Tesla's Major Design Flaw May Cost You $40,000

[emmettlodge]

From Jalopnik.

http://jalopnik.com/5887265/tesla-mo...design-problem

Tesla Motors’ Devastating Design Problem

Tesla Motors' lineup of all-electric vehicles — its existing Roadster, almost certainly its impending Model S, and possibly its future Model X — apparently suffer from a severe limitation that can largely destroy the value of the vehicle. If the battery is ever totally discharged, the owner is left with what Tesla describes as a "brick": a completely immobile vehicle that cannot be started or even pushed down the street. The only known remedy is for the owner to pay Tesla approximately $40,000 to replace the entire battery. Unlike practically every other modern car problem, neither Tesla's warranty nor typical car insurance policies provide any protection from this major financial loss. Here's how it happens.

Despite this "brick" scenario having occurred several times already, Tesla has publicly downplayed the severity of battery depletion risk to both existing owners and future buyers. Privately though, Tesla has gone to great lengths to prevent this potentially brand-destroying incident from happening more often, including possibly engaging in GPS tracking of a vehicle without the owner's knowledge. UPDATE!

NOTE (UPDATED!): The argument outlined in this story by Michael DeGusta that originally appeared on theunderstatement.com has been confirmed by Tesla. — Ed.

How To Brick An Electric Car

A Tesla Roadster that is simply parked without being plugged in will eventually become a "brick". The parasitic load from the car's always-on subsystems continually drains the battery and if the battery's charge is ever totally depleted, it is essentially destroyed. Complete discharge can happen even when the car is plugged in if it isn't receiving sufficient current to charge, which can be caused by something as simple as using an extension cord. After battery death, the car is completely inoperable. At least in the case of the Tesla Roadster, it's not even possible to enable tow mode, meaning the wheels will not turn and the vehicle cannot be pushed nor transported to a repair facility by traditional means.

The amount of time it takes an unplugged Tesla to die varies. Tesla's Roadster Owners Manual [Full Zipped PDF] states that the battery should take approximately 11 weeks of inactivity to completely discharge [Page 5-2, Column 3: PDF]. However, that is from a full 100% charge. If the car has been driven first, say to be parked at an airport for a long trip, that time can be substantially reduced. If the car is driven to nearly its maximum range and then left unplugged, it could potentially "brick" in about one week.[1] Many other scenarios are possible: for example, the car becomes unplugged by accident, or is unwittingly plugged into an extension cord that is defective or too long.

When a Tesla battery does reach total discharge, it cannot be recovered and must be entirely replaced. Unlike a normal car battery, the best-case replacement cost of the Tesla battery is currently at least $32,000, not including labor and taxes that can add thousands more to the cost.

Tesla Motors' Devastating Design ProblemFive Examples And Counting

Of the approximately 2,200 Roadsters sold to date, a regional service manager for Tesla stated he was personally aware of at least five cases of Tesla Roadsters being "bricked" due to battery depletion. It is unknown if there are additional cases in other regions or countries.

The 340th Tesla Roadster produced went to a customer in Santa Barbara, California. In 2011, he took his Roadster out for a drive and then parked it in a temporary garage while his home was being renovated. Lacking a built-in Tesla charger or a convenient power outlet, he left the car unplugged. Six weeks later his car was dead. It took four men two hours to drag the 2,700-pound Roadster onto a flatbed truck so that it could be shipped to Tesla's Los Angeles area service center, all at the owner's expense. A service manager then informed him that "it's a brick" and that the battery would cost approximately $40,000 to replace. He was further told that this was a special "friends and family" price, strongly implying that Tesla generally charges more.

As a second Roadster owner discovered, the Tesla battery system can completely discharge even when the vehicle is plugged in. This owner's car was plugged into a 100-foot long extension cord for an extended period. The length of this extension cord evidently reduced the electric current to a level insufficient to charge the Tesla, resulting in another "bricked" Roadster.

A third bricked Tesla Roadster apparently sits in its owner's garage in Newport Beach, California. That owner allegedly had a similar prior incident with a BMW-produced electric vehicle. He claimed BMW replaced that vehicle, but Tesla refuses to do the same. The owner either couldn't afford or didn't want to pay Tesla the $40,000 (or more) to fix his car.

A fourth customer shipped his Tesla Roadster to Japan, reportedly only to discover the voltages there were incompatible. By then, it was too late, the car was bricked, and he had to ship it back to the US for repairs.

