Have you ever run out of battery?

the_amazing_raisin

I feel like this is constantly something that's mentioned as a drawback of EVs but rarely occurs. Often I see articles posing the question of what happens when an EV runs out of battery as if it's an inevitability

I've had people ask if I'm ever worried I'll run out of battery and what happens if I do. I somewhat glibly reply that the exact same thing that happens to a car that runs out of petrol

Personally, I've never actually run out of battery. Closest I've ever been was 8% in a Leaf24 but I was nearly home and the car didn't even hit turtle mode

I was down to 4% on the ID.4 heading into Holyhead which was a bit hairy. But that's still 30km if indicated range which would have gotten me home from Dublin Port, and in any case there were DC chargers in Holyhead that I used to top up. Again, the car didn't even hit turtle mode

So, has anyone here actually run out? I'm not talking 0% indicated battery, I mean gotten to the point where the car won't actually move?

And if you did run out, what did you do to resolve it? Presumably a tow to the nearest charger, or a roadside recharge was needed?

I've had situations where I've been stuck waiting for a charger, or I've had to slow down to conserve energy. But I feel like actually running out of battery is something that happens on YouTube only and not in real life

yermanthere

I've been down to 2% on my bz4x. Like you it was a calculated "risk". I say risk but it wasn't. Distance from point a to point b ( charge station), is fixed. I had been driving all day so knew consumption. No turtle mode, I was confident that there was at least another 25km in the tank at 0%.

What I did learn is that by going so low, your are married to that charging location. If there is a big queue, you're waiting. And in hindsight, if it was broken I'd be goosed! But it depends where your going. If it's home or a place with a few options, it's really no panic.

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058306559/have-you-ever-run-out-of-battery

No, haven't even come close. Similar to my million+miles ice driving previous history..

munchkin_utd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058306559/have-you-ever-run-out-of-battery

maybe at this stage of Ev adoption the vast majority choosing to have an Ev have a good charging strategy in place, so can charge an Ev at home or work and for the vast majority of their normal use have it nicely topped up and on day to day use would find it hard to run it low let alone empty.

Wait till you have pensioners driving their city run around with low range to a wedding across the country and not being able to operate the app to get the poxy charger to work half ways across the country and then maybe risking it a little more in order to make it to the church in time. Or they just are oblivious and only notice they are running super low at the last minute.

Very keen driveway owning early adopters with a half dozen RFID cards are the ones least likely to go completely out of juice. Oh, and then theres smug tesla owners who have their own private charging network that digs them out of a hole

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899613#Comment_120899613

Yeah I've definitely had the experience of being tied to a single charger and ending up in a queue. It wasn't particularly fun, but that was with the Leaf and life's much easier with the ID.4

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899654#Comment_120899654

Funnily enough I was talking to a couple of people who have run out of petrol in the past

I feel like there's two types of people, folks who run out of petrol or battery, and folks who don't.

I wonder if the people who run out of petrol would do any better or worse in an EV

Calahonda52

Run out 4 times in the 30kW leaf, twice in the one day, all self inflicted using the Leaf pro app and trying to squeeze the last electron beyond what the leap app said was possible, all related to the nenagh dublin commute: 166.7 kms😀

denismc

I've been in turtle mode a few times in the original Ioniq but not since I got the I5.

sekond

I wasn't in it, but my car did apparently go down to 2km range once. The dealer had given it to me without taking it out of transport mode. I drove home, couldn't get it to charge on the granny cable, drove to a fast charge, couldn't get it to charge. Got home with 10km or so left and called dealer. They came to collect it, drove it off, and apparently gave up just down the road and had to get a truck to take it the rest of way to the dealer.

Personally the closest I have got is about a 10km range left. One of those very very cold nights in December last year. Left with what would have been ok range to do the trip in normal circumstances, but range plummeted and it ended up being very tight getting home.

Husband drives the car a lot now, and he has severe range anxiety, so it gets plugged in as soon as it hits about 50% now!

