around them they will catch on fire and explode!" (Replace smoke with "leave unplugged" and catch on fire with "bricked" and you have the EV version).

I always thought that if you smoked, you brick yourself....
 
i was just a few days away and put the car to storage mode with 90km IR left. When i returned, i got the error msg #286 "power train error, service required". charging was aborted and the LED was flashing red. The IR dropped to 75km within 5 days. What would happen if i where 6 weeks away. I did charging according to the manual, using my UMC cable on 32A socket.
 
i was just a few days away and put the car to storage mode with 90km IR left. When i returned, i got the error msg #286 "power train error, service required". charging was aborted and the LED was flashing red. The IR dropped to 75km within 5 days. What would happen if i where 6 weeks away. I did charging according to the manual, using my UMC cable on 32A socket.

According to this post: battery lifetime

storage mode will let the SOC drop to 20 %, or according to this thread:

Storage Mode

to 40 miles. That's 64 km. Yours was still higher at 75 km, so the charger not coming on might have been normal behavior. You should first talk to Tesla if the red flashing LEDs was just to alert you of the power train error, which might be a separate issue and there doesn't seem to be any indication it would have interfered with storage mode charging at 20%.
 
I remember when audiophiles thought CDs were trash and the LP records were the only way to listen to music. To me an ICE is like an old record and Electrics are the new digital age. And with Brent oil at $125/barrel the conversion to Electrics have a nice tail wind.
 
People fear change. If it was the late 1800's they'd be saying the same thing about ICEs. "Only rich people can afford them." "The range is terrible." "There aren't enough places to refuel them." "If you smoke around them they will catch on fire and explode!" (Replace smoke with "leave unplugged" and catch on fire with "bricked" and you have the EV version).

Get A Horse | The Old Motor

GSP
 
i was just a few days away and put the car to storage mode with 90km IR left. When i returned, i got the error msg #286 "power train error, service required". charging was aborted and the LED was flashing red. The IR dropped to 75km within 5 days. What would happen if i where 6 weeks away. I did charging according to the manual, using my UMC cable on 32A socket.
I would think Tesla would have handled your case very differently if that did happen. You did everything right and an error on the car came up. I would hope Tesla would just replace everything under warranty. I guess it's probably a good idea to charge fully in standard mode and then leave it in storage mode when you leave just in case.
 
I guess it's probably a good idea to charge fully in standard mode and then leave it in storage mode when you leave just in case.

That's what I've done - and it's never discharged to the point where storage mode kicked in. I now have the Tattler installed (thanks, Scott451), so if I were gone longer, I'd definitely be pinging my car to get SOC.
 
I would think Tesla would have handled your case very differently if that did happen.
I agree. It appears in Eberhard's case the car was plugged in and it was the error that aborted charging. That's a completely different situation from the guy in the brick story (who knowingly left the car unplugged for more than 2 months at 25% charge according to his letter).