The whereabouts and circumstances of the fifth bricked Roadster the Tesla service manager expressed knowledge of are unknown.

No Warranty, No Insurance, No Payment Plan

Tesla has a "bumper to bumper" warranty [Page 3: PDF], but the warranty text allows Tesla to hold the owner responsible for any damage related to "Failure to maintain the Battery at a proper charge level at all times" - the meaning of "proper charge" doesn't appear to be specifically defined. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Vice President of Sales & Ownership Experience George Blankenship, and Vice President of Worldwide Service J. Joost de Vries all became directly involved in at least one "brick" situation, with de Vries stating in writing that since Tesla's documentation and warranty "identify in clear language to keep the Roadster on external power when parked" the decision to decline any warranty or financial relief was "correct and justified".[2]

Unfortunately for current and future Tesla owners who encounter this problem, it's also not covered by normal automobile insurance policies. This makes the situation almost unique in modern car-ownership: a $40,000 or more exposure that cannot be insured. After all, car insurance is designed to protect owners and drivers even when they are neglectful or at fault. The affected customers probably would have been in a better financial situation if they'd accidentally rolled their Teslas off a cliff, as insurance would generally cover much of those costs.

Due to Tesla batteries naturally decaying over time, Tesla offered Roadster customers a $12,000 "battery replacement program". This program is intended to replace a Roadster battery with a new one seven years after purchase. When asked, the Tesla service manager said even if owners had paid in advance for this replacement battery program, they would not be allowed to use it to replace an accidentally discharged battery - they would have to pay the full $40,000-plus cost.[3]

The Santa Barbara owner was also informed that no other financing or payment plan would be made available to pay for the replacement battery, and that he needed to either pay in full or remove his dead vehicle from the Tesla service center as soon as possible.

Tesla Motors' Devastating Design ProblemUnderstated Warnings to Owners

With such a large price tag for a bricked vehicle, it would be reasonable to expect Tesla to go to great lengths to ensure their customers were fully aware of the severity of battery discharge. Instead it seems that Tesla, while working to make it clear their vehicles should always be left plugged in, also appears to have focused on trying not to spook their current and future customers about the potentially severe ramifications of complete battery discharge.

The Tesla Roadster Owners Manual begins with several "Important Notes About Your Vehicle" [Page 1-2: PDF], none of which make any mention of battery discharge. In Chapter 5 of the manual, where vehicle charging is addressed, Tesla states that the vehicle is "designed to be plugged in" and that allowing the charge level to fall to 0% "can permanently damage the Battery." [Page 5-2: PDF] It does not specify that a completely discharged battery may need to be replaced, entirely at the owner's expense, at a cost that could be the majority of the value of the vehicle.

Tesla did begin handing out a "Battery Reminder Card" [PDF] when a Roadster was brought in for servicing. However, the card gently and cheerfully prods owners to "Remember - a connected Roadster is a happy Roadster!" with no mention of the possible consequences of a complete discharge.

There is no warning regarding battery discharge on the actual power port of the vehicle itself, where a gas-powered car often contains warnings about issues like the use of leaded gasoline in an unleaded vehicle. There is also no warning on the power port or in the Roadster Owner's manual regarding the use of extension cords.

What About The Model S?

It's not just the Roadster - Tesla's service manager stated the upcoming Model S definitely shares the Roadster's discharge problem, describing it as fundamental to the battery technology. Another Tesla employee concurred, saying it would be "neglect" to leave the vehicle unplugged when it's parked. This fits with statements by Kurt Kelty, Tesla's Director of Battery Technology, that the Model S uses the same battery technology as the Roadster. Yet on Tesla's Model S "Facts" page under "Charging", potential buyers are presented with only the lenient guideline that "Tesla recommends plugging your Model S in each night or when convenient."

Assuming the Model S has the same battery vulnerability as the Roadster, Tesla's Model S FAQ is woefully incomplete at best. In the FAQ, Tesla explicitly addresses the question of what happens when their car is parked and not charging:

If Model S is parked and not charging, will the battery lose its charge?
Loss of charge at rest is minimal. For example, Model S owners can park at the airport for extended vacations without plugging in.

That's the answer in its entirety - nothing at all about the eventual, inevitable, catastrophic battery failure that the Tesla service manager seemed certain of.

