A Tesla owner says he was locked out of his EV after its 12-volt battery died amid the Texas heat

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 82 points – A Tesla owner says he was locked out of his EV after its 12-volt battery died amid the Texas heat
businessinsider.com

The Tesla owner said getting stuck in his driveway was "annoying as hell," and he tried everything from hosing the car down to jumping the battery.

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It's news because it’s anti-EV propaganda funded by the gas industry. Articles like this exist solely to get car buyers on the fence to not buy an EV.

No, just buy a Nissan Leaf...

Not all electric vehicles are Tesla...

or a Hyundai if you don't want to pay a subscription to unlock your doors

Would recommend this over the Leaf, but if I recall correctly, Hyundai's latest EV's may not have a manual outdoor door release. You won't get this in US markets, but in Europe and Australasia, I do know the MG is cheaper than both Nissan and Hyundai, and do have manual releases on all their doors.

Nissan Leaf batteries are air cooled instead of water cooled. I wouldn't buy one, especially in a hot area.

Water cooled things are air cooled. The difference is in noise and where it's located.

Do you mean that water cooled has a radiator, which is then air cooled? Not the same thing.

As someone in the UK. What is this hot weather you talk of?

We're only in June, just wait till August lol we'll all be dying in our oven homes

Oh gosh. Not again. Those 40 degrees days were brutal. We're not set up for hot temperatures :).

I was confused, then I remembered Celsius. 40c is 104f. I'll be seeing a few of those days in the next week or so

I agree, but it doesn’t matter. The average shopper associates teslas with all EVs. They see this article and think “no chance I’m getting locked out of my gas car! Ill never buy and EV!”, not “no chance I’m getting locked out of my EV! I’ll buy a Leaf instead of a Tesla!”

Which is the exact goal of this article.

Average American consumer. In the UK, Prius was massive hybrid wise. Tesla is at premium end now, but Nissan always had a presence.

Hopefully they think "fuck this car shit" and start wanting/trying every other form of transit.

The Leaf is pretty much the worst option you can get. There are plenty of others, cheaper, and better, that actually have thermal management on the pack. Unless you're buying used, in which case the Leaf can be fairly good value, if all you're doing is city driving.

and the leaf can be susceptible to this as well. its a 12v battery thing not a ev or ice thing.

This right here. I fully plan for my next vehicle to be completely EV but refuse to give tesla any money at all. Currently it's not in my realistic price range but Rivian has some pretty sweet choices

Well, Elno is certainly doing his own anti-advertising campaign well. I'd never buy a Tesla because that dumbffffk who gives nazis a microphone will profit of it, but there are a lot of very good alternatives out there now.

People buying EVs get them from vegetable stands, not the “auto industry”

If he ever read the manual for the car (no one ever does! they should!) he’d know you can remove the tow hook cover and connect a battery to the wires to open the frunk, then replace the 12v battery yourself if you’d like. Or if that’s too complicated, have it towed to a service center or mobile service fix it for you.

It’s just a car! Fix it yourself or take it to service! Why is this news?

That sounds needlessly more complicated than just having a regular lock mechanism like in most non-Tesla cars.

Seriously, this is why modern cars suck, and cost a fortune.

Either way you're replacing the 12v battery before you're driving anywhere, Tesla or otherwise. Having a manual lock may be nicer for easier access under the hood in this case, but that's really it. Other automakers EVs also have issues with their 12v systems dying and bricking the cars until replaced, Hyundai's come to mind specifically. Newer Teslas have a lithium-ion low voltage battery (it's like 15v or something i think?) that shouldn't fail for the life of the car, so this is a non-issue.

I've had the exact same situation happen to me as in the post however Tesla's service has always replace the battery for free which really makes up for the hassle. It appears also that they are transitioning people to the new lithium ion 12 volt battery, even if your current never came with it originally.

My frustration with this process is that Tesla uses a 12 volt battery that is not easy to come by unless you go through Tesla service. Sometimes you just need your car immediately and will replace the 12 volt when it dies but you can't find this bastard at your local auto parts store.

