Range exhausted, two miles from home. Help? FAIL!

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Contingency

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[Tooney]

Posts about experiences at low to 0% SoC in earlier threads: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/0-range-left.1635/page-2#post-33298
and I'm the idiot whose Taycan was towed after running the SOC to 0%

 

[snstevens]

Here is my tragic tale. If you don’t feel like you’re an early adopter, this saga may have you feel otherwise.

Tonight I was invited to join a friend to attend a discussion at University of California, Santa Barbara on artificial intelligence and Neurotechnology. It was fascinating. So now that that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get to the real meat of this: my friend can’t drive at night because of some vision issues. I offered to go pick him up, head to a restaurant to have a quick dinner, run up to the campus, endure the talk, then drop him back at home, and come home. I knew that my Sport Turismo GTS had about 40 miles left in the battery. This should be just about enough to comfortably make it home. Rain was expected later that evening.
Are you feeling me yet?
Everything went fine and it looked like I would have about five or 6 miles left in the battery by the time I got home. I was wrong. When I dropped him off, I had 2 miles left on the battery range estimation, but I was about 4 miles from home! I did my best to drive like a hyper-miler, coasting down lots of hills, super light throttle, surface streets not the freeway… But I got the red colored warning to pull over and park safely about a mile and a half from my home.
And it was raining HARD.

OK, no need to get home immediately and this could be seen as a great way to understand the dynamics of running out of power and the support system existing to help us get to a safe charging situation. Cool! I called AAA and their friendly idiot robot (So ironic after the lecture I just enjoyed) asked me what kind of car I was driving and I told it and it seemed to work. I told it that I needed a battery service (the only option from the menu that was relevant) and they connected me to a local tow service for roadside assistance. I called them directly and spoke to them to make sure they understood that this was a BATTERY POWERED car and not an ICE vehicle. The woman I spoke to used the word jumpstart very quickly and I corrected her VERY clearly that this was NOT a jumpstart situation, but rather a dead battery in an electric car. I asked her if they had a battery charging device that could give me a boost to get my 2 miles of range so I could get home safely and plug-in. (AAA says they carry 5-mile charger devices) She transferred me to a gentleman at the tow yard and I made it VERY clear what I needed and he said “yes we can do that”. I was not too surprised because I do live in beautiful Santa Barbara, a very forward-thinking and sophisticated place with an absolute TON of plug-in vehicles.
OK, I’m feeling pretty good now. I’m sitting in my car in the rain with my flashers on. 35 minutes later Mike shows up with a JUMPSTART!!! Incredible… so now I decide to try Porsches SOS service. OK, this should work, after all, I bought my car from them! How hard could it be? I spoke with a lovely woman in Europe (!) who connected me with the California guy (who sounded like he was on his couch, in his robe. The Dude Abides!) The best they could do is offer to tow me to the dealer which was six times farther than my house and closed, without a public charger available. Great. They offered to tow me to my home, for an extra charge (!), and I’m not talking Electrical Charge! I hung up in deep frustration after explaining to the young man that this offer was absolutely useless. (A fun side note on Porsche’s bot: the BOT asks you to enter a number on a keypad to choose from a menu. THERE IS NO KEYPAD!!! There is NO way to select 1, or 2, or god forbid 3! and it gets worse. Goood luck)
I decided to take my chances and drive home.
It was my finest exercise in hyper ming. I have to say, it went pretty well, with timing the lights just right and taking advantage of any downhill, but the last 850 feet of my drive home is a very steep 15% to 20% grade Uphill. The car barely crept up the last 300 feet, but made it to my driveway where I could dock my car in the garage and plug it in. WHEW! Lesson learned!
I really hope I didn’t damage my battery, but it was really the only viable option. Rather than towing the car, and risking damage to it, to the dealership and coming back the next morning to ask them to plug it in and charge it and then waiting and then driving home. I just didn’t see that happening.
So I learned my lesson, don’t overestimate your range and give yourself a buffer, and keep that damn thing charged up for unexpected situations like this. I also learn more about the likely threats and possible advantages of artificial unintelligence. But this is not the forum for that subject. YMMV.

Living on the edge is OK for some things, but you might want to reconsider that approach for your Taycan EV if you want to maintain battery health over the long run.

Either on the forum, or in my random reading, I came across this video entitled "How to ruin your electric car's battery - 3 simple mistakes" . It is a 13 min video summary of a 1 hour lecture on battery chemistry and its effect on battery health, and it offers a few simple rules to maintain the long-term health of your EV battery. My guess is that we've all come across some version of these rules, so unless you want to watch the video (which is good BTW) here is the Cliff Notes summary.