Even the minimal loss of charge statement is highly suspect. The Roadster's owner manual [Page 5-2, Column 3: PDF] states that a fully charged car can be expected to lose 50% of its charge in just 7 days, clearly not a "minimal" amount. As far as leaving the car for an "extended vacation", the manual [Page 5-3, Column 1: PDF] actually states that vehicles left for more than two weeks should not only be plugged in, but plugged into a special $1,950 (plus installation) Tesla High Power Connector that is not generally available at airports or elsewhere at present. Additionally, leaving a Tesla Roadster at the airport for an extended vacation would seemingly invalidate the warranty which says the battery "should never remain continuously unplugged for an extended period of time, regardless of the state of charge" [Page 5, Column 2: PDF] - practically the exact opposite of Tesla's Model S FAQ answer.

The Model S battery could be very different from that of the Roadster. If so, however, this would mean not only that the Tesla employees are wrong, but that Tesla has made radical improvements in these areas but has decided not to actively promote them or even mention them prominently on their website. Barring that improbable scenario, Tesla's marketing appears to be less than entirely forthcoming on this key issue.

Tesla's Unorthodox Prevention Measures

While customer and marketing communication about charging are focused on gentle reminders, behind the scenes Tesla has seemingly been scrambling to try to ensure existing owners don't "brick" their cars.

After the first 500 Roadsters, Tesla added a remote monitoring system to the vehicles, connecting through AT&T's GSM-based cellular network. Tesla uses this system to monitor various vehicle metrics including the battery charge levels, as long as the vehicle has the GSM connection activated[4] and is within range of AT&T's network. According to the Tesla service manager, Tesla has used this information on multiple occasions to proactively telephone customers to warn them when their Roadster's battery was dangerously low.

In at least one case, Tesla went even further. The Tesla service manager admitted that, unable to contact an owner by phone, Tesla remotely activated a dying vehicle's GPS to determine its location and then dispatched Tesla staff to go there. It is not clear if Tesla had obtained this owner's consent to allow this tracking[5], or if the owner is even aware that his vehicle had been tracked. Further, the service manager acknowledged that this use of tracking was not something they generally tell customers about.

Going to these lengths could be seen as customer service, but it would also seem to fit with an internal awareness at Tesla of the gravity of the "bricking" problem, and the potentially disastrous public relations and sales fallout that could result from it becoming more broadly known.

Coming Soon: More Customers, More Problems

Tesla produced 2,500 Roadsters, but it plans to make 25,000 Model S vehicles by the end of 2013. This vastly increases the possible number of accidental "bricking" incidents. At the same time, the Model S pricing starts at $49,900 (after US tax incentives), broadening the market to households of far more modest means than the owners of the $109,000 and up Roadster. This in turn makes it even less likely that Tesla buyers will have the necessary tens of thousands of dollars to spare if they ever allow their battery to fully discharge.

Tesla has officially stated that "it is impossible to accurately forecast the cost of future battery replacements", but the Tesla service manager said he expected the Model S battery to cost even more than the Roadster's. If true, it would mean that a Model S battery failure could essentially render the car valueless.

Tesla is actively targeting the mass market, with CEO Elon Musk recently touting the Model X as "the killer app for families." But as things stand today, families who fail to keep their car charged could end up unexpectedly forced to continue making payments on an inoperable and worthless vehicle. That would be a killer.

The Bottom Line

Tesla Motors is a public company that's valued at over $3.5 billion and has received $465 million in US government loans, all on the back of the promise that it can deliver a real world, all-electric car to the mainstream market. Yet today, in my opinion, Tesla seems to be knowingly selling cars that can turn into bricks without any financial protection for the customer.

Until there's a fundamental change in Tesla's technology, it would seem the only other option for Tesla is to help its customers insure against this problem. As consumers become aware that a Tesla is possibly just a long trip, a bad extension cord, or an accidental unplugging away from disaster, how many will choose to gamble $40,000 on that not happening? Would you?

[six_banger]

Good thing i would never buy an electric car. I dont want to live in a world where cars sound like microwaves anyway.

[someguy123]

40k to replace the battery?

[Prail11]

Can you say screwed?

Why the hell wouldn't they program some kind of failsafe at critical charge to shut down everything to prevent this? Surely the fix for the electrical subsystems would be cheaper than replacing the entire battery?

[Professor Gascan]

Just finished reading this. Very interesting.

For the ADD crowd: If a Tesla Roadster or Model S (apparently) reaches absolutely zero charge, the battery + car become a door stop. Replacement will not be covered by warranty, is not insurable, and will cost you approximately $40000.

[Impeccable]

Gimme a LEAF

[rbloedow]

This isn't anything really new. The same thing can happen to any new Hybrid. I ran out if gas once in my Prius, and had to coast around on the battery - the dash throws up all kinds of warnings about the detriment of draining the battery.

