Costly bricking of Tesla?

[Daox]

The roadster has a pretty large 53kWh pack. Over twice the size of the Leaf's 24kWh pack.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by markweatherill

I wonder if that really does affect battery longevity. (I also wonder what the range of a Leaf would be if it was hacked to allow greater discharge than 20%)

The deeper you discharge lithium batteries the shorter their life span, right in the Nissan Leaf's owners manual it says that if you want the greatest life span of the battery not to charge it past 80% full and to not discharge it past 20%, it reduces your range a little but for most drivers their range would still be double what they need in a day, at least on the Leaf, these settings are programmed from inside the car.

[NeilBlanchard]

Some updated info: Is Tesla 'Bricking' Story Just An Angry Owner's Warranty Claim?

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by UFO

I'm surprised there is not a lockout on further discharge below a certain level, above the level where the battery cannot be recharged.

Exactly.
My Volvo has something similar to prevent complete draining of the battery.
It was not smart enough to shut off the culprit though

Looks like a design flaw when it's not included on an electric car with an expensive battery package.
Another flaw is allowing a product to completely drain a 56 kWh battery in 10 weeks - just sitting there.

[Daox]

It may not be the best design, but it is clearly stated in the product literature (user manual and warranty info) multiple times. If you read the comments its quite similar to changing your oil. If you don't change it, your engine will blow up eventually. If you don't plug in, your pack will die eventually.

Honestly, I'm sure Tesla engineers have thought of this scenario and have reasons why they did things this way. The car is not only beautiful but quite the feat of engineering. I'm sure they didn't have ignorant engineers.

[MPaulHolmes]

Assuming zero self discharge rate (it's pretty small per month anyway), the car is using 31.5 watts ALL THE TIME when it's off?!

[NeilBlanchard]

Yes, I believe the Tesla pack has a cooling fan(s) that runs much of the time.

[Ryland]

What is drawing so much power? a computer fan in the battery box would draw a watt or two, anti-theft device would draw a few watts as well, speed controller staying powered up shouldn't draw more then 5 watts, seems like a keyless entry wouldn't even draw that much, seeing as how they do just fine in gasoline vehicles with much smaller batteries! and a keyless entry would be ideal for powering up any systems that need to turn on before you drive off, same as how some Diesel vehicles turn on the glow plugs when you get in and sit down, before you even put the key in.

[niky]

Well... the main case is one where the owner used up much of the range, then parked the car for six weeks.

The rest are hearsay.

The 100 foot extension cord story has no citations and is laughable... because the only way that 100 foot extension cord would cause battery drain is if it were improperly plugged or dangerously shorted.

The Japan story... well... read the specs before you send it to a country with 100volt power first...

The other two, no comment.

But if you're told to plug the car in every so often to avoid bricking... what's wrong with, well... plugging the car in to avoid bricking?

The Nissan Leaf also needs to be plugged in every two weeks or so to charge, so this isn't a problem limited to the Tesla. Although, granted, Tesla's issues are probably worse because of the deeper discharge rate.

[Ryland]

The same is true for any vehicle that is stored, you don't put a vehicle in a garage for months at a time and figure it will be ready to use on demand, even storing my motorcycles over winter, the batteries get put on a charger or they get started up every few months! I even have a computer UPS battery pack/inverter so I can top off the charge on my electric car in case it's being stored in the one shed without electricity.
Then again, people don't like to read owners manuals.