Tesla Model S waffling

[ZBB]

I did some experimenting... I had never had the car below 40 miles range remaining. Took it down to 2 miles remaining yesterday. Learned some interesting things:

• The battery meter color changes from green to yellow at 20% charge
• Power is limited to 120kW at 15 miles remaining
• Power is further limited to ~100kW at 5 miles remaining
• Putting the car in Park brings up a low battery warning on the center screen that says "Battery Low. There will be significantly less energy available from your battery if it gets colder. We recommend charging now." -- don't know exactly when that starts, but I got it when there were 15 miles remaining and I stopped to get our mail.
• I drove about 10 miles when it said there were 14 miles remaining -- and I parked the car at 2 miles remaining for the night. When I got out of the car, one more warning popped up on the instrument cluster saying "Battery Power Very Low - Air Conditioning is Reduced".
• Look at the picture -- the yellow bar is at ~8%, while the miles remaining is 2. There have been reports that Tesla lets owners keep driving past 0 remaining miles. I didn't push it (although my wife was daring me...). But it looks like ~5% of the battery is held as reserve -- which would allow ~10 miles after getting to 0 miles of range...

So why did I do this? Three reasons:

1. I wanted to get see what happens when the battery gets low. I knew power would be limited and there would be warnings -- but I wanted to see when they would appear and what they said.
2. I wanted to feel more comfortable when taking a car low. Back on gas cars, I always got gas as soon as the light came on (within ~10 miles), so part of this is getting comfortable with low remaining range.
3. We're doing a day trip with some other Tesla owners on Sunday (going to Arcosanti, which is sort of an artists community about an hour north of here -- I haven't been there since I was 10 or 12). I'll be doing a full/range charge for that trip. There are rumors that letting the battery pack get to a low state of charge, and then slowly charging to 100% helps force the pack to balance (i.e. all cells are charged to the same %). I have it charging at 240V 7A vs the normal 40A -- and it should finish charging tomorrow morning about an hour before we need to leave...

[clyde]

Originally Posted by ZBB

[*]I wanted to feel more comfortable when taking a car low. Back on gas cars, I always got gas as soon as the light came on (within ~10 miles), so part of this is getting comfortable with low remaining range.

Pfffftttt!!!!

[lemming]

Originally Posted by ZBB

I did some experimenting... I had never had the car below 40 miles range remaining. Took it down to 2 miles remaining yesterday. Learned some interesting things:

• The battery meter color changes from green to yellow at 20% charge
• Power is limited to 120kW at 15 miles remaining
• Power is further limited to ~100kW at 5 miles remaining
• Putting the car in Park brings up a low battery warning on the center screen that says "Battery Low. There will be significantly less energy available from your battery if it gets colder. We recommend charging now." -- don't know exactly when that starts, but I got it when there were 15 miles remaining and I stopped to get our mail.
• I drove about 10 miles when it said there were 14 miles remaining -- and I parked the car at 2 miles remaining for the night. When I got out of the car, one more warning popped up on the instrument cluster saying "Battery Power Very Low - Air Conditioning is Reduced".
• Look at the picture -- the yellow bar is at ~8%, while the miles remaining is 2. There have been reports that Tesla lets owners keep driving past 0 remaining miles. I didn't push it (although my wife was daring me...). But it looks like ~5% of the battery is held as reserve -- which would allow ~10 miles after getting to 0 miles of range...

So why did I do this? Three reasons:

1. I wanted to get see what happens when the battery gets low. I knew power would be limited and there would be warnings -- but I wanted to see when they would appear and what they said.
2. I wanted to feel more comfortable when taking a car low. Back on gas cars, I always got gas as soon as the light came on (within ~10 miles), so part of this is getting comfortable with low remaining range.
3. We're doing a day trip with some other Tesla owners on Sunday (going to Arcosanti, which is sort of an artists community about an hour north of here -- I haven't been there since I was 10 or 12). I'll be doing a full/range charge for that trip. There are rumors that letting the battery pack get to a low state of charge, and then slowly charging to 100% helps force the pack to balance (i.e. all cells are charged to the same %). I have it charging at 240V 7A vs the normal 40A -- and it should finish charging tomorrow morning about an hour before we need to leave...

Keep pushing the envelope! I'm following with interest. This is really useful real time stuff.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by clyde

Pfffftttt!!!!

At least cornering shouldn't impact the Tesla

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by lemming

Keep pushing the envelope! I'm following with interest. This is really useful real time stuff.

Feel free to PM me for any specific info... JST did

[Josh (PA)]

what do you do if you run out of battery, just have it towed home or is it more involved?

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

what do you do if you run out of battery, just have it towed home or is it more involved?

Here's the Wired article: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/07...charge-trucks/

But... Phoenix isn't covered -- so it means a flatbed to the nearest charger for me.

Better thing is to plan ahead and use plugshare.com or recharge.com to find the nearest chargers. Recargo even has a site tailored for the Tesla browser -- I have it bookmarked...

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by ZBB

• We're doing a day trip with some other Tesla owners on Sunday (going to Arcosanti, which is sort of an artists community about an hour north of here -- I haven't been there since I was 10 or 12).

Did the day trip today. There were a total of 6 Tesla's. I was the 2nd car on the way up -- was pretty cool looking in the rear view mirror and seeing multiple Tesla DRLs (sideways shaped chevrons) in my rear view mirror on curves.

Trip was about 113 miles round trip. I used 136 miles of rated range -- drove 5-10 over the posted limit, and there was a roughly 2000 foot elevation gain, most of which was over about 7-8 miles. I had absolutely no qualms about range for this -- amazing what a few road trips do for alleviating range anxiety,

The last mile or so was on a dirt road. We just had 2 straight days of soaking rain -- so it was a bit muddy. I need to give the Tesla a bath tomorrow...

[JST]

Jumping jesus.

I'm never driving again.

http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/for...let-proof-vest

[Plaz]

Originally Posted by JST

Jumping jesus.

I'm never driving again.

http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/for...let-proof-vest