this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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The problem with Tesla cars is that they uses two batteries. One is the main one, which is used for propulsion, and the other one, a conventional car battery, is used for most of the critical electronic.
Problem is, both are independent from each other, which mean you can have a full main battery, and still be locked out of your car if the secondary on is out. And those batteries hate cold.
You can have a similar results with gas car, where the ignition won't happen because of the cold, but at least you can recharge it easily with another car that happens to pass by. For Teslas, you can't. Because those fuckers decided that it was too unsightly to see the bare battery, and bolted a plastic turd over it to make sure the only person to ever be able to change it is a Tesla tech.
All other car manufacturers, which happens to have a bit more experience than those asses, understood that being able to have an unified battery, that happens to be thermally insulated (and often in the nordic countries, heated), to make sure you actually use them, even in cold weather.
Tesla cars are a perfect example of a product that only survive out of hype. They are overall badly designed, arguably ugly, their only redeeming quality was their autopilot, but even that is starting to crack.
My Kia also has a normal 12v battery for normal car stuff in addition to the main battery pack. But it uses the main battery to charge the 12v if that ever gets low while parked
And that a simple trick that Tesla still don't have implemented, to my knowledge.
That is false. Teslas maintain charge on their low voltage battery from the high voltage battery, just like every other EV
It is a good thing they changed then. I have multiple acquaintance who own Teslas who got locked up of their car because of the lack of this feature.
The low voltage battery can fail to the point of the car becoming unresponsive, including the electronic door handles, but not because it lacks automatic charging for the auxiliary battery. That has been a feature of every Tesla since day 1
I don't know that much the architecture behind Tesla cars, but the door handles thing is what kept them out. And the fact that the low voltage battery as you call it was a pain to replace.
Yeah. The doors require power to open, and that includes the hood, which is where the auxiliary battery is. If it fails, there are wires you can pull out from the towing hook port which will activate the hood latch when external power is applied. It’s not great, but I’ve seen worse on gas cars
Every single electric car has a low voltage system. Every single one. With maybe the exception of the G-Wiz.
You don't want hundreds of volts flowing through your lights etc. and you don't want an inverter running 24/7 in case you want to remote unlock your car.
Newer Teslas have a 16 volt lithium battery for the low voltage stuff. In theory it's more resilient to low charge conditions. Video here if you're interested: https://youtu.be/8-MNFgashpQ
The car is more than capable of topping up the low voltage battery from the high voltage battery should it be required, and in fact they do this if they are sitting for a while. I have left my Tesla for a couple of weeks without moving it without issue. Including in the cold. Although James May did have an issue with his model 3 during lockdown if I remember correctly.
Hyundai cars are notorious for allowing the low voltage system to run low, but I believe firmware updates have resolved that.
It's a five minute job to remove that cover. Really. The plastic cover is a non issue.
I'm intrigued. Please give me examples of this.
If you don't like them, you don't like them. That's fine. Nobody has a gun to your head. But you probably shouldn't be making up stuff for no reason.
I stand corrected then, my apologies for not researching the topic enough.
Still, having to find an external power source ton open your own car is kinda badly designed. 😅
Agreed. I'd prefer a pull handle or something, but at least there is a way of getting in at all without causing damage. I suspect it's a very rare event to need it at all.
I've seen cars (not Tesla's, I think it was a Dodge, not sure) require the removal of an entire bumper just to change a light bulb. So I guess silly design decisions like this are not a new thing.
It's true, our plain old dinosaur fuel car was notably slower in turning over on the -5 and colder days we've had recently.
But since tesla bother to heat the propulsion battery why don't they either 1: have a 12v power supply to provide ancillary power from the propulsion batteries if the 12v supply fails, or 2: also heat that battery too?
Probably due to the legacy of their first car, which was a gas car (a Lexus if I recall correctly) converted to a fully electric car. To minimize what they had to change, they kept the electronic circuitry as is and just changed the propulsion. Problem is, a gas car has its internal engine to heat up the battery. Electric car doesn't.