Ever run battery dead on the road

[787steve]

We have a Model S on order. Expecting delivery in Oct. Studying up all I can on the forums, but one question I haven't seen asked is have you ever run out of battery while on the road. Could be due to bad planning, bad weather, traffic, whatever. Just curious how often this has occurred. We plan on being very conservative till we have plenty of time in model.
Thanks

 

[esk8mw]

We have a Model S on order. Expecting delivery in Oct. Studying up all I can on the forums, but one question I haven't seen asked is have you ever run out of battery while on the road. Could be due to bad planning, bad weather, traffic, whatever. Just curious how often this has occurred. We plan on being very conservative till we have plenty of time in model.
Thanks

Nope, never even close.You would almost have to do it on purpose. Almost any potential issue is solved by simply going slower or turning down climate controls. The car will even tell you to slow down to a specified speed if it thinks you are on track to exceed your range. But if you take 2 minutes to plan your trip (i.e., see where chargers are along your path) you'll never even worry about it.

 

[ecarfan]

Try running a search on the forum for phrases relating to people running out of battery. It has happened, and there have been threats about it. It can happen due to poor planning, or unexpected bad weather, or simply not understanding how brother and altitude changes can affect battery range. However when you find threats about it make note of the date of the thread and keep in mind that the current navigation route planning software in the car is better than it used to be. Not perfect of course, but a lot better.

 

[787steve]

Nope, never even close.You would almost have to do it on purpose. Almost any potential issue is solved by simply going slower or turning down climate controls. The car will even tell you to slow down to a specified speed if it thinks you are on track to exceed your range. But if you take 2 minutes to plan your trip (i.e., see where chargers are along your path) you'll never even worry about it.

That's what I expected. Thanks for confirming.

 

[MP3Mike]

The other thing to remember is that if you have charging available at home you can essentially leave every morning with a "full tank". So for normal daily driving you should never have a problem.

Long trips are a different situation. You do need to do some pre-trip planning to make sure you take a route that has chargers available. (And most likely Superchargers.)

 

[Cyclone]

We have a Model S on order. Expecting delivery in Oct. Studying up all I can on the forums, but one question I haven't seen asked is have you ever run out of battery while on the road. Could be due to bad planning, bad weather, traffic, whatever. Just curious how often this has occurred. We plan on being very conservative till we have plenty of time in model.
Thanks

I have taken my car to less than 20 rated miles about five times, the lowest being 3 rated miles. Still never run out of battery on the road. For the most part, it is easy enough to adjust for this -- slow down. Even a 5-10 mph reduction in speed produces a big increase in power. If you also have your charger for you, you are decently assured to find a 120 v outlet even if you do run out of juice. Meanwhile, I pay about $150/year for a AAA membership with the extras for up to 200 miles of towing. That would guarantee I get to a charging station. With these in mind, I just don't worry about it. I've done 17k miles in 15 miles of ownership and will be doing about another 2k miles in the next week. Similar, in almost 20 years of driving, I've never run out of gas.

 

[Boourns]

For daily driving, your Tesla will be even easier than an ICE car, for the reason that @MP3Mike mentioned. For most long trips, it takes very little more planning than taking an ICE car, with the exception of those where you are going out into very sparsely populated areas. I really wouldn't worry about it unless you are the kind of person who has run out of gas multiple times over the years in your ICE vehicles. Just think about what you are doing and you will be fine.

 

[787steve]

Thanks for all the encouragement. It seems to be as I assumed it would be. I HAVE run out of gas before, but many many years ago. Too old, uh, ,,,,,experienced for that now.
These days it is very rare for us to exceed 30 miles a day, so the occasional long trip would be the only concern.

 

[JOEV1]

Maybe someone could mention that having - besides all charging cables and leads- a strong rope, as a last resort in the trunk or frunk which is capable for a tow.
Well, there is a youtube movie in the net where a Model S guy from Sibiria who catches a truck and gets a tow and recharches his battery while towing. Wondering what was the temperature there because if the battery is too cold it will not allow any recuperation otherwise it would be much the same as going back down a mountain

 

[Saghost]

Maybe someone could mention that having - besides all charging cables and leads- a strong rope, as a last resort in the trunk or frunk which is capable for a tow.
Well, there is a youtube movie in the net where a Model S guy from Sibiria who catches a truck and gets a tow and recharches his battery while towing. Wondering what was the temperature there because if the battery is too cold it will not allow any recuperation otherwise it would be much the same as going back down a mountain

Between the strain on the tow rope, the strain on the towing vehicle's engine, and the sudden deceleration if the rope were to break, it's not a particularly wise plan, though obviously the guy made it work long enough for a youtube video. I especially wouldn't want to inflict it on some random stranger that stopped to help.

 

[JOEV1]

Between the strain on the tow rope, the strain on the towing vehicle's engine, and the sudden deceleration if the rope were to break, it's not a particularly wise plan, though obviously the guy made it work long enough for a youtube video. I especially wouldn't want to inflict it on some random stranger that stopped to help.

You are dead right! It sure is highly risky to do damage to the car (less to the truck) as the aluminium structure of the Model S might not like sudden jerks (as during a gear changes) A more flexible rope together with a careful regulation by observing the green re-charge indication.
As said, if one is stuck somewhere in Siberia...as a last solution.

 

[S'toon]

 

[jerry33]

We have a Model S on order. Expecting delivery in Oct. Studying up all I can on the forums, but one question I haven't seen asked is have you ever run out of battery while on the road.

Never. I have 73K miles, about half of which are trip mile. And it's even easier now with the trip graph than it was when I received the car 3.5 years ago.

The way the trip graph works is that when you enter a destination there is an estimated line that takes speed limits and hills into consideration. Charge until the line is all green (the end of the line will have yellow, red and black if the system thinks you're short on energy). As you travel, you can see if you're doing better or worse than the line. If you're doing worse, then slow down or stop somewhere to pick up a few miles.

 

[brucet999]

We have a Model S on order. Expecting delivery in Oct. Studying up all I can on the forums, but one question I haven't seen asked is have you ever run out of battery while on the road. Could be due to bad planning, bad weather, traffic, whatever. Just curious how often this has occurred. We plan on being very conservative till we have plenty of time in model.
Thanks

Here's one post from 2014
Ran out of juice, 12V and main pack drained, need info.

And here's one from 2015
Zero means Zero - another battery depletion story

 

[Xenoilphobe]

I have 90K behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S (40K on one and 50K on the other) - only once when I was a newbie who didn't understand the impact of deep snow, extreme cold weather and range. I ran the car down to zero, barely making it from Chincoteague Island to Bethesda MD in a wicked snow storm and failing to raise the suspension, essentially plowing through the snow.... I learned and have never had that happen since. Also Telsa installed a Supercharger in Salisbury MD, which negates any range issues even with a wicked snow storm.

 

[mspohr]

I've run out of gas in my ICE cars a few times but never out of charge in my Tesla
(I did get down to 7 miles one time returning home in a snow storm but I had lots of places I could have stopped to get a charge if I needed it.)