I've seen several postings like this one on Ebay: Tesla Roadster Tesla | eBay . The cars are always salvage titles from some state out West and all show a car in perfect condition but with a battery pack that needs "rebuilt". Are these scams or can this really happen? In the case of the latter, how can it happen? Is there a flaw in the Roadster design that a battery pack can just die and need replaced, and does it happen with enough frequency to worry about when buying a used Roadster? I'm wandering if this indicates a problem that should scare me away from a Roadster purchase, or represents a potential avenue to get a Roadster at a more affordable price.
If you let the Roadster battery run completely flat you will damage the cells. Since the pack has thousands of cells, and no way to repair / replace them individually, you basically have to replace all the battery sheets. $$$
To add to Doug ' s comment a Roaster due to its design one can "brick" a battery. Just sitting there the battery loses about a mile per day. So if you stored your car for 6 months and it was not plugged in or there was a power failure or a breaker tripped one can destroy a battery. Several have done this. One sad story was a person lent his car to a museum for 6 months to come back to find a tripped breaker and a dead battery.
Wow, I had no idea that could happen. When that happens does any other damage occur to the electronics? If not, a $35k price tag seems like a steal, assuming the battery replacements are running around $20k (which is what I thought I read).
The damage from full discharge is to the cells themselves, the electronics would be fine. That said, I've seen battery replacement costs in the $40k range including installation.
I'm aware of one fellow who paid a $38k bill paid to replace a fully bricked Roadster battery, including installation. He had plugged it in but forgot to push the little slider on the connector, then left for six months.
Links relevant to the original media frenzy: Do you know that you must keep your battery charged? Tesla Battery 'Bricking': The Real Story Behind The Scare