I took delivery of my Model S last Tuesday, I drove it to work Tuesday & Wednesday. Wednesday evening when I got home from work I parked outside & plugged the car in to a 110v outlet. Thursday I woke up to a big snowfall so I drove the SUV to work (no snow tires on the S yet). Checking the iPhone app it was saying I was getting 0 km/hr of charging which I assumed to be a bug or communication problem with the app. Unfortunately when I got home Thursday evening I found this was indeed correct, the car itself was showing 0 km/hr of charging & in fact the battery had lost 2 km of range despite being plugged in for almost 24 hours. It was cold that day, -14°C (7°F), but not extreme. It took until mid-Friday for the car to start accumulating 'distance' and the car's still plugged in now, Sunday evening, still trickling along at 2km/hr. In an e-mail with someone from Tesla I was told "110v is just enough to keep the battery warm", a very different message than what Tesla is publicly advertising:
Tesla Charging | Tesla Motors
Below is a picture from Thursday evening after the car had been plugged in for almost 24 hours. You can see the charge rate as well as the exterior temperature. I was a bit surprised to find that the battery took so long to warm up on 110v, especially after it had been parked indoors in a heated garage at work. If it truly does take a full day for the battery to achieve some internal temperature then that feedback should be provided on-screen or on the app. For the car to sit there for a full day appearing to do nothing is pretty disconcerting. The effects of temperature on charging need to be clearly communicated so there aren't any surprises when it comes to trip planning.
Tesla Charging | Tesla Motors
Below is a picture from Thursday evening after the car had been plugged in for almost 24 hours. You can see the charge rate as well as the exterior temperature. I was a bit surprised to find that the battery took so long to warm up on 110v, especially after it had been parked indoors in a heated garage at work. If it truly does take a full day for the battery to achieve some internal temperature then that feedback should be provided on-screen or on the app. For the car to sit there for a full day appearing to do nothing is pretty disconcerting. The effects of temperature on charging need to be clearly communicated so there aren't any surprises when it comes to trip planning.