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899832#Comment_120899832

Well the good news is that pretty much all DC chargers will soon have to take contactless payment, so that'll simplify things

And I don't see why pensioners who seem capable of keeping their cars fueled will suddenly be unable to charge an EV. It's not exactly differential equations, once you've done it once then you know how it goes

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899874#Comment_120899874

Herself is completely the opposite to me, used to drive her original Ioniq 28kWh regularly down to 10km or less. And they apparently run out at zero (Never tested..). She isn't as bad with her 58kWh Ioniq.

Range anxiety was never a problem with her, she left that to me..😋

ELM327

Nearly ran out once, arrived at destination with 0% in an ioniq 28 after travelling the last 10km at no more than 20km/h. Had a few other close calls but only ever ran out once, and that was as a test sitting at the navan fast charger in my leaf24 to see what happened.

I never ran out of petrol or diesel either, though, and I used to drive 50-60k a year.

Blup Blup Blup

Carwow have done some really good EV tests where they let the cars run to 0% to compare actual vs projected range and report on what happens when they completely run out of power. Here's one that has a couple of cars including a Model Y. Here's another that includes a Model 3 as well as an iX, a Mach-E and EQS Merc.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899882#Comment_120899882

Haha, okay the first time fair enough, but maybe just use a public charger the other times 😉

I'd say it was definitely a lot easier to run out back in the days the Leaf was state of the art, you could get stuck on a gap in the network with a broken charger and not enough range to get to another charger

There's usually an AC charger in reach, so you could get a slow and painful charge at least

I've been in that position of just going for it when I probably should have stopped for a charge. It worked out but for some headwinds or an uphill climb and I'd have had to stop

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899888#Comment_120899888

Jesus that's pretty bad, hope you got an apology from the dealership for that one

Fian

can you bleed charge from one Ev to another, like getting a jump start, to just get people to the next charger? I have no idea whether this is possible, just wondering.

gormdubhgorm

Surely the problem is not the running out battery but the access to charging points? I am still a dinosaur with an auld banger 'fossil fuel' car. But I know if I ever run low on Petrol there are plenty of petrol stations no queues and easy access.

I was thinking about getting a new car, but I have heard horror stories from electric car owners who had to struggle to find one of the few/only charging points in a county on a journey. I was warned not to go electric the as the infrastructure is just not there in Ireland yet.

September1

Over 10 years ago I arrived at FCP that was broken. I had to get rescue service to take my car home.

fricatus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899989#Comment_120899989

Just curious to know who warned you not to go electric, if you're willing to spill 😁

Tends to be people who make a living out of fossil stuff, or who are opposed to any sort of "new fangled" ideas.

As for me, driving EVs for over 5 years now, and fossil cars for 20 years before that, never ever ran out of battery, or petrol/diesel. Closest I came was late at night, coming back from Meath, and the charger in Knocktopher was inside a locked petrol station - nice one eCars! I did however make it home in turtle mode - with taxi drivers forming a queue behind me wondering why I was doing 20 kph the whole way out to my house...

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120900185#Comment_120900185

It was not a fossil fuel industry person that warned me against going electric, said that they never had to eat so much sandwiches in garages etc scrambling around for charging places. And what should have been a two hour plus journey ended up as six plus.

I asked my brother who lives over in a England (who has a hybrid) I asked him is there many charging points in England? He said loads. No problems.

I think that is the major difference the infrastructure is not there in Ireland yet.

Petrol wise I would normally fill up full before I go anyway, so if I did have a charging point at home I suppose I would be ok.

