Here's what happens when your Tesla Roadster (or any EV) reaches the end of battery life

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jos51700

jos51700

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From MSN.com (Sorry).

TLDR: you might be able to get another year or three out of your dying battery, but you're hung without it. Basically, EV's batteries get the equivalent of battery cancer and if you cut out the bad section, you can squeeze a little life out of it.
And the OEM's aren't making owners of older EV's a priority, even though the rest of the car might be practically new.

"Tesla first produced its EV Roadsters in 2008, and their batteries are finally dying in 2023. That's 5 years past their expected lifespan, but all that time doesn't make getting a new battery pack easy. It can take years to get a new Tesla battery.

People like Pete Gruber from Gruber Motor Company have a solution to extend the Tesla Roadster battery life. He can get another year to three years out of some Tesla batteries if repaired soon after a cell dies. This prevents battery failure from stranding electric car owners while they wait for a new battery pack.

Tesla's biggest Roadster battery success has been its first-gen battery. This battery still powers most Tesla Roadsters today. But all good things have to come to an end.

This end could further tarnish the original Tesla Roadster's reputation, which survived near failure due to safety recalls in the past. Despite this, Tesla Roadsters are currently gaining value as some of the first EV collectible cars.

Many EV drivers wonder how they will know when their battery is reaching its end of life. The biggest indicator that the battery is declining is loss of power. Some vehicles will fail to get to highway speeds or have trouble ascending hills. Others increasingly lose range.

Some Tesla owners have described their battery end-of-life experience as a sensation of the pedal being "squishy." This comes from diminished power leading to slower acceleration.

Once Tesla drivers notice a performance decline caused by battery loss, it worsens over the next few months. Eventually, the car will not be able to get them to their destination.


2016 Tesla Roadster Battery Upgrades Were An End Of Life Test Run​

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In 2016, Tesla offered its Roadster owners a battery upgrade that would extend its range and lifespan. Original batteries had an expected range of 200 miles, and the new battery would extend that to 400 miles.


Not only did the extended range quickly return to baseline, but the 2nd-gen batteries died before the 1st-gen batteries reached the end of life. Customers who paid up to $32,000 for the upgrades were furious. Their vehicles could no longer get them up to freeway speeds or up their sloped California hillside driveways.

The above video published on the Gruber Motor Company YouTube channel dives deep into the end-of-life issue. Pete Gruber investigated 2016 Tesla Roadster battery pack upgrades as they came in alongside 2008 1st-gen packs. They're experiencing a similar cell death.

What could make new battery cells die at the same time as cells produced over 8 years earlier? Gruber believes it is a cell quality issue. The 2nd-gen battery packs produced through 2019 may be composed of faulty cells from the same lot.

Once the cells die, it becomes resistive. Over a short time, the death of one cell causes the parasitic death of other cells within the brick.

News about the failures of the 2016 Tesla Roadster battery upgrade's early end of life made its value plummet.

Some Roadster pricing fell to as low as $35,000. But the Roadsters are still going for an average of over $100,000 with the original batteries . Batteries are now magnified as a hidden cost of Tesla EV ownership. Additionally, there are opinions on the best and worst years to buy many Tesla models because of reliability issues.

Life Support For A Dying Tesla Roadster Battery
First-gen and 2nd-gen batteries are now trickling into EV repair shops across the country, hoping for solutions. Since Tesla is the only supplier of replacements, it can take years to get a new battery pack. They have yet to scale the production to meet demand.

According to Gruber, when a vehicle comes into the shop for battery end-of-life due to cell death, he puts it on "life support". He is able to use the car's log file to determine which sheet and then which brick the damaged cell is in. Then he connects DC power to the cell to keep it above 2V. This prevents the damaged cell from taking down others.

Then, the damaged cell is taken out of commission. There are 6,831 cells in a Tesla Roadster battery pack. The car doesn't notice if one is missing. Removing it prevents it from doing further damage and restores function to the brick.

Gruber says these repairs may last for a year or more. This gives owners a chance to order a new battery pack, which may take even longer.

If too many cells become damaged, it is possible to get a donor sheet from an auction, but there are very few available. Tesla doesn't sell sheets and only sells the entire battery pack.

The Tesla Roadster was the first EV of its kind and way ahead of its time in terms of technology. People are watching with interest to see what happens when EV batteries reach the end of life.

So far, getting a new battery is a major hurdle. But smaller EV repair shops are finding solutions for Tesla owners, so they can keep their vehicles on the road while they wait for Tesla to make more replacement battery packs available.