[someguy123]

Gimme a LEAF

Battery replacement for the LEAF was around ~12k.

[GrayMarauder]

seems like a hell of a problem to release the car with a serious flaw like this.

I understand that batteries do have "life" in them, but at the same time, I've learned that before releasing any product, it should be idiot-proofed to the best of your ability.

It always seems like no matter what, the consumer is always stupid enough to have something dire happen, even if the product wasn't designed to fail in that manner.

I am just surprised it's not warrantied or insurable.

[ValveCoverGasket]

Very interesting.

indeed.

ive never heard of a battery that completely dies after going flat once

i wonder if this is some kind of design tradeoff between life or charging speed and number of complete discharges.

[rlfletch]

This should be a short thread.

It is odd it doesn't have shut down mode once it reaches a critical point. That would seem to be an obvious thing to do. My Mazda will eventually turn of any lights left on if the battery drain becomes too critical. Honestly though, I hope some EE's chime in to explain why that feature wouldn't work in this case.

One last point: This has affected 0.25% of Roadster owners.

[AdrockMK2]

I call BS on this article...any engineer with half a brain would build a failsafe into the system that wouldn't allow the battery to drain to 0% EVER, thus negating the so-called $40k flaw. Even my $100-200 battery/electronics setups in my RC car stuff is smarter than that.

Edit: I'm not saying the flaw/problem doesn't exist, just that Tesla won't let it ever effect a consumer.

[surefooted]

Why didn't someone think to have the car shut down at x% of battery? That's not that hard.

[Aseras]

indeed.

ive never heard of a battery that completely dies after going flat once

i wonder if this is some kind of design tradeoff between life or charging speed and number of complete discharges.

ALL lithium batteries do this. They cannot be completely discharged or they die. It's why phones and cameras and many other devices shutoff and ask to be charged. It's a failsafe. Apparently tesla can't design their wonder car to do the same thing an Iphone can.

[ValveCoverGasket]

ALL lithium batteries do this. They cannot be completely discharged or they die. It's why phones and cameras and many other devices shutoff and ask to be charged. It's a failsafe. Apparently tesla can't design their wonder car to do the same thing an Iphone can.

what i mean is i can bring my iphone back to life after its run itself flat then sat for a week without the charger...
unless when it says its flat its not actually out of juice. which would make sense...

[hugoaswho]

this is bs article

[SoCalDubber]

i can bring my iphone back to life after its run itself flat then sat for a week without the charger... unless when it says its flat its not actually out of juice.

That's exactly what happens.

[ValveCoverGasket]

got it makes sense

[Chris_V]

Aaaand, doing something stupid like running out of oil in a Ferrari and you "brick" it's engine, too, causing very similar monetary repercussions.

You can always damage an expensive bit in an expensive car by doing something that the manual tells you not to do.

[TheTimob]

ANYTHING with a lithium-ion battery can do this.

First, discharge your cell phone or laptop to 0%, it shuts off.

There's a protection circuit inside that shuts it off before it gets too low. Usually you can just plug in your charger, and after a few minutes, it will work again.

Now leave it sitting around for MONTHS after getting to zero. The battery self-discharges itself until it is useless. Most lithium batteries cannot be brought back from this state.

Now let's have a car analogy. Run your gasoline car out of gas until it stalls. Usually you can simply fill back up and get on your way - but many cars will suck whatever crap was left in the bottom of the tank, and refuse to start. Even if it's just water (water is heavier than gasoline)

[AHFlynn]

interesting. im a pretty huge tesla supporter, actually going to try to get a job out there once i graduate, but its pretty dumb they didnt bother to properly inform their customers about this. i dont see this as being a huge issue, i mean its only affected 5 out of 2500 roadster owners, but a simple "hey, by the way, leaving your car uncharged for over a week could permanently damage your battery" at purchase would have prevented all of these problems.

im sure theyll design a better safeguard into it now that its become a minor pr sh*tstorm.

[cockerpunk]

this is bs article

you think? its on jalopnik

[AHFlynn]

first comment on the jalopnik article was pretty funny

I hear if you don't change the oil on a gas motor, the engine will eventually seize up and the dealer will charge you $14K for a new one! Outrageous! And my owner's manual says only that "failure to change the oil can permanently damage the engine"! What a scam!

[Egz]

this is bs article

How is it BS? Are you saying they are fabricating owner stories on bricked cars?

