Tesla electric car 'brick' story: Truth or FUD?

By James Gaskin, ITworld | IT Management/Strategy, battery, electric car 2 comments

February 23, 2012, 11:20 AM —

flickr/randychiu

A blog says that not charging your Tesla for 11 weeks kills all the batteries. Backlash and conspiracy theories run rampant.

According to a post on the theunderstatement blog, five Tesla owners have left their cars unconnected to any recharger for long enough for the batteries to completely discharge and become useless, requiring a $40,000 repair. No car owners were named, and no other verifying details were included.

Reactions were swift and dubious. Some believe non-electric car makers were funding a smear campaign. Others spoke of backlash against Michael DeGusta, the original blogger, or against a disgruntled Tesla owner. Tesla's stock price dropped. Information about electric car maintenance suddenly became hot reading for those considering the move away from gasoline.

Tesla bad

First rule of instruction manuals: nobody reads instruction manuals.
willyolio on jalopnik.com

In other words: “It is not our fault that these people are too stupid to own a our car.” There is a winning a strategy.
Robert Schwartz on thetruthaboutcars.com

Elon Musk. The scent of failure. Now available in aerosol.
rraattbbooyy on jalopnik.com

AFAIK, any rechargeable battery needs a little starter charge in order to be charged. When that little starter charge goes, you have a brick.
Wade.Moeller on thetruthaboutcars.com

Tesla blameless

Every one who lets this beautiful car sit for months without driving and charging deserves a bricked battery as penalty. A happy Roadster owner, 15 month, 75.631 km on the odometer :-)
Ulrich Hopp on greencarreports.com

talking about self-destructing engines on recent Porsches, which cost in the area of $20k to fix, with no sympathy from the manufacturer. Ferraris, Lamborginis and even Lotuses are notoriously expensive to keep on the road.
David Dennis on thetruthaboutcars.com

Just as "nobody told me" not to drive a car without oil in it, only an idiot would play that card in their criticism of a car company.
Kuro on jalopnik.com

My other electric car is a …

It’s interesting Nissan claims this is a non-issue for the Leaf, since they take the fairly simple precaution of using software to prevent the battery from becoming fully discharged.
David Dennis on thetruthaboutcars.com

So the LEAF only needs to be charged every 3 months and the Tesla Roadster was dead after 2 months. That is a big difference.
John Briggs on greencarreports.com

Time to speak up: do you blame Tesla, the owners, or a conspiracy against electric cars? The comment form awaits.

James E. Gaskin writes books (Texas Hysterical Society is number 17), articles and jokes about technology and real life from his home office in the Dallas area. Gaskin has been helping small and medium sized businesses use technology intelligently since 1986. Write him at james@gaskin.com.

View the discussion thread.

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