With the first-gen Tesla Roadsters being in the spotlight for its end-of-cycle makeover, things are going to get even trickier for the infamously delayed up to $200,000 (est.) Roadster. We hope Tesla gives us a closure on the Roadster supercar, atleast in 2023!"





Sounds to me like a decade and a half of EV use results in lots of landfill trash....Your mileage may vary. But your range will certainly decrease over time, whether you drive it or not.
 
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15 years and your car is junk, and the battery is obsolete because they don't make it anymore. With cars turning into computers with wheels, the technology in it is obsolete as soon as you drive it off the lot.

These EV's are going to be a hard sell for those that are in the know
 
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You crawl first, then walk, then run. EV technology is at the crawling stage, but make no mistake EV will improve, battery life will improve and recharging will take about the time it takes to fill your fuel tank now.
I wont be around to see that and many here wont be either.
You can post anything you want to the contrary, but that will not stop progress, otherwise the horse would still be pulling a plow
 
I've already said this, essentially, and several times. The future used car market is going to "not" be. You won't be able to sell a used electric, you will have to pay to have it disposed of.

And unlike one popular Youtuber, you won't be doing LS swaps into Teslas---because there won't be any LS's to source engines and transmissions
 
Good information and thanks for posting it.
It looks to me that the real money to be made here is selling parts and servicing these EVs.
Supply and demand will dictate how much you will make if you play your cards right.
A lot of people are under the impression that EVs will save the world and after the car is bought, the spending ends!
Oh, and electricity is free.
I liken them to be in the same league as cell phones, just on a larger scale.
You replace them when it is no longer feasible to repair them, or you can't get parts.
Welcome to the modern throw away society...
 
Soon we'll be seeing articles how to put a gas engine into electric vehicles to get them back on the road. At this point electric cars are short range vehicles. Maybe a Harbor freight engine.
 
Steve welder said:
You crawl first, then walk, then run. EV technology is at the crawling stage, but make no mistake EV will improve, battery life will improve and recharging will take about the time it takes to fill your fuel tank now.
I wont be around to see that and many here wont be either.
You can post anything you want to the contrary, but that will not stop progress, otherwise the horse would still be pulling a plow
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I don't disagree about the advances, but scope isn't realistic. Believe me, if they could have designed a material that would charge any faster than what we have now, they would've done so already. Short of a break-through, physics is still a limiting factor.
 
tonysrt said:
Soon we'll be seeing articles how to put a gas engine into electric vehicles to get them back on the road. At this point electric cars are short range vehicles. Maybe a Harbor freight engine.
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At least with a Hybrid, you have a back up.
With a total EV, you're screwed if something goes wrong with the battery...
 
1680814453197.jpeg


The difference is he built what people wanted, not what the government is forcing you to buy.
 
Here’s my take on the EV‘s. 30 years from now on most of us are gone because most of us are in a 50 year old age range, all of the people who want the EV to replace the gas Auto will be looking around and blaming all the EV dump and waste and chaos that they cannot do anything with to get rid of under any circumstances on us, and of course we won’t be here to defend ourselves but it will be our fault that we left them in this lurch with no way to contain or dispose of a bad idea. That’s my two cents worth or JMO take it for what it’s worth.
 
jos51700 said:
I don't disagree about the advances, but scope isn't realistic. Believe me, if they could have designed a material that would charge any faster than what we have now, they would've done so already. Short of a break-through, physics is still a limiting factor.
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I think your a younger guy than myself ( just turned 71) so your probably correct and may see the EV change
I myself hope the only good thing about getting old is I’ll never own one of those electric pos cars
 
I really don't think battery power is the long term answer. Not really up on new(er) technology, but what about the hydrogen fuel cell or something similar?
 
67Dart273 said:
You won't be able to sell a used electric, you will have to pay to have it disposed of.
Click to expand...
Dartnut said:
I liken them to be in the same league as cell phones, just on a larger scale.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking that. Every time I get a new cellphone (every 5 years or so?) my old one is generally failing due to the battery and old enough I can't trade it in for any discount. So I end up with all these old cellphones and nothing I can do with them.

I think EV's will be the same deal, only on a much larger and messier scale.

Everything I have ever owned that was battery operated has at some point become useless due to failing batteries. And if someone think EV's will be different because the batteries can be replaced has never owned a battery operated power tool and had to buy all new tools because batteries for the old tools are more than just buying new tools that come with new batteries.