[SoCalDubber]

What I find to be the most ridiculous thing about the whole situation is that the battery "bricking" causes the axles to lock up and disallows the car being towed. I'm sure it's part of some sort of a security system, but if my expensive electric car just commit suicide, I think having to figure out a special way to get it on to a tow truck would be the final straw. You couldn't even push it off of a cliff at that point

[cxt9597]

what i mean is i can bring my iphone back to life after its run itself flat then sat for a week without the charger...
unless when it says its flat its not actually out of juice. which would make sense...

Second part. It's not 100% drained. You need something left to keep it's ability to recharge.

Also the batteries themselves lose charge over time. Doesn't matter if it's on or not. Given all the parasitic loss in the car + the battery draining themselves, over time (they are talking like 11 - 12 weeks of just being unplugged but a lot less if it is run down first) the battery will brick.

This happened to my laptop, the battery had a lot of life left but I let the battery drain really far. I was stupid and had to check something really quick so I turned it on after the second battery warning and it ended up dieing. I had to shell out for a new battery.

[compy222]

Aaaand, doing something stupid like running out of oil in a Ferrari and you "brick" it's engine, too, causing very similar monetary repercussions.

You can always damage an expensive bit in an expensive car by doing something that the manual tells you not to do.

true. you'd think there would be some sort of warning built into the vehicle to save itself. its all electronic, so it can't be that complicated to engineer in...basically a surge protector. just like a car has a low oil warning light.

[PlatinumGLS]

Gimme a LEAF

Gimme a VOLT

[ValveCoverGasket]

just had a discussion about this with a coworker (leaf owner, EE PE, used to design hybrid drive systems)
his guess is that the battery controller is shutting down and theyre unable to get them too boot back up by plugging in the charger - because its allowed the high voltage battery to deplete too low, and his guess was that like the leaf, theyre using the high voltage pack to keep the 12v battery alive... so once your high voltage goes the 12v is gone as well (and the action of keeping the 12v alive draings the high voltage more quickly, that without this its likely that they could stay alive for months on end...). he doubts the batteries themselves are done for after one depletion to 0%.
i may have butchered that explaination but it made sense when he said it

his other response was "tell me where to send the tow truck to pick up one of these for KBB - $40k battery fee and ill be over in a minute"

[NashGTI]

Sensationalist Journalism at its finest. Basically any hybrid or full electric is going to do the exact same thing, not just the Tesla.

To all the people claiming that Tesla should've put some sort of safety precaution on the car, where does it say they didn't? All of the cases presented in the article specifically point to customers leaving their cars off a suitable charging device.

[freedomgli]

I am an engineer, in my profession I take deep pride.

To it I owe solemn obligations.

Since the stone age, human progress has been spurred by the engineering genius.

Engineers have made usable nature's vast resources of material and energy for humanity's benefit.

Engineers have vitalized and turned to practical use the principles of science and the means of technology.

Were it not for this heritage of accumulated experience, my efforts would be feeble.

As an engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance, and respect, and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of Earth's precious wealth.

As an engineer, I shall participate in none but honest enterprises.

When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good.

In the performance of duty and in fidelity to my profession, I shall give the utmost.

Tesla could have easily mitigated the risks of a bricked car but they didn't. I'm sure this came up in their FMEA but being tight on money they rolled the dice and never looked back. What a crock. I'm generally not a fan of lawsuits but I find it incredulous that the manufacturer put all this risk on the consumer when a few lines of code could have prevented this travesty. Crap like this is why the general public don't take electric cars seriously.

Score one to the Chevrolet Volt.

[Roketdriver]

How will this cost ME $40,000 if I don't own a Tesla? Sounds like a scam.

[rbloedow]

true. you'd think there would be some sort of warning built into the vehicle to save itself. its all electronic, so it can't be that complicated to engineer in...basically a surge protector. just like a car has a low oil warning light.

I don't think you're understanding this. There is a warning in the car - its says "charge battery". The car will shut itself well before the battery is actually depleted. That said, the Tesla manual warns against fully discharging the device. It may not tell you you are committing a fatal error, but it does suggest not to do it.


Just like on your phone, or even my Prius, when the device says its a 0%, it's not actually fully discharged (in reality, there's usually a 10-20% charge left)...but every battery ever made naturally discharges.

[cockerpunk]

Gimme a VOLT

even fits a gun rack

[Green Panzer]

Gimme a VOLT

Gimme a Crown Victoria.

-GP