This is the great thing about Tesla. There's always a simple solution to the problems nobody else has!

Ah yes, the completely unique to Tesla problem of checks notes a dead 12v battery and an owner who doesn't know how or care to service their vehicle.

Just completely missed the point? My battery has died numerous times. I've always been able to get into my vehicle when it does.

Likewise! The order of operations is just slightly different:

Most Cars: Open Car > Pop Hood > Jump/Replace Battery > Drive Car

Tesla: Pop Hood > Charge/Replace Battery > Drive Car

If you know this can happen to your car and are prepared for it (the equivalent of being ready to get a jump in a gas car) it's not a big deal. Of course, many people opt to just contact Tesla roadside and have them handle it, which is completely fine.

Different cars function differently! EVs from other manufacturers are not universally immune from this either. Meanwhile Mercedes literally tells you not to open the hood on their EVs, much less replace a dead 12v battery.

You realize being able to simply enter a car with a dead battery is useful right? Without needing to replace the friggin battery first?

I’ve seen this exact issue end up as a mainstream news story more than once now. I don’t completely understand it either. The process to unlock if the battery is dead takes maybe 10-20 seconds, and from there you charge or replace the battery just as you would if your battery was dead in a standard car. This would be the equivalent to someone with a standard vehicle that has a FOB with the backup key hidden inside. If that person didn’t know that key existed and complained that they were locked out of their vehicle because the FOB had a dead battery, it would be just as odd if it made it to the news.

Hate the car/brand if you choose to, you do have that right. Just don’t hate based on misinformation.

you're vastly overestimating how comfortable most people are with cars and electricity

Some of it is that a 12v failure is much more of a pain in an EV, since you need low-voltage to trigger the high-voltage battery contactors in order to recharge the low-voltage battery. Many people don't know this, and then panic when their car appears very broken. Some non-Tesla EVs will throw downright bizarre errors and lights at you in this condition.

I'm optimistic we'll all learn about EVs and their common failure modes like we have with ICE vehicles over time.

This happened to James May after he left his car sitting for a bit of time. It was a huge pain in the ass to fix it

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. It was a real bitch to get to the small battery to power it himself. This was during the pandemic and was the first time I was like “hmmm maybe I don’t want a Tesla”. And, among many other reasons, I do not want a Tesla.

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this post. It was a real bitch to get to the small battery to power it himself. This was during the pandemic and was the first time I was like “hmmm maybe I don’t want a Tesla”. And, among many other reasons, I do not want a Tesla.

This happened to James May after he left his car sitting for a bit of time. It was a huge pain in the ass to fix it

Happens to gas cars too. Jump it or get it serviced. Not like Teslas are unique in this

I think it’s the fact that you can’t really open the car or the hood when that happens. If my Hyundai battery dies, I open the car door, the hood, and just replace the battery.

Well, I can do that on my Tesla too. You just have to know what to do.

And there are other gas cars which are fully electric too. So if it's locked, you would have similar issues.

Not disagreeing. Just think it’s a dumb problem. Getting access to your hood shouldn’t require you to do something stupid like taking off your tow hitch and juicing thé contacts. BMWs are really dumb about it too. Just want cars to be easily fixable.

Well yeah. I agree there. They should make it fairly simple to gain access to the 12 volt battery.

I know it’s not what you meant, but I giggled at the thought of James May in Texas with a big cowboy hat saying “oh cock”

I have a model 3 in Vegas heat without issues. Just need to keep the car charged more in the temperature extremes.

I don't see why a 12v battery would die in the heat any faster in an EV than an ICE.

Battery dies, car doesn't work right. How is this news?

Compared to the car's main battery pack, the 12v battery is like a couple AAs. It's dumb that it couldn't use power from the main pack to unlock the car.

"Lawnmower dies when it runs out of gas, homeowner says 'it's annoying as hell' more at 11..."

sighs