Hello all,
I want to start by stating that I am by no means roadster technically knowledgeable as many on this forum are, but I do read up to stay informed and appreciate that all of you share such great information. This is a long post so please read on as I can use some your expertise.
I have owned 147 for the past 10 years. The last 3 years have seen me wait for a battery replacement after a failure occurred in the original battery and it went dead. I have been on the waitlist since then and have heard a number of stories and promises as I waited for a replacement pack to come. Imagine my excitement when last month I was told it was finally going to happen and a new "3.0" battery was developed and ready to be shipped to my local service center to be placed in my car. It of course came with the same steep $29,000 price tag, but having had a dead battery for 3 years, I jumped at the opportunity.
Reading the prior information posted here, I tried to ask several questions regarding the details on the battery and was told that information could not be shared but that I would expect a 40% increase over my original pack. I mentioned like many others the concern regarding the original 3.0 battery losing range quickly and they said that it had been addressed but could not share more information.
With the need to get 147 back on the road, I agreed and my appointment was set. I had the car towed to the service center and the installation process began. It took about a week to replace the battery and swap out a board on the PEM that was new to support the 3.0 battery (that is what I was told). I also had a TPMS warning issue that took an additional week to resolve that they were able to fix. Finally, yesterday I went to pick the car up. I spoke to the service manager (a prior roadster owner) hoping to get more information on the battery. He could provide nothing other than the added range information. He said he would see what he could find out and let me know. He told me that the displayed range would adjust once I drive it a bit and charge it.
The car was brought around to me and I had my first chance to look at the car. I looked at the display and the battery was charged to a range of 223 miles. I thought that was really low considering everything I have seen online was that the 3.0 was supposed to be closer to 320 miles. I shrugged it off to it being needed to adjust and get fully charged as the service manager mentioned. This is where I wish I was more knowledgeable about looking at the vitals of the car.
I noticed that the badging on the battery unit was not indicative of anything related to the 3.0 version which I thought I saw in prior installs and the car did not have the R80 badge applied on the back. I asked the service rep and she said they had mistakenly left it off and she went into the office and the technician who worked on the car came out and applied it.
I got in the car to drive it home, excited that it was running after 3 years of being inoperable. It has been a while, but I will say that the car did not seem as fast as it used to be and did not have they same torque acceleration that I had remembered. I got home and after several hours of it being parked, I decided it was time to put it in the garage and charge. The battery had dropped to a range of 170 miles after my driving from the service center which is a bit away from where I live. I plugged the car in expecting that it would have a good night of standard charging to get it closer to the 300 mile range.
The plug turned blue and then green. I thought to myself why would it go to green immediately as that is a full charge. I looked at the display and it said charging done. I thought is there something wrong with my cable and charger that it would think it was fully charged at 170 miles? I unplugged it, then plugged it again, same thing. This went on for about 30 minutes (I said I wasn't technical). It was already past the time that the service center was closed. I said, well maybe it is stuck in a setting from the prior charge and I would adjust the charge level to range instead of standard. The carport then changed to yellow and it began to charge.
I let it run for about 40 minutes and came inside to check these forums to see if there was any posts regarding this and then it hit me, this is not a 3.0 battery! This is an original battery pack that I was just charged $29,000 for. The car was showing fully charged at standard because it was already at 80% charged with only 170 miles of range. When I picked it up they had charged it at range mode and my drive had simply brought it back to the 80% level. I entered the service menu of the display and saw that this was the case.
My car display is now showing 190 miles of ideal range at 85% charge. I don't believe this is a 3.0 80kw battery that was installed. This battery has a CAC of 154 at 85%. I am attaching an image of the ESS display information. From what I have read on this forum, the 3.0 batteries all started with a CAC of 210 or greater. Can any of you very knowledgeable individuals confirm what I am seeing? Is there somewhere that would show me the actual battery capacity outside of this screen? I appreciate your help.
