Tesla responds. Note that they don’t deny any of the claims about bricked batteries. If those were false, they would be shouting it from the rooftops, so it seems likely that they’re true.
I still think this is ultimately going to be a minor bump in the road for Tesla. I’ve known people who ran their engines dry of oil and had to replace them entirely, and no one blames the car manufacturer. Tesla does point out that it’s not particularly hard to keep this from happening, and that their new cars will include additional features to make the resting period longer and the alerts more effective.
I think Tesla’s response is turning it into a catastrophe – basically a shrug, and “Eh, it’s your own fault.” This is not how to deal with an issue that can destroy your car while it sits quiet and untouched in a garage.
I know of no analogy to a gas-fired auto. Delaying an oil change for 2 months isn’t the same thing.
Based on this official apology, they don’t seem to understand how consumer-unfriendly they are. Unless they change the policy, insure the vehicle better, or fix the problem, they’re destined to be in the dustbin of car manufacturers.
The REPAIR costs $40,000. Your brick cost you a lot more then that (although the Telsa website does not give prices for the roadster, the Model S starts at $50,000 and goes up to $95,000. I assume the roadster is a ‘if you have to ask, you can’t afford it’ car.)
Some of the wording in Tesla’s reply, frankly sucks.
Yeah, but the oil in my engine does not leak out when parked as part of the design of the car, but your battery does discharge as part of the design of the car.
Any lawyer with 3 brains cells to rub together would savage them in court over this statement. Further some statements attributed to Tesla in the link in the OP would also get them in trouble if a case went to court IMHO.
Notice that the claims about how long the battery lasts are not for the roadster, which is what the OP’s link was addressing. Nice piece of mis-direction.
::: In court:::
Tesla’s lawyer: Mr. enipla you mean you didn’t you notice the huge pile of electrons under your Tesla, yet you tried to start it anyway?
enipla: WTF?
Even after accounting for the first 90% of the charge, which takes less than 2 days out of 11 weeks, I still get a power draw of about 26 watts, which is still high to me. Also, that much power being drawn from a 12 volt lead/acid battery in a “regular” car would deplete it pretty quickly (usually only the cranking current is shown, but I doubt they hold more than a kWh or so, just a couple days at 26 W), thus I assume you mean the current draw, which isn’t comparable since at 12 volts 0.0746 A is only 0.895 watts, which sounds more realistic (if still a bit high to me; I’d think more like microamperes of current; think of how long a watch (i.e car clock) can run on a tiny battery). Converting 375 volts to a few volts for electronics would impose some losses, especially at low power, but a good step-down switching regulator can minimize losses.
In any case, the issue appears to be overdischarging the battery to the point where it is damaged and needs to be replaced, which can be avoided by simply cutting off all power before it reaches that point, say, 10%, but allowing the battery to be recharged (unless it goes below the point where it is damaged, it should still be able to go for a while, possibly months, before reaching that level with no load whatsoever).
WTF?
