Running a Chevrolet Bolt completely out of charge - funny story

[Shaneajanderson]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Right! Obviously there was still enough juice left to power the electronic nannies.

This is by design, Lithium batteries are ruined if they get run stone dead even once.

[Piotrsko]

They actually start to go bad below 2.0 v per cell because the electrolyte causes the cathode to swell (think rust but different process)

When the traction pack gets too low, most EV vehicles go into save the battery mode and won't let you do anything but controlled recharge from the onboard charger.

[redpoint5]

That's true of most any lithium ion device. Your phone doesn't die, it powers off. Same with laptops and most other lithium ion based devices.