Consumer Reports initial test of Model S in winter chills

like I said.. I bet my bottom dollar Tesla has the data.. but they are not releasing it. because they obviously want everyone believing this is a worthy road trip car. it ain't

 

Don't feed the trolls, but if you are interested there are several rules of thumb out there. For a liquid conditioned battery like that in the Tesla S, climate should not make much of a difference. We would expect more than 95% of them to retain more than 70% after 10 years. This requires storage mode if the vehicle is being stored for a long period of time.

For Daily drives a safe distance to give is 70% of epa range, but for highest battery life I would assume normal charging to 90%. Given 30% degradation at the end of 10 years I would expect a safe daily distance of 265 x 90% x 70% x 70% or 117 miles.

It is likely that your road trip range on any given day is much higher than that. Say 5 years out if the battery has decreased to 90%, its between 45 and 85 degrees with no rain, a full charge should get you 238 miles, but you should stop and recharge with at least a safety margin of 30 miles on your battery. Range mode on climate controls and cruise control at lower speeds witll increase actual distance just like eco on the prius and lower speeds increases its mpg.

 

ok.. so estimate the battery loses 10% in 3 and half years. how about range loss by hour and temp when unplugged? there seems to be a lot of confusion on the Tesla forum about range loss when unplugged. and this was an issue with the NYT reporter.

 

when your opinion doesn't agree with someone else's its always easy to throw the troll moniker. weak.

 

just like if your PR piece in the NYT goes awry.. the reporter is a liar.

 

nothing is perfect.. but there should be ballpark numbers.. Tesla has tested this car extensively I'm sure and has a set of numbers for range loss by temp and by hour. it's a point of confusion that needs to be addressed.

I found Musk's accusations really didn't hold water so I disagree. the NYT reporter brought up some issues that Tesla should address..

 

I apologize for feeding the troll here, but ..

As I wrote earlier the rule of thumb is less than 30% loss in 10 years. The 10% in 3.5 is just one example on the roadster, YLMV, and the tesla S should be less than the roadster, but may be higher than the one example.

Zythryn and efusco answered you on cold soak loss and this is what the CR piece was all about. No body knows the exact numbers, but it should be in the the high single digits percentage wise. If you give yourself a decent safety margin on charge you should have no problem, but good practice is to plug it in. If Tesla was advising you to park outside not plugged in at -40 degrees, I would expect that they would have a table for you. I'm sure they are only testing enough to make sure the pack can protect itself without consuming too much power. You seem to want this stupid case to be the normal case. Broder and Consumer reports could easily have plugged in as can most owners.

NO one called you a troll because you have a difference of opinion. We called you a troll because you keep on making up your own facts and repeating nonsense. This is the last time I will feed you.

He seemed to exaggerate and under fill the car. These are matters of fact. He by what should have been his own calculations charged the car to barely make the trip, even though he could have stayed a short time longer to charge an additional 70 miles. Then he sped and did a cold soak to make sure he didn't make it. That is why we have a new term - brodering, deciding to under charge your car for the excitement of barely making it, or calling a tow truck. I'll use it in a sentence.

"The Consumer Reports reviewer brodered his car in the spirit of adventure, and passed up a free quick charger, but unfortunately made it to the track without needing a tow."

 

http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/includes/pdf/Panasonic_LiIon_Overview.pdf

http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/includes/pdf/ACA4000CE305-UR18650ZTA.pdf

 

here they are - the degradation numbers are right next to the ones for your gear oil degradation, and your timing chain degradation, and your spark plugs, and your catalytic converter degradation, and your oil filters, and your plug wires, and your U joints, and your CV boots and your entire ICE for that matter ... oh that's right I forgot ... you thought the ICE was degradation / maintenance free.

 

the NYT reporter passed up the charge because the car said it had enough range when it didn't. gets to my point that the car loses a lot of charge when parked overnight esp in the cold.. exactly what the NYT commented on and something a potential consumer should know about.

don't buy that TESLA needs to protect the consumer from misinterpreting the data. TESLA is a battery car so there needs to be more disclosure on the power source and performance. Yes I have to repeat myself because you guys keep repeating the same arguments. works both ways.