Tesla owners’ complaints pile up while they wait for an official answer.
Last April, a Tesla Model S burst into flames in Shanghai. By the end of June, Tesla released the results of their analysis on the accident and announced an update to improve the battery pack's lifespan. Since May, many owners of vehicles with the same battery pack – already discontinued – have been complaining about recharging times. And of less range. These events could be totally unrelated, but it seems are closely tied.
According to the Norwegian website Tek.no, Cato Standal left his Model S P85 in a Tesla shop a little before Easter (April 21) to have something in its steering system fixed. After getting the car, he had to take it back for another repair.
Standal thought it was something with the painting, but, after four weeks, he sent the shop an email and discovered the car's battery pack had error messages. Two more weeks passed before he could get his Model S back.
That was when he discovered the whole battery pack had been replaced by a new one. But it was a smaller one, with 67 kWh instead of 85 kWh. Strangely, the number series of the battery pack indicated it had an 85 kWh capacity, even if this pack is not offered since 2016.
That is one of the pieces of evidence that led Standal to believe the restriction is software-based. But not the strongest one.
“What makes me be 100 percent certain that this is a software limitation is that now I have full regeneration even if the battery is fully charged. That has never happened before,” Standal told Tek.no. “If the battery was 100 percent charged, you would not get more power.”
The fact is that Standal’s battery replacement case is not the only one. Tek.no says there were others in Norway, the market with the biggest EV share in the world – 57.8 percent of all cars sold in June. But those are only the most extreme cases.
Other Tesla owners report that, after the software updates 2019.16.1 or 2019.16.2, the range of their cars fell around 10 percent. When it is not shorter, it takes much more time to recharge.
“Charging speed has been significantly reduced. And it gets worse in Superchargers, at a State of Charge superior to 70 percent. It can take 30 to 45 minutes more than it used to take,” Richard Lopes, a Portuguese owner of a Model S 85, told us.
Threads on Tesla forums on the problem spread by the dozens since May 13, as an article from Electrek shows. David Rassmussen has been making a detailed report on the battery pack capacity of his Model S and his graphic shows a steep decrease all of a sudden.
On June 3, the user Dutchmeeuw started a thread on the Tesla Motors Club community that is called “Sudden Loss Of Range With 2019.16.x Software”. It is currently on its 86th page. And counting. A clear demonstration that the problem is affecting a lot of people.
Tesla is telling most of them that this is a natural degradation of the battery pack, but its clients are not buying that. And some are so mad that the automaker changed the car’s specs without asking that they are threatening to sue the company. . . .
The Norwegian website states the problem affects mostly P85D Model S and Model X units, but also cars with 60 kWh, 70 kWh, and 90 kWh battery packs. . . .
Tek.no has tried to contact Tesla in Norway, but Tesla’s communications manager in the country, Even Sandvold Roland, declined to comment if the updates, battery replacements and slower charging times have anything to do with the Shanghai Tesla incident.
One thing is certain: having nothing to declare is most of the times seen not as a denial, but as tacit confirmation. . . .
As Lopes told us, “the lack of answers worsens a perfectly avoidable situation.” Incomplete ones tend not to help as well. . . .
