Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
The other day I saw a Tesla sitting on side of the expressway by an off ramp and it made me think what happens if a Tesla runs out of battery similar to a car running out of gas ? Are you stuck getting it towed or is there some type of portable back battery you could carry ?
|
Mostly what JST said... AAA in some areas has trucks equipped with chargers that can be used to give a car 5-10 miles of charge in ~20 min.
But have you ever run out of gas? What do you do when the yellow light comes on indicating low fuel?
EVs are basically the same. They let you know when the battery is low (the battery icon goes yellow below 20% and red below 10% on a Tesla), and predict remaining range. Tesla goes further by telling you if you don’t have enough to get to your destination and back home again. On longer trips, it routes you to the Superchargers and includes charging time in your ETA.
I’ve never run out in nearly 8 years. The lowest I’ve taken a Tesla was down to about 2 miles remaining — but I did it on purpose and was close to home below the 10 mile mark. The lowest I pulled into a Supercharger was my first ever Supercharger stop in 2014 - arrived with 13 miles remaining, and that was within a mile of expected (this was before Tesla added advanced route planning into the car, so I had done some planning on a website). That route now has multiple Superchargers along the route that help avoid running so low.
Edit - also remember that you mostly charge at home. You basically never leave home without enough to get where you are going and back home again. I currently charge up about one a week, but when I was still commuting, I charged most nights...