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Is this normal?!

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Look at the following pic:
516ee9ba1c6106fd484b3c34077eec18.jpg

I am 5km from Kingston SC with 10km left. All of a sudden, I get this message and another one about the 12v battery being low. Both screens went off right away and I'm on the side of the 401. I'm freezing here. Just called Tesla and waiting...
 
Probably due to cold weather. Our 10 km is like 4km. I try to look at the approximate range 50km compared to what range the car tells me I have left. Especially when it's cold my 334 km is like 170km.
Good luck and stay warm. Your in my greatest fear.

Look at the following pic:
516ee9ba1c6106fd484b3c34077eec18.jpg

I am 5km from Kingston SC with 10km left. All of a sudden, I get this message and another one about the 12v battery being low. Both screens went off right away and I'm on the side of the 401. I'm freezing here. Just called Tesla and waiting...
 
Sorry to hear this happened to you, but I have heard of this happening to others when the battery gets low. Some people seem to be able to go several miles beyond "zero" while others see the car shut down like this with some miles still showing. Remember that the range estimator is just that... an estimate.
 
Sorry to hear that, Khalid. Let us know how it turned out - did you get a tow to the supercharger? Did Tesla say why it shut down before 0km?

The --- for the temperature is interesting. Maybe the system had already started shutting down non-essential components, or maybe the thermometer failed because of low 12V voltage.
 
When main contactor is opened the exterior temperature displays "---" like in your picture. There is something clearly different lately with the last software. I did do 16km past 0 in November 2013, first day with the car in -15C with little experience with cold weather and ICEd charging station I planned to use to increase my buffer... Made it, but I wouldn't trust that anymore anything bellow 10km should be avoided it seems...

Good luck iKhalid...
 
Sorry to hear this.

I've only ever arrived at a destination with 7% remaining as my lowest, my wife never arrives with less 30%.
7% on our car is 30 km.

First one was one week into ownership (of our CPO) on our Toronto to New York road trip on the return leg in warm weather. I was pushing it (using lots of energy) for the last 20 km of the trip to see what the car would report. It was the 6.x UI and there weren't too many warnings or concerning details on the screen. Arrived in the garage at 7%. More than 1000 km with the whole range anxiety thing a topic to be never discussed again as far as the family was concerned.

The second time we arrived with 7% battery (yellow on estimate screen) was a few weeks ago and the warnings on 7.0 UI were much more effusive, and I got the "look" from my passengers, so I slowed down to make them more comfortable.

My Smart ED reacts similar to the Tesla, in that it has a dash gauge for available power (three bars), whereas the Tesla uses the yellow dotted line. Once you get to two bars out of three, make sure you're within 10 km of home. Good luck when you get down to one bar, you'd better be downhill to your destination.
 
Thanks guys and sorry for the delay in updating you. I've been so busy with work and all.

So I was waiting for the towing truck and got multiple calls from Tesla's technical support that a truck is coming in 3 hours from Toronto! I explained that I was freezing there and there must be trucks close to where I am. The tech insisted that I'm in the middle of nowhere and I replied that I'm in a city called Kingston; it even got a well known university! After a few back-and-forth calls and more than an hour of wait, he was able to locate a towing company that is 10 minutes away, but he warned me that this towing company doesn't have any experience with Tesla whatsoever, I replied that I'm fine with that as long as I'm not waiting for 3 more hours in -15C. So I went out of the car and removed the nosecone; it was my first time but thanks to YouTube. I also booked a hotel room as instructed to be able to rest and get a rental in the morning to continue to Ottawa.

After a total wait of around 1.5 hour the truck was there. The guy from the towing company was grumpy and was not happy about getting instructions regarding Tesla's specifics. He was also very paranoied that it is a $100k car and he doens't want to be held responsible if something goes wrong, blah blah blah... He boosted the 12v battery and the screens went ON. I tried to enable the towing mode but the car refused since it is supposed to turn ON, but due to insufficient power it didn't. The screens went OFF again and the guy claimed he doesn't have enough power to boost it again. After a few minutes of more of his grumpiness and paranoia he decided to install those little wheels under my car and tow it for a short distance to the SC instead of the service center in Toronto, since it is safer than the highway anyway. So we arrived at the SC and he didn't mind boosting the 12v battery again this time (I thought he got no more power!!) to be able to unlock the charging port to try to charge it.

Surprisingly the car started charging and the 12v battery error went away. Before he left he asked me to pay for the tow. I called Tesla and they wanted to give him their credit card number but he refused and claimed he is unable to take payments over the phone. Tesla asked me to pay him and they will reimburse me later. (I could've used my CAA membership for a better experience)

Anyway, Tesla asked me to go to the hotel after I charge the car so they can ask the service center to diagnose the car at 7:00AM. I refused to drive it at first but he insisted that the 12v battery is healthy and is giving a good 14v. In the morning a guy from the service center assured me that I can drive it to Ottawa so I did, since I was really late for work.
I asked Tesla for clarification on why something like this happen if the 12v battery is "healthy", and they promised to provide me with an answer from the engineering team, but I haven't heard from them until now. What happened is still a mystery to me! The fact that I can't trust my car anymore is frustrating. I was able to drive way past 0% before, but now it shuts down with 2% left... :(

I will be driving back to Mississauga tonight and I hope things go smoothly this time...
 
Doug

Just wondering if 12V battery had failed how does it matter having 30km safety margin?

Thanks

You misunderstood my post. Most likely the problem was caused by the main pack running out of juice, so I repeated my usual recommendation of the 30 km safety margin. However there was a possibility that there was a real problem with his 12V system that just happened to occur while the main pack was low.

Just a guess... given the slightly odd behavior, it kinda sounds like the main pack ran out of juice a little faster than the onboard systems expected. Maybe because of the cold.
 
Thanks for the update, Khalid. Sorry to hear it was such a hassle. I guess the lesson is call Tesla, but if they aren't helpful, call your own tow truck and walk them through the Tesla specifics (and then send them away and call another if they don't seem helpful). And if your car is dying with a low battery, pull over and put it into Tow Mode if you can before it dies completely.
 
So I was waiting for the towing truck and got multiple calls from Tesla's technical support that a truck is coming in 3 hours from Toronto! I explained that I was freezing there and there must be trucks close to where I am. The tech insisted that I'm in the middle of nowhere and I replied that I'm in a city called Kingston; it even got a well known university!

Had the same problem when my main contactors failed last winter. For the life of them, they couldn't find Cambridge on the map. I had to talk them through finding Toronto, then Hwy 401 and trace them to my location. Minimum 3 hour wait and it was freezing. The Service Center folks were frustrated as well saying that Tesla really needs to get more "authorized" towing companies in Canada. I'm keeping my CAA membership.
 
I asked Tesla for clarification on why something like this happen if the 12v battery is "healthy", and they promised to provide me with an answer from the engineering team, but I haven't heard from them until now. What happened is still a mystery to me! The fact that I can't trust my car anymore is frustrating. I was able to drive way past 0% before, but now it shuts down with 2% left... :(

Thanks for the update!

Basically its simple, your pack decided that it was too low of charge (the only issue here is the the dash display saying there were some 2% left). Once the pack shutdown (for protection) it stops supporting the 12V battery which runs out rather quickly (minutes). Once at the SC, with a booster pack on the 12V you allowed the contactor to re-close and then once the HV battery charged back it restarted to support the 12V. You are 100% safe to return to Mississauga.

The issue now is to have a better estimate of Wh left in the battery for next time... Maybe the estimate KM left was off for some reason (many short trips, charging back to 90%). I guess doing 100% down to 10% and charging back should reset the estimate.