Has your car shut down before it hits zero?

[Milin1609]

On a 2400 round trip, I went down to 14 miles, the lowest. 6% I believe. Superchargers are nicely located to overcome the range anxiety, but on a side note, locations are hard to find, sometimes. I found two superchargers in the airport parking and you have to take a parking ticket to enter and either pay the charge Or you can validate to waive the parking fee.

 

[rhumbliner]

I've drawn mine down to 6% on two occasions, but both times I was staying within a mile of a SC and was just too lazy to stop earlier.

Had a conversation with a MX driver pulling a popup trailer who claimed he drew his down to -15 miles (he doesn't display %) and he reported that at 0 miles the center console went blank, the a/c quit and the nav system stopped but the instrument display still functioned. He was able to continue his drive to a SC.

 

[kort677]

I've drawn mine down to 6% on two occasions, but both times I was staying within a mile of a SC and was just too lazy to stop earlier.

Had a conversation with a MX driver pulling a popup trailer who claimed he drew his down to -15 miles (he doesn't display %) and he reported that at 0 miles the center console went blank, the a/c quit and the nav system stopped but the instrument display still functioned. He was able to continue his drive to a SC.

my experience has been that nothing shuts down, the car displays a charge now message and since I was only a mile or so from the SpC I don't know what would have come next. I've never had the car ration power and on trips I regularly get below 5% soc.

 

[Energie Gratiz]

I had my car for 2.5 years and had driven 142,000 miles with it when at one time I was in a hurry and there was 7 miles left on the battery-meter; I had to go about 1 mile. I pushed the car and got the message CAR SHUTS DOWN... never had it before.

 

[hiroshiy]

Pushing the car when SOC is very low seems to be a no-no...

 

[Energie Gratiz]

That is correct. I had driven the car many times "below zero" but drove slowly and never problems or shut down...

 

[Marketeer]

A couple of days ago my car shut down with 8 km of range. Towing cost were not covered by Tesla since they say that range is just an indicator. Still communicating with Tesla because in my opinion it's not normal that the car shuts down with 8 km off range. When conneted to SC charging started at 8 km. My Tesla is from 2013 and i drove 175.000 km with it and many times i had a range left <10 km. Sometimes even 0 km. Never shut down before. I's afraid this is an aging issue? Can i trust my car in the future and rely on the range indicator? It would be normal if it counts down to 0. But a sudden shut down is a very unpleasant experience.

I will let you guys know if a get an answer from Tesla on covering the towing costs.

 

[David99]

A couple of days ago my car shut down with 8 km of range. Towing cost were not covered by Tesla since they say that range is just an indicator. Still communicating with Tesla because in my opinion it's not normal that the car shuts down with 8 km off range. When conneted to SC charging started at 8 km. My Tesla is from 2013 and i drove 175.000 km with it and many times i had a range left <10 km. Sometimes even 0 km. Never shut down before. I's afraid this is an aging issue? Can i trust my car in the future and rely on the range indicator? It would be normal if it counts down to 0. But a sudden shut down is a very unpleasant experience.

I will let you guys know if a get an answer from Tesla on covering the towing costs.

I'm a little concerned how Tesla argues. If the indicator is just an estimate, what is it good for then? But more importantly, where is the threshold? Is 8 km considered the margin of error? Or 20 km or 40 km. To what point is it safe to drive?

My car is a 2014 also with aprox 175.000 km on it and I never had it shut down before zero. Just recently I drive it down to almost zero and it never shut down.

 

[mknox]

I had my car for 2.5 years and had driven 142,000 miles with it when at one time I was in a hurry and there was 7 miles left on the battery-meter; I had to go about 1 mile. I pushed the car and got the message CAR SHUTS DOWN... never had it before.

A couple of days ago my car shut down with 8 km of range. Towing cost were not covered by Tesla since they say that range is just an indicator.

I have heard of this happening to many folks. Some will see their cars shut down with miles left and I've heard of others driving quite a few miles beyond "zero".

I'm a little concerned how Tesla argues. If the indicator is just an estimate, what is it good for then?

Remember, it's just an algorithm that tries to make a guess. We have all seen that we can get more or less range based on everything from driving style to weather. It's not like there's a tank of volatile liquid that can be measured.

 

[mspohr]

I have heard of this happening to many folks. Some will see their cars shut down with miles left and I've heard of others driving quite a few miles beyond "zero".



Remember, it's just an algorithm that tries to make a guess. We have all seen that we can get more or less range based on everything from driving style to weather. It's not like there's a tank of volatile liquid that can be measured.

Good points.
I want to add that all my ICE cars have very inaccurate gauges and I would never drive them down to single digit range.

 

[David99]

[QUOTE="mknox]
Remember, it's just an algorithm that tries to make a guess. We have all seen that we can get more or less range based on everything from driving style to weather. It's not like there's a tank of volatile liquid that can be measured.[/QUOTE]

My point was more about what is considered guaranteed? Tesla needs to give their customers some form of number to go by. How many percent or miles/km do you need to have left to be safe (the car not shutting down)?

 

[mspohr]

[QUOTE="mknox]
Remember, it's just an algorithm that tries to make a guess. We have all seen that we can get more or less range based on everything from driving style to weather. It's not like there's a tank of volatile liquid that can be measured.

My point was more about what is considered guaranteed? Tesla needs to give their customers some form of number to go by. How many percent or miles/km do you need to have left to be safe (the car not shutting down)?[/QUOTE]
Don't know that there is any "guarantee". As a rule of thumb, I try to plan on not going below 25 miles to give myself a cushion in case of bad weather, etc. I've been as low as 7 with no problems (winter but driving conservatively).