I wonder if most people pushing the EV stuff are the same people that get a new cellphone every 6 months or a year and have never experienced their cellphone shutting off at 40% charge because the battery has gone bad. These will be the same people that get a new car every 12 months and never experience coasting to the side of the road in their GSV (Government Sanctioned Vehicle) when the range meter said 53 miles and they are still 20 miles from home.

And I think we will have perpetual motion devices and space travel long before an EV can charge in half the time it takes to fill up on gas. At least in the real world, maybe those things will happen in virtual reality were we can pretend EV's actually work like the elite want us to think they do.
 
Charrlie_S said:
I really don't think battery power is the long term answer. Not really up on new(er) technology, but what about the hydrogen fuel cell or something similar?
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You can't really trust the average idiot with hydrogen, and it takes a lot of energy to make it.

Unless fusion becomes reality, the EV is a limited-application vehicle.
 
I am not an electric car fan at all, but my lithium ion cordless tools fail before the batteries die Now. It used to be the other way around. Nicad batteries would only last a couple years. The battery technology is improving, but to go large scale on electric transportation will likely take decades in this country.
 
jos51700 said:

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I don't disagree about the advances, but scope isn't realistic. Believe me, if they could have designed a material that would charge any faster than what we have now, they would've done so already. Short of a break-through, physics is still a limiting factor.
Click to expand...
I thought the same thing about battery tools when they first started to show up. Never replace corded tools, not enough power, to short battery life. Now look what happened. Everybody uses them, contractors have them, they are powerful and charge faster.
The problem with waste, what to do with them has to be addressed, but im sure that will be taken care of someday
Dont get me wrong im not in favour of EV, I dont see the advantage and have zero desire to own one but I still think someday there will be more of them on then road then internal combustion engines
 
tonysrt said:
Soon we'll be seeing articles how to put a gas engine into electric vehicles to get them back on the road. At this point electric cars are short range vehicles. Maybe a Harbor freight engine.
Click to expand...

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DionR said:
I was just thinking that. Every time I get a new cellphone (every 5 years or so?) my old one is generally failing due to the battery and old enough I can't trade it in for any discount. So I end up with all these old cellphones and nothing I can do with them.

I think EV's will be the same deal, only on a much larger and messier scale.

Everything I have ever owned that was battery operated has at some point become useless due to failing batteries. And if someone think EV's will be different because the batteries can be replaced has never owned a battery operated power tool and had to buy all new tools because batteries for the old tools are more than just buying new tools that come with new batteries.

I wonder if most people pushing the EV stuff are the same people that get a new cellphone every 6 months or a year and have never experienced their cellphone shutting off at 40% charge because the battery has gone bad. These will be the same people that get a new car every 12 months and never experience coasting to the side of the road in their GSV (Government Sanctioned Vehicle) when the range meter said 53 miles and they are still 20 miles from home.

And I think we will have perpetual motion devices and space travel long before an EV can charge in half the time it takes to fill up on gas. At least in the real world, maybe those things will happen in virtual reality were we can pretend EV's actually work like the elite want us to think they do.
Click to expand...

It takes me 3m18s to exit the road, put my card in the pump, completely fill my '16 392 Charger and get back on the road.
Yes, 318. I timed it.
So all you rotten bastards who hate on the 318 can go drive an electric chevy or ford!
 
Just remember your gas car has a battery in it. The only way it survives is an alternator keeping it charged. Have those batteries really improved and they've been around forever. I know there is AGM types but are they really any better. So for me if I ever buy something electric it would be a hybrid.
 
Don't some of them also lock slam up and become a "brick" as they call it?
 
Steve welder said:
I thought the same thing about battery tools when they first started to show up. Never replace corded tools, not enough power, to short battery life. Now look what happened. Everybody uses them, contractors have them, they are powerful and charge faster.
The problem with waste, what to do with them has to be addressed, but im sure that will be taken care of someday
Dont get me wrong im not in favour of EV, I dont see the advantage and have zero desire to own one but I still think someday there will be more of them on then road then internal combustion engines
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They also have problems with lithium ion fires in some instances. It's been well documented. That said, I have several. I just keep my fingers crossed. One tool I have, an electric pole saw I have had five or six years. I've charged it......wait for it.......TWICE. I can go grab it right now and cut small trees down. Put it up and six months later do the same thing. Progress has been made, I admit.
 
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