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Yikes! Don’t do that! If you have to leave your car unattended for a long time, charge it to 90% first - and if it’s going to be left there for more than a couple of weeks, you should find someplace where you can leave it plugged in. Hope that you didn’t trash the battery too badly.
Anyway…water under the bridge!
By all means, charge it to at least 20% (whatever you need to get home - plus at least a 10% margin) and drive it home.
BUT WHAT IF THE 12v BATTERY IS ALSO DRAINED?
You will find that the car won’t charge (and won’t even open the charge port) if the car’s computer won’t power up if the 12v battery is also drained.
That’s because to recharge the main battery, the computer has to have power - which it takes from the 12v battery if the main battery pack is literally empty.
So you’ll either need a 12v battery charger or some jump leads.
THEN IT GETS WORSE:
Worse still - if the 12v battery *is* dead (very bad news) then you won’t be able to unlock the frunk to get to the battery terminals to recharge it!
In that case, look for the small circular panel on the front bumper - pop that open, and behind it you’ll find a cable that you can attach to a 12v battery to power up the computer and allow you to pop the frunk lid - those skimpy wires aren’t able to charge the 12v battery - so once the frunk lid is open, charge it on the terminals of the battery - which you’ll find under a cover in the frunk.
RTFM:
As you can tell from my explanation - this is a tremendously futzy process, which I’ve never personally needed to resort to.
So I STRONGLY suggest you check the owner’s manual (which you can find online since your copy is presumably locked in the glove box!). I believe it describes the precise procedure - and please follow that rather than listening to some idiot on the Internet!
As that points out - it's the 12v battery being dead that causes the largest issues.
I keep mine plugged in at home anyway. The first three days I had it, I didn't have the wall connector powered, so it wasn't charging. My overnight drain was about 2%, and it got into the 20s overnight. The lowest I've had the battery thus far is around 57%. I don't foresee parking it without a charger for an extended period of time.
It's my belief many things on Quora are fake, I don't know if this is, I find it funny. Who leaves a Tesla untouched for 4 months with no trickle charger at least? Hell, I don't let my regular cars sit for an extended period.
Li-Ion batteries sure don't like going flat and nothing in that story seemed farfetched. Whether or not it actually happened is another thing... But keep your batteries between 20 & 80 percent for maximum life and minimum headaches.
It's my belief many things on Quora are fake, I don't know if this is, I find it funny. Who leaves a Tesla untouched for 4 months with no trickle charger at least? Hell, I don't let my regular cars sit for an extended period.
If you were on Tesla pages you’d be shocked these people can operate their car let alone a smart phone…
If you were on Tesla pages you’d be shocked these people can operate their car let alone a smart phone…
QFT.
Most Tesla owners on the forums, FB groups and those I've had the pleasure to meet in person are the least car-people car people. It makes you wonder how they've survived this long. Next to the non-Tesla owning Tesla-stans, these are also the most rabid.
Morgan if I knew the fuel bullshit was gonna happen...I probably would have model Y and sold off two ICE guzzlers...
maybe.
Maybe not...on principle alone I am still okay paying the price to continue to pretend we have free will. But everyone has their price.
Small update - I forgot to post this last week, but Carvana finally listed my R for sale at $39,990 (and a purchase is in progress). They're making about $3k on it before financing and all the fees.
I still miss it. Maybe I'll get another one day. But I am still enjoying the Tesla. I've got a little over 900 miles on it and I've spent about $37 on electricity, and I drive it like an asshole. I've been averaging about 320wh/mi
Small update - I forgot to post this last week, but Carvana finally listed my R for sale at $39,990 (and a purchase is in progress). They're making about $3k on it before financing and all the fees.
I still miss it. Maybe I'll get another one day. But I am still enjoying the Tesla. I've got a little over 900 miles on it and I've spent about $37 on electricity, and I drive it like an asshole. I've been averaging about 320wh/mi
Small update - I forgot to post this last week, but Carvana finally listed my R for sale at $39,990 (and a purchase is in progress). They're making about $3k on it before financing and all the ...
People are nucking futs. No offense to your old car but...
People are nucking futs. No offense to your old car but...
None taken lol. This market is insane, and it's crazy that people are willingly paying these prices for used cars. This bubble is going to hurt when it pops.
I just checked my Wh/mi on my car when I went to lunch and yours is even worse than mine. I'm sitting at ~305Wh/mi so you must really be standing on it as much as possible...as you should.
I'm worried about how long my winter tires are going to last... We're in the time of year when it's 30F with sleet in the morning and 50F and sunshine in the afternoon. Not going to swap to summers yet for obvious reasons but you sure can hear those winter tires scream for dear life when you punch it while it's warm out.
Last week was the 1 year anniversary of the Sequoia. 4874 miles driven, 480 gallons, 1694.50 spent (per Fuelly)
I appreciate the choice of thread for that update
Three days ago marked the 2 month anniversary for the 3. I still enjoy driving it. The Tesla app only looks back at the last 31 days for charging stats, but I got an app called Tessie that tracks a bunch of shit (it's cool for stats nerds like me). Unfortunately I didn't get the app until March 19th, but in that time I've driven 982 miles (1,505 miles total), charged 60 times and added 345kWh (used 364kWh) at a cost of $46.23.
I'm also averaging 316Wh/mi, which is right around 80% efficiency. I bought the Performance. I'm gonna use the Performance