Howdy
This may sound strange but every now and then I like to run the SOC down near to 0%. Firstly to understand how the car and battery behave near empty, and secondly because the theoretical 0% and actual 0% can drift in time unless the computer gets a chance to experience a real empty.
Rafa (of round the world in 80 days in a Roadster fame) recently said himself that he felt his Roadster was benefiting from him driving it down to near empty on his long trips. The previous times I've ran it to 0% all has gone to plan and I got expected range and predictable behaviour.
Ok, so I took a drive last weekend and was down to 6% SOC when I lost power. I could coast off the highway and up the off-ramp, then down a large hill regenerating and up another before having to pull off. SOC was definitely at 5% then (OVMS confirmed) but the car was not wanting to move. Headlights etc all worked fine. About 1 minute later SOC snapped to 0%.
So I got to call for the first time ever Tesla Assistance (in my case here in Spain that's a UK number). They were great, and within an hour a special sportscar capable flatbed was with me. I was only 1km from home so the rest was easy and the car recharged just fine taking in 32A straight off as soon as I put it to charge.
This last point is a weird one... in theory if it really is empty it would charge at 7A and then 10A etc. Taking 32A from 0% SOC doesn't make sense to me or to my Ranger (logs have been analyzed and no anomalies have come up).
Ok, so here's my lesson from this:
1) When SOC drops below 10% and it says "Range Uncertain", it means it. I should have gotten 35kms but I had only done 15kms or so when it cut power.
2) Don't go fast or floor it during low SOC. Even though it is Power Limited it is still not good to draw heavily from the empty pack (I confess I did step on it a little)
3) Tesla Assistance is excellent.
I must confess I am a little less confident about doing a full 350km or more on a charge now but if the worst case is that you get flatbedded to your destination, and it works as well as it did, then big deal right!?
Cheers
Mark
This may sound strange but every now and then I like to run the SOC down near to 0%. Firstly to understand how the car and battery behave near empty, and secondly because the theoretical 0% and actual 0% can drift in time unless the computer gets a chance to experience a real empty.
Rafa (of round the world in 80 days in a Roadster fame) recently said himself that he felt his Roadster was benefiting from him driving it down to near empty on his long trips. The previous times I've ran it to 0% all has gone to plan and I got expected range and predictable behaviour.
Ok, so I took a drive last weekend and was down to 6% SOC when I lost power. I could coast off the highway and up the off-ramp, then down a large hill regenerating and up another before having to pull off. SOC was definitely at 5% then (OVMS confirmed) but the car was not wanting to move. Headlights etc all worked fine. About 1 minute later SOC snapped to 0%.
So I got to call for the first time ever Tesla Assistance (in my case here in Spain that's a UK number). They were great, and within an hour a special sportscar capable flatbed was with me. I was only 1km from home so the rest was easy and the car recharged just fine taking in 32A straight off as soon as I put it to charge.
This last point is a weird one... in theory if it really is empty it would charge at 7A and then 10A etc. Taking 32A from 0% SOC doesn't make sense to me or to my Ranger (logs have been analyzed and no anomalies have come up).
Ok, so here's my lesson from this:
1) When SOC drops below 10% and it says "Range Uncertain", it means it. I should have gotten 35kms but I had only done 15kms or so when it cut power.
2) Don't go fast or floor it during low SOC. Even though it is Power Limited it is still not good to draw heavily from the empty pack (I confess I did step on it a little)
3) Tesla Assistance is excellent.
I must confess I am a little less confident about doing a full 350km or more on a charge now but if the worst case is that you get flatbedded to your destination, and it works as well as it did, then big deal right!?
Cheers
Mark