However, I from what I heard if there are any issues with needing to charge when out can be a nightmare - finding a place - queueing for the charger etc.

innrain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899959#Comment_120899959

Some cars can do this. Vehicle to Load is the name of the feature (V2L)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899907#Comment_120899907

Bjorn has a test, he calls it zero mile and he's measuring among other things how much one can drive after zero. (I would call it the sub-zero). The 28kWh Ioniq stops at zero in his test.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V6ucyFGKWuSQzvI8lMzvvWJHrBS82echMVJH37kwgjE/edit?pli=1#gid=52159941

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899923#Comment_120899923

Yeah I've seen a few of them and they are pretty interesting. I guess it's interesting to see what happens but I also feel like it creates a false narrative that this is a common occurrence

The truth is that it seems to be very rare (unless you're Calahonda 🤣) and I've only seen it happen twice by accident on YouTube. One time Mr.EV ran out near his house because the GOM wasn't calibrated, and I think Bjorn ran out on a degradation test because his Model X sh!t the bed at the wrong moment

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120900256#Comment_120900256

It depends on where you are and where you're planning to go. Taking a 1st Gen Leaf from Dublin to Cork is always going to be a pain

But personally, I rarely need to use a fast charger nowadays in the ID.4 and if I do I generally have several options

The network is expanding, not as rapidly as many would like but I generally disagree with the statement that the infrastructure isn't there

I'd say the exception is if you don't have home charging. There's a few people here who do it, but it's got a ways to go before it's convenient

zg3409

Lightweights!. Luckily I was in my driveway and I could stretch the cable. I was avoiding public charging as much as I could and I passed a public charger 100 metres earlier. At 0% car goes into park. Lots of warning before. It was a bit of a test too. Lots of people run out of petrol every day.

In terms of public chargers I believe there is about 1/3 enough for today and they need to install 5 times what there is now ideally in hubs to cater for peak demand.

Calahonda52

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120899904#Comment_120899904

once you've done it once then you know how it goes.... 11 hungry mouths later, back in the '60's😴

Officer Giggles

I ran out of petrol once before. I have arrived at a charger just as the battery hit 0% in my Model Y on three occasions since I got it the first week of May. The last occasion was last week on the way home from a day out. Herself was doing some looking at me as the screen said we'd arrive home with -3%. I was fairly confident we'd be okay but there was a slight doubt. We've a massive hill to climb to get up to our house so she was envisiging a serious effort to push it up if it stopped on us.

loopymum

My first ev was a 15 reg leaf. Regularly get range warning but never turtle.

Second ev is an ioniq 28. Had it less than 2 weeks. Icy cold weather & hilly terrain & the second half of the battery range dropping like a stone. Last dc charger was over an hour from home at the time.

It went into turtle less than 2km from home & stopped 400m from home.

I had to ring a tow truck to pick it up & put it in the driveway to charge

Big Bag of Chips

I regularly get home on 0%-2% in a Leaf. First hairy day that I went down to 1% about 8kms from home I was nervous. I live rurally so was able to go home on backroads and just drove slowly, free wheeled down hills etc. It did go to 0% about 4km from home, but I assumed (hoped) there'd be a small bit in reserve. Never went to turtle mode, which I was almost curious/disappointed about!

I wouldn't like to be so low out and about and depending on public charging, but on my way home I know I'll be ok. I know it takes me about 8% to get from our local town to where I live, so if I'm at 8-9% leaving town I just go for it, knowing I will get home.

Calahonda52

If you run out and you are waiting to be collected, they ask you not to run down the 12V as if it is flat then its a different world of hurt

liamog

First time we picked up the Ioniq 28 from the dealer we drop to the McDonalds in Blanchardstown. The 12V battery was dead from the car being shipped/stored. Made us panic a little, but we were able to get the car started after about an 1hr.

We got pretty low on the traction battery, including one time where we creeped into the estate. Every car behaves slightly differently as it approaches 0%. The Ioniq pretty much rage quit as soon as its 0. I thinks it's important for people to experience it so they know how their car will behave. In a test on the Mini by carwow it did 30km after the display showed 0%. I never pushed it that far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd2ArceiJd0

Big Bag of Chips

Yeah, I wouldn't mind "testing" it to know exactly what happens. But the thing is you'd only want to test it within very close distance to a charger. We can drive around our house, and charger is at the back. I have considered doing laps once it hits 0%!!

25-30km would be a lot of laps though!