 

[David99]

Don't know that there is any "guarantee". As a rule of thumb, I try to plan on not going below 25 miles to give myself a cushion in case of bad weather, etc. I've been as low as 7 with no problems (winter but driving conservatively).

What if the car shuts down at 25 miles left? What if at 50 miles? What is the threshold when Tesla would consider to pay for the tow truck?

 

[mspohr]

What if the car shuts down at 25 miles left? What if at 50 miles? What is the threshold when Tesla would consider to pay for the tow truck?

I don't know of anyone who has reported shutdown at 25 miles.
Does any manufacturer pay for a tow truck when you run out of gas... even if their gas gauge is inaccurate?
I have no idea what Tesla's policy is... you could ask them.

 

[hiroshiy]

A couple of days ago my car shut down with 8 km of range. Towing cost were not covered by Tesla since they say that range is just an indicator. Still communicating with Tesla because in my opinion it's not normal that the car shuts down with 8 km off range. When conneted to SC charging started at 8 km. My Tesla is from 2013 and i drove 175.000 km with it and many times i had a range left <10 km. Sometimes even 0 km. Never shut down before. I's afraid this is an aging issue? Can i trust my car in the future and rely on the range indicator? It would be normal if it counts down to 0. But a sudden shut down is a very unpleasant experience.

I will let you guys know if a get an answer from Tesla on covering the towing costs.

So what kind of driving were you doing at the time of shutdown? Was it when you pressed the accelerator pedal, or you are just coasting?

My understanding is that if the voltage drops under certain threshold for a defined time period, it will shut down to prevent battery damage. I think less than 2% has sudden shutdown risk, if we drive even a little bit harder.

 

[mustafazr]

Down to 1% the other day, got to SC just fine. Scary though that people have had shut downs with non-zero miles left.

 

[Marketeer]

So what kind of driving were you doing at the time of shutdown? Was it when you pressed the accelerator pedal, or you are just coasting?

My understanding is that if the voltage drops under certain threshold for a defined time period, it will shut down to prevent battery damage. I think less than 2% has sudden shutdown risk, if we drive even a little bit harder.

The road was up hill but not that much. If it took to much energy to accelerate you would supose the computer to take over and reduces the acceleration to prevent imediate shut down. The shut down ended in a very dangerous situation on the high way with no emergency lane. The car ended between to lanes. The police had to shut down one lane and redirect traffic to avoid an accident.

You would expect the car to give a warning, so you have enough time to steer the car to a safe place.

What concerns me the most is that the battery wasn't fully unloaded. tesla confirmed it had 2% left. So you would expect that the car detects this level of energy and overrules the shut down. In stead everything went black until connected to the SC were the car started at 8 km with loading.

I drove more than 175.000 km with no concern of shutting down. I'm concerned about the aging of the battery resulting in sudden shut down with a growing inaccuracy. Now it happened at 8 km and Tesla told me on the phone that under 50 km Tesla advices to recharge. This information was to be found in the manual. But i can;t find it? So if this means that 50 km is the limit to which Tesla garantees that there will be enough power to prevent sudden shut down than we're facing a hugh problem.

Reliability of the car is very important for me.

 

[hiroshiy]

The road was up hill but not that much. If it took to much energy to accelerate you would supose the computer to take over and reduces the acceleration to prevent imediate shut down. The shut down ended in a very dangerous situation on the high way with no emergency lane. The car ended between to lanes. The police had to shut down one lane and redirect traffic to avoid an accident.

You would expect the car to give a warning, so you have enough time to steer the car to a safe place.

What concerns me the most is that the battery wasn't fully unloaded. tesla confirmed it had 2% left. So you would expect that the car detects this level of energy and overrules the shut down. In stead everything went black until connected to the SC were the car started at 8 km with loading.

I drove more than 175.000 km with no concern of shutting down. I'm concerned about the aging of the battery resulting in sudden shut down with a growing inaccuracy. Now it happened at 8 km and Tesla told me on the phone that under 50 km Tesla advices to recharge. This information was to be found in the manual. But i can;t find it? So if this means that 50 km is the limit to which Tesla garantees that there will be enough power to prevent sudden shut down than we're facing a hugh problem.

Reliability of the car is very important for me.

Thanks for the informative post. It might be that as batteries age, the range prediction algorithm might be getting off a little bit causing sudden shutdown like this. I've heard Tesloop did something to correct range prediction errors when his car had a lot of millage.

Under 50km sounds ridiculous to me.

I'm curious to see the power consumption right before shutdown... Do you happen to have TeslaLog or TeslaFi that records the power at the last minute? Agree that the range prediction should be more accurate but if there's an incline that increased power output to like 40kW then I'm sure that's going to be on a dangerous line.

 

[Marketeer]

Thanks for the informative post. It might be that as batteries age, the range prediction algorithm might be getting off a little bit causing sudden shutdown like this. I've heard Tesloop did something to correct range prediction errors when his car had a lot of millage.

Under 50km sounds ridiculous to me.

I'm curious to see the power consumption right before shutdown... Do you happen to have TeslaLog or TeslaFi that records the power at the last minute? Agree that the range prediction should be more accurate but if there's an incline that increased power output to like 40kW then I'm sure that's going to be on a dangerous line.

I don't have TeslaLog or TeslaFi. If Tesla comes back to me with additional information i could ask to get the log files from my car.

 

[David99]

So 50 km is the lower limit. In other words, subtract 50 km from your range as the risk of the car shutting down suddenly is too dangerous.

What is also really concerning is that the car shut down suddenly without a warning. With 2% left in the battery there should be at least a warning first so you can pull over safely. Really scary to think your car could shut down instantly without a warning any time you are below 50 km of range.