Can't leave car at airport... battery dies

[Olds442]

At Ohare there are several in the valet covered $39 a day lot.

i see a lot of teslas in that lot that aren't plugged in. since i have a ICE for snow driving and foul weather that's what i leave at o'hare. but man i see a lot of teslas parked in that lot in the winter and wonder how many miles you lose in that garage overnight with winter winds whipping through there.

i didn't know they had charging at o'hare, thanks for posting that. if i ever take mine there that's where i'd put it.

also, shout out to the days inn in Plymouth IN. not only are they pet friendly but they let me plug in overnight. albeit only 4 miles per hour but now i can probably skip the supercharger stop and just drive directly home in the morning. boo-yah!

 

[Evoforce]

To address some past post, airport charge stations in long term parking are designed for, and are supposed to be used after you return from a flight. They are to be used (if needed) to get you to your next destination.

For example, if the OP had needed a charge after returning, he may not have been able to charge because all of the spaces were taken. I also agree that it would be good to have L1 for extended trickle that could be used for your trips duration in addition to the immediate use L2 that should only be used upon your return.

 

[keithf]

I left my car unplugged at Toronto Airport last week. Average temperature in the garage - 15 Celsius.
Ok , here's what happened
I did leave my S75D at Toronto Airport from Feb 14 to Feb 22.
I turned off Always connected, and turned on energy savings. Disconnected any apps on my phone that poll the car.
I left with 85% soc. Returned with 82% soc still available . Seems that leaving unplugged at the airport is not an issue for the days it was unplugged

 

[hacer]

To address some past post, airport charge stations in long term parking are designed for, and are supposed to be used after you return from a flight. They are to be used (if needed) to get you to your next destination.

For example, if the OP had needed a charge after returning, he may not have been able to charge because all of the spaces were taken. I also agree that it would be good to have L1 for extended trickle that could be used for your trips duration in addition to the immediate use L2 that should only be used upon your return.

If it was a supercharger, that would make sense. Charging with L2 to get you to your destination is a many-hour affair. Nobody want's to return from a flight, get their bags, then wait in the airport parking lot for 1-6 hours before they can drive away. No rational person would intentionally make plans to do it this way, they would take a taxi, or shuttle instead. Therefore it is reasonable to expect that the charger is intended for long-term charging; it really should be L1, but that just means that the parking managers really don't understand EVs.

 

[Evoforce]

Nope! I was on a planning commission dealing with this. These L2 chargers at an airport are NOT meant to be parked at while you are on your trip.

You need to plan ahead to have enough charge or use the airport (L2) charger after your trip to make it home or to an off airport charging station. If you are not able to do that than it is expected that you get a ride to the airport.

However, I do wish that they would have all implemented trickle (L1) chargers as recommended for trip duration charging. Some airports actually do and generally those are fine to stay at for your trip duration unless marked otherwise.

It is considered poor judgement to be parked at the L2 charge station for the duration of your trip even in long term parking. There is even some animosity toward Bolts and Teslas because shorter range BEV owners incorrectly believe that longer range vehicles shouldn't even need a charge.

We have to keep in mind that everyone has to share and be serviced by this equipment. This is the only (even) way to do it. The future will be many more vehicles sharing this equipment. I do hope that airports will adopt 120 volt (L1) charging also to help round this out.

As we all know too well, charging infrastructure is going to be a balancing act for some time to come. Too many electric vehicles competing for the same resources. Don't hate me, I am only the messenger.

 

[Barry]

I was on a planning commission dealing with this. These L2 chargers at an airport are NOT meant to be parked at while you are on your trip.

Well, that's just poor planning. People don't park at the airport to go out to dinner. They park there to travel.

 

[brkaus]

Any airport planning should include L1. If they are worried about the electric costs, surcharge the spots a flat $10. Then it can just be simple 20a circuits.

 

[TexasEV]

Nope! I was on a planning commission dealing with this. These L2 chargers at an airport are NOT meant to be parked at while you are on your trip.

You need to plan ahead to have enough charge or use the airport charger after your trip to make it home or to an off airport charging station. If you are not able to do that than it is expected that you get a ride to the airport.

However, I do wish that they would have all implemented trickle (L1) chargers as recommended for trip duration charging. Some airports actually do.

It is considered poor judgement to be parked at the L2 charge station for the duration of your trip even in long term parking. There is even some animosity toward Bolts and Teslas because shorter range BEV owners incorrectly believe that longer range vehicles shouldn't even need a charge.

We have to keep in mind that everyone has to share and be serviced by this equipment. This is the only (even) way to do it. The future will be many more vehicles sharing this equipment. I do hope that airports will adopt 120 volt (L1) charging also to help round this out.

As we all know too well, charging infrastructure is going to be a balancing act for some time to come. Too many electric vehicles competing for the same resources.

This makes no sense. What part of “long term” do you not understand?

 

[Rocky_H]

Nope! I was on a planning commission dealing with this. These L2 chargers at an airport are NOT meant to be parked at while you are on your trip.

that just means that the parking managers really don't understand EVs.

Exactly.

 

[thecloud]

If the L2 chargers at an airport are not to be used until you get back from a trip, is there signage at your airport making that clear? And why are they installed in a long-term parking lot where drivers would be forced to incur additional multiple-hour parking fees on returning, assuming their time isn't valuable and they would actually wait around in the lot for several hours at L2 speeds? If charging can't be done while you're away, then it no longer becomes reasonable to ever use an airport L2 charger, unless you are trapped there without enough juice to make it to a charger outside the lot.

I do agree with you that ubiquitous L1 charging for long-term parking areas is the right idea. You don't need L2 charging if you can stay plugged into L1 for a few days.

