Massive battery drain at airport during 3 week trip

[ozweepay]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find anything.

I left my 85D with 160 miles of charge remaining, three weeks ago in the covered garage parking at the airport. When I returned I went to turn on the heat in the car using the Android app, only to find that it had just 19 miles of range remaining (and I couldn't turn on the heat because of this).

I have done some web searching and my understanding is that a parked Tesla should lose only a small amount of charge per day while parked. But I lost almost the full battery in 3 weeks.

Is this normal? What should I have done instead?

(Note: temps were around 0F some nights while I was away, if that matters)

 

[Btrflyl8e]

For temps that low it doesn't seem that unusual to lose about 7-8 miles a day.

 

[ecarfan]

I left my 85D with 160 miles of charge remaining, three weeks ago in the covered garage parking at the airport. When I returned I went to turn on the heat in the car using the Android app, only to find that it had just 19 miles of range remaining (and I couldn't turn on the heat because of this)...I have done some web searching and my understanding is that a parked Tesla should lose only a small amount of charge per day while parked. But I lost almost the full battery in 3 weeks.
Is this normal? What should I have done instead?

So the car sat unplugged for 21 days and the range decreased from 160 to 19, which is 6.7 miles/day of range loss. I would say that is not unusual.

You parked your car with the battery at about 60%. That is a lot less than "almost full", as you wrote.

So what happened? Did you find a place at the airport to charge up enough to get home?

 

[Great Dane]

The Car will use a lot of battery power (even when parked)
to stop the batteries from freezing..

 

[mblakele]

Did you have the settings "energy saving" on, and "always connected" off?

 

[David99]

Are you using a service like teslafi.com or teslalog.com? Those ping the car all the time and prevent it from going to 'sleep'. Turing off always connected and enabling energy saving mode helps a lot. It might also help to disable remote access altogether.

 

[Ryan MF]

Did you have the settings "energy saving" on, and "always connected" off?

Key things would be to turn "always connected" off. I would assume you would do that if you were traveling but this would make a huge difference in vampire miles used.

 

[gaswalla]

A dashcam uses constant energy too. Don't you have one l

 

[Barry]

If you just got back, we had the coldest day in 2 years earlier in the week. it went down to -7F.
Why would you leave your car at the airport for 3 weeks? Wouldn't it be cheaper to take Uber?

 

[patrick40363]

No place to plug in at the airport?

 

[ozweepay]

Answers to the above: energy saver is on, always-connected is on. I have no dashcam or any other add-ons. No web services pinging the car.

I had (wrongly?) assumed that always-connected was not a huge drain since it is (roughly) a cell-phone connection and surely the Tesla could power a cell-phone for 3 weeks without much trouble?!

I am not an expert Tesla owner. I naively thought I could park it with 4x the range I needed and I could still make it home when I returned. Instead I had to leave it at the airport and take a cab home.

 

[MX458Dave]

Were you at DIA? I think they have plug spots. Also, would you not make it to the supercharger down the road with the 19 miles range? I could have made this mistake myself, so I'm learning from you now. Sorry that happened. What did you do in the end to get your vehicle?

 

[sdorn]

I never go to the airport without plugging in. There are off-site lots with plenty of 110v outlets near Atlanta's airport, and you can leave it plugged in the whole time you are gone. That is definitely the way to go.

 

[TexasEV]

Answers to the above: energy saver is on, always-connected is on. I have no dashcam or any other add-ons. No web services pinging the car.

I had (wrongly?) assumed that always-connected was not a huge drain since it is (roughly) a cell-phone connection and surely the Tesla could power a cell-phone for 3 weeks without much trouble?!.

It's not a matter of cell phone power. It's that the systems in the car never get to go into a deep sleep (meaning less vampire drain) when it's always connected.

 

[gregd]

With 19 miles of range left, was the car not drivable? I'm perplexed by the need to take a taxi.

Presumably there was some place within 19 miles you could find to get a charge, even a painfully slow one, or at least park it a whole lot cheaper than at the airport until you can arrange for a mobile charge or flatbed tow.

 

[ozweepay]

This is at DIA. The only charging stations I've seen are in the garage parking (never seen anything in the economy areas). I did attempt to park at a charger 3 weeks ago, but they were all taken, so I parked nearby but without plugging in.

I would have made it to the supercharger, yes, but I needed to be home within an hour of landing (long story involving my kids) so I didn't have time to do that. So I grabbed a cab.

I went back the next day with a friend, we made it to the Denver SC and spent an hour getting to 70mi range (the battery must have been VERY cold to charge this slowly?) then easily made it home.

Not sure I will ever take the Tesla to the airport again... I can't afford to be stuck when I come home and there is no guarantee you can plug in at DIA.

 

[sdorn]

Here you go. This place will make sure your car gets charged while you are gone.

Free EV recharging stations at Canopy Airport Parking

 

[ozweepay]

If you just got back, we had the coldest day in 2 years earlier in the week. it went down to -7F.
Why would you leave your car at the airport for 3 weeks? Wouldn't it be cheaper to take Uber?

I had no idea it got that cold recently!

Yes, Uber would have been cheaper. I wasn't thinking straight when I left. The client pays for my travel, but I prefer to save them money whenever I can and Uber would have made a lot more sense for a trip as long as it was.

Plus I wouldn't have had such a bad shock when I returned and found my car battery nearly dead.

 

[evp]

Here you go. This place will make sure your car gets charged while you are gone.

Free EV recharging stations at Canopy Airport Parking

Seconded. The Denver Electric Vehicle Council did a tour at Canopy a few months back. they showed us the chargers. Nice place. They'll drive your car over to the charger before you get back and fill it up. You don't get to hog the charger for 3 weeks, but I'm guessing you're OK with that.

 

[rw86347]

This is at DIA. The only charging stations I've seen are in the garage parking (never seen anything in the economy areas). I did attempt to park at a charger 3 weeks ago, but they were all taken, so I parked nearby but without plugging in.

I would have made it to the supercharger, yes, but I needed to be home within an hour of landing (long story involving my kids) so I didn't have time to do that. So I grabbed a cab.

I went back the next day with a friend, we made it to the Denver SC and spent an hour getting to 70mi range (the battery must have been VERY cold to charge this slowly?) then easily made it home.

Not sure I will ever take the Tesla to the airport again... I can't afford to be stuck when I come home and there is no guarantee you can plug in at DIA.

Canopy parking (in Denver) has free charging, and lots of chargers.