Tesla: Not so easily bricked

Though I could easily believe that there was a coordinated attack against electric vehicles (I can think of a few groups), the response doesn't refute the previous article but tries to defend through vocabulary.

If you leave the car unplugged for a long period of time the battery will be ruined. If the battery is one huge battery pack or 8000 smaller batteries doesn't matter.

Also, having a car plugged in for months is a lot different that driving cross country with no oil.

The original blog post made a few claims.

1) Tesla warnings were weak, and part of the Tesla documents said it's fine to leave the car unplugged for weeks.

2) Total discharge of batteries is possible under certain extreme conditions, and has happened to 5 people

3) Total discharge of batteries bricks the car, leaving it un-towable and needing a $40,000 battery replacement fix.

> Another error on the part of the blogger is the claim that if the cars discharge fully, the battery packs will be damaged. This is blatantly false. The battery management system of the Tesla Roadster keeps the battery from being discharged to a damagingly low state of charge under normal driving conditions. It's true that a full discharge to zero percent state of charge can potentially be damaging to a battery. However the battery management system of the Roadster won't allow the car to reach that low level of charge.

So, is it possible to totally discharge the battery pack or not?

The Jalopnik post has been updated with a statement from Tesla saying that the battery will take a long time to reach zero state of charge. My understanding is that the battery system will protect the battery during normal use but that there isn't much it can do if the car is left sitting unplugged.

So the 'confront misinformation with facts' tone of this article ends up being a little over the top, the blogger is interpreting the facts differently than even Tesla.

So, if as this article says the previous blogs were nothing more than a smear campaign against Tesla, basically accusing them of being a propaganda campaign. Doesn't this seem amazingly like counter-spin?

The article says that the facts will shine through and prove them wrong, but it's amazingly absent of facts. "The design of the car will prevent that, trust me".

If you read between the lines though, he does admit that a full drain of the battery will destroy it.

It's one part (or series of parts) that cost $40,000. 53kWh batteries aren't exactly common.