Lithium 12v battery.

[Oldrocky]

There's another aspect to Lithium batteries that hasn't been mentioned. When they run out of
charge they do so "all at once". You get almost all of the energy out of them that has been
stored - but they drop from 'full' voltage to essentially zero voltage in a big hurry. Do the
Teslas warn you properly about the 12v (lithium) battery failing or will it be a 'surprise'?
- Jim in PNW

 

[jcanoe]

Maybe there should be a secondary 12V power source, like the Terminator.

 

[LoudMusic]

There's another aspect to Lithium batteries that hasn't been mentioned. When they run out of
charge they do so "all at once". You get almost all of the energy out of them that has been
stored - but they drop from 'full' voltage to essentially zero voltage in a big hurry. Do the
Teslas warn you properly about the 12v (lithium) battery failing or will it be a 'surprise'?
- Jim in PNW

There is still a voltage drop throughout use and as they near empty but are still functional. It is certainly more abrupt than other chemistries, but it is measurable and observable and can be acted upon before it's "too late".

As for Teslas being able to warn you about it, I'm not sure if there currently is programming for it, but it wouldn't be difficult to modify the routine. The car is actively monitoring the 12v battery voltage. It would just need to have some logic around the way lithium behaves and alert appropriately. That's like an hour of research for an intern

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Correct, an average or slightly below average intern could easily develop and test all the code required to flawlessly manage the 12V lithium system in less than an hour.

But then again, it would have only taken 20 minutes to get the lead-acid algorithm correct…