Any hot climate (Arizona, Texas, Nevada) roadsters users here? I would like to know what level of battery degradation are you seeing after a year or two driving this car? Over at My Nissan Leaf forum, a storm is brewing because early Leaf drivers are seeing 15% battery loss after only a year of ownership. Many people are attributing this to the hot climate (Southwest US desert areas), and the fact that Leaf does not actively cool/heat its battery. Tesla probably does not have this problem due to its thermal management system, but with the 100F+ Arizona weather, you never know. So has any roadster users lost more than 15% of battery/range after owning the car for less than 2 years.
Summer temps May-Oct 90-100F consistently, occasionally up to 105'ish. 13 months ownership, 8,000 miles, no degradation. Actually I used to get charge numbers in the high 180's but lately I've been getting 192-194.
Please consider sending your data here: Roadster Owner Based Study of Battery Pack Capacity Over Time If people add climate information I can make a chart of that.
My Roadster is a little over 3 years old and has been in Houston almost 2-1/2 years and I have seen no degradation. Houston is hot and humid for 5-6 months of the year. The temperatures rarely get above 100 degrees but are often in the mid to high 90s.
And as a counterpoint, my Roadster is a little under 3 years old, it has lived in Seattle all its life, and I hit 10% degradation by 2.5 years old. So it looks like heat is not a primary determinant. (My data is not in Rich's study due to an odd format issue in my logs).
I park outside in the sun in 110 degree F days for 2 months during summer. The cars interior gets extremely hot and the pavement will radiate heat upwards of 140 F. I know the S's battery has active cooling but heat invoked premature battery degradation is a concern. Are there no roadster owners from AZ on here? Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2