 

[Olds442]

Nope! I was on a planning commission dealing with this. Don't hate me, I am only the messenger.

so you are the messenger for the planning commission?

i don't hate you, but clearly this is your fault.

 

[Evoforce]

Us EV'ers are in the minority and all we can do is try to get the majority to listen to our needs. Because they don't understand some of the dynamics, or many times don't even care, that is not an easy task.

When they do finally throw us a little token, it many times does not come close to what was asked for. I encourage any/all of you to get involved to help make policy that looks out for our interests.

Until our group gets involved, the small minority of us trying will just be over run and drowned out. Don't just complain, get active trying to help make policy. Don't just leave it up to non-EV'ers to shape all of the rules going forward. Get some skin in the game to try to get what you want.

 

[DarkMatter]

Even if they do get it, they can't always make it happen. One local organization has a passionate EVer getting them charging infrastructure. Yet they are always at the limit on chargers. When he went to get more installed, he did more L2 even though there was a real need for a higher quantity of L1 for all the PHEVs. Turns out getting money to just install electrical outlets is harder than chargers.

 

[RDoc]

Nope! I was on a planning commission dealing with this. These L2 chargers at an airport are NOT meant to be parked at while you are on your trip.

You need to plan ahead to have enough charge or use the airport (L2) charger after your trip to make it home or to an off airport charging station. If you are not able to do that than it is expected that you get a ride to the airport.

However, I do wish that they would have all implemented trickle (L1) chargers as recommended for trip duration charging. Some airports actually do and generally those are fine to stay at for your trip duration unless marked otherwise.

It is considered poor judgement to be parked at the L2 charge station for the duration of your trip even in long term parking. There is even some animosity toward Bolts and Teslas because shorter range BEV owners incorrectly believe that longer range vehicles shouldn't even need a charge.

We have to keep in mind that everyone has to share and be serviced by this equipment. This is the only (even) way to do it. The future will be many more vehicles sharing this equipment. I do hope that airports will adopt 120 volt (L1) charging also to help round this out.

As we all know too well, charging infrastructure is going to be a balancing act for some time to come. Too many electric vehicles competing for the same resources. Don't hate me, I am only the messenger.

If that was your thinking, you need to think again.

 

[Only Trons]

A couple of data points from my Tesla(s) for your information. I was recently away from my home for awhile and left both Tesla(s) unplugged. Temps were in the range of highs in the 50's and lows in the mid 30's. I did NOT connect to either vehicle with the Tesla app during my away time.

1. Model S85 purchased new and delivered April 2013. "A" battery. 55,000 miles. Energy Saving Mode On. Always Connected Off. Smart Preconditioning Off. Cabin Overheat Off. Software version 2017.50.2 3bd9f6d. Over 11 days, Rated Range went from 229 to 199, a loss of 30 miles or an average loss of 2.7 rated miles per day.

2. Model X90D purchased new and delivered September 2016. 14,600 miles. Energy Saving Mode On. Always Connected Off. Smart Preconditioning Off. Cabin Overheat Off. Software version 2018.6.7ffabf7. Over 9 days, Rated Range went from 230 to 222, a loss of 8 miles or an average loss of less than 1 rated mile per day.

 

[scottm]

So my S85 is sitting at airport right now in -23C and 82% SOC with some blue bar on battery. It is plugged into 120V and I have battery charge limit set at 90%.

The app says "starting to charge" and has been like that for a few hours. It says car is pulling 2/12A right now.

I left the car at 70ish% and actively charging as I walked away and it made it up to 90 and stopped as normal, and is now on the decay sitting there. Still plugged in.

I checked yesterday and was at 85%, no sign of wanting to charge, and I was beginning to wondering how much lower before the car recognizes it is below 90 limit and kicks itself into charging again to get back to 90?

Today its 82 and that seems to have been the call to try.

So, when does charging really start? And what is it doing with 2A right now?

Do I have to turn on climate to spend juice warming the car and battery to get rid of the blue bar, before it can actually take any more than 2A?

 

[scottm]

P.s. instead of fart gamesm why doesn't Tesla make an airport mode that takes into consideration all the possibly settings, and just goes into long term preservation of energy level.. doing whatever is necessary?

I dont have range anxiety driving the Tesla.. but Ive got park anxiety... will it die before I get back home? This is silly.

 

[Benjanos]

I am in the process of trying to get myself setup with TM-Spy or something similar to learn more about such things. It would help a lot to know what the car doing. scottm maybe the car is just using the 2A to charge the 12V battery or something. I believe the actual main battery heater is 6kW, either on or off. So that's playing a role as well when and if it kicks in.

I left my car at the airport in around 0 degree C temp recently (for 7 days, not plugged in) and it basically consumed 20% in that time. My guess was, but I cannot be sure, some 12v battery charging and a little bit of 6kW battery heater.

I've not answered anything regarding your actual charging question I know....

 

[scottm]

My understanding too is battery heater is about 6kW and either on or off, not a sliding scale.

The 120v UMC plug cannot supply enough for the heater, so it won't. The only way to heat battery then in my current scenario is to use battery energy. Which it has been doing to go from 90 down to 82 in a couple days.

But will it heat enough to get rid of blue bar?

Is blue bar preventing the battery from accepting the whopping 1.5kW output potential of the 120 socket?

I agree the 2A draw right now must be just anti-vampire only. My car settings are such that it takes about 21Watts draw from the 12v while parked, I measured.

A datapoint in this scenario is that I have intentionally left Range mode OFF. I believe leaving range mode ON in a cold soak situation with only 120v available results in car never trying to charge and grinding down to zero. OFF means it is allowed to use battery power yo warm.

 

[Evoforce]

The more you awaken your car with apps, the more energy it will use also...