Tesla Model S Has Bizarre 'Vampire-Like' Thirst For Electricity At Night

cartechboy writes "The Tesla Model S, for all its technical and design wizardry, has a dirty little secret: Its a vampire. The car has an odd and substantial appetite for kilowatt-hours even when turned off and parked. This phenomenon has been dubbed the 'vampire' draw, and Tesla promised long ago to fix this issue with a software update. Well, a few software updates have come and gone since then, and the Model S is still a vampire sucking down energy when it's shut down. While this is a concern for many Model S owners and would be owners, the larger question becomes: After nine months, and multiple software updates,why can't Tesla fix this known issue? Tesla has recognized the issue and said a fix would come, yet the latest fix is only a tiny improvement — and the problem remains unsolved. Is Tesla stumped? Can the issue be fixed?"

Comments

Re:kWh/day is stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the whole article, it's clear the guy doesn't have a clear understanding of how anything works.

Right off the bat when he compares the Tesla's range estimate at the end of the day (when the batteries are warm) with the one the next morning (when the batteries are cold) I was already shaking my head. Fortunately the article later includes the explanation from the Tesla rep, but therein begins the pattern: long-winded article going on about this guy's half-assed attempts at figuring this out, punctuated by sensible explanations from the Tesla rep. The whole article could have been summarized thusly:

The owner's manual told me I should be losing about 1 percent charge per day. When I noticed this didn't seem to be the case, I called Tesla and discovered that the sleep mode used for the car's electronics were causing issues at startup, so the latest software temporarily disables sleep mode resulting in larger power draw when the car is off (this sucks, and they should fix it faster!). The Tesla rep told me I should lose around 10 miles of range per night, but using a meter on my charger I discovered I lose more like 16 miles of range per night. Hurry up and fix this, Tesla."

And why does he seem to lose more juice than the Tesla rep's estimate? (1) Tesla's estimate is likely an average and isn't specific to the cold overnight conditions this guy has (the system's drain on a cold battery will be harsher), and (2) he's measuring how much THE CHARGER is using in the morning, and he says himself that the charging system needs to warm up the batteries before charging, so he's measuring lost power PLUS the power needed to warm the system.

Re:Vampire? Huh?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd look for heat.

That amount of energy drain will be making something warm.

Re:Vampire? Huh?!

[timeOday]

I find this wrinkle hilarious, out of sympathy. I have never, EVER, in the course of using probably 10 laptops over the last 10 years, had one on which suspend/resume actually worked right. Many that worked a few times, or even a couple weeks, or that worked unless I used a docking station, or 3d acceleration, or WiFi. And yes, that includes my i7 MacBook Pro running OSX; plug and unplug the external display and network enough times, and sooner or later it will forget to wake up when you open the lid.