• Rule #1 - Don't store your Battery at 100%
  • Store at a Low SOC in a Hot Environment -- If it's hot, keep the SOC at 30%.
  • Store at any SOC in a Cold Environment -- If it's cold you can store your car at 85%.
• Rule #2 - Don't wait to Recharge (Routinely)
  • Plug-in After Every Trip -- Generally top out your charge at 75% or 85%.
  • Stick to low SOC ranges -- Stick to a 25% range of use. For example if you charge to 85%, recharge when you get down to 60% (a 25% range).
• Rule #3 - Don't charge to 100% (Routinely)-- Save this for the night before a long trip, or if you are entering Montana.
  • DC Fast Charging is OK -- The charger will control the charging current so that it won't charge faster than the EV battery can handle.

The idea of "sticking to low SOC ranges" and charging frequently to maintain battery health is a bit new to me, so I pass it along for your consideration. YMMV.

 

[4thPcar]

Here is my tragic tale. If you don’t feel like you’re an early adopter, this saga may have you feel otherwise.

Tonight I was invited to join a friend to attend a discussion at University of California, Santa Barbara on artificial intelligence and Neurotechnology. It was fascinating. So now that that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get to the real meat of this: my friend can’t drive at night because of some vision issues. I offered to go pick him up, head to a restaurant to have a quick dinner, run up to the campus, endure the talk, then drop him back at home, and come home. I knew that my Sport Turismo GTS had about 40 miles left in the battery. This should be just about enough to comfortably make it home. Rain was expected later that evening.
Are you feeling me yet?
Everything went fine and it looked like I would have about five or 6 miles left in the battery by the time I got home. I was wrong. When I dropped him off, I had 2 miles left on the battery range estimation, but I was about 4 miles from home! I did my best to drive like a hyper-miler, coasting down lots of hills, super light throttle, surface streets not the freeway… But I got the red colored warning to pull over and park safely about a mile and a half from my home.
And it was raining HARD.

OK, no need to get home immediately and this could be seen as a great way to understand the dynamics of running out of power and the support system existing to help us get to a safe charging situation. Cool! I called AAA and their friendly idiot robot (So ironic after the lecture I just enjoyed) asked me what kind of car I was driving and I told it and it seemed to work. I told it that I needed a battery service (the only option from the menu that was relevant) and they connected me to a local tow service for roadside assistance. I called them directly and spoke to them to make sure they understood that this was a BATTERY POWERED car and not an ICE vehicle. The woman I spoke to used the word jumpstart very quickly and I corrected her VERY clearly that this was NOT a jumpstart situation, but rather a dead battery in an electric car. I asked her if they had a battery charging device that could give me a boost to get my 2 miles of range so I could get home safely and plug-in. (AAA says they carry 5-mile charger devices) She transferred me to a gentleman at the tow yard and I made it VERY clear what I needed and he said “yes we can do that”. I was not too surprised because I do live in beautiful Santa Barbara, a very forward-thinking and sophisticated place with an absolute TON of plug-in vehicles.
OK, I’m feeling pretty good now. I’m sitting in my car in the rain with my flashers on. 35 minutes later Mike shows up with a JUMPSTART!!! Incredible… so now I decide to try Porsches SOS service. OK, this should work, after all, I bought my car from them! How hard could it be? I spoke with a lovely woman in Europe (!) who connected me with the California guy (who sounded like he was on his couch, in his robe. The Dude Abides!) The best they could do is offer to tow me to the dealer which was six times farther than my house and closed, without a public charger available. Great. They offered to tow me to my home, for an extra charge (!), and I’m not talking Electrical Charge! I hung up in deep frustration after explaining to the young man that this offer was absolutely useless. (A fun side note on Porsche’s bot: the BOT asks you to enter a number on a keypad to choose from a menu. THERE IS NO KEYPAD!!! There is NO way to select 1, or 2, or god forbid 3! and it gets worse. Goood luck)
I decided to take my chances and drive home.
It was my finest exercise in hyper ming. I have to say, it went pretty well, with timing the lights just right and taking advantage of any downhill, but the last 850 feet of my drive home is a very steep 15% to 20% grade Uphill. The car barely crept up the last 300 feet, but made it to my driveway where I could dock my car in the garage and plug it in. WHEW! Lesson learned!
I really hope I didn’t damage my battery, but it was really the only viable option. Rather than towing the car, and risking damage to it, to the dealership and coming back the next morning to ask them to plug it in and charge it and then waiting and then driving home. I just didn’t see that happening.
So I learned my lesson, don’t overestimate your range and give yourself a buffer, and keep that damn thing charged up for unexpected situations like this. I also learn more about the likely threats and possible advantages of artificial unintelligence. But this is not the forum for that subject. YMMV.

I had similar experience driving back to San Diego after the Rose Bowl game on January 1 (go blue). Was watching the range and comparing to distance the whole way and they were about in sync +/- 1 mile (ie range 98 miles and 97 miles to home). I thought FOR SURE there would be a reserve or buffer but when I got off the I-5 freeway I got the same WARNING, PULL OVER sign in bright red as soon as I left the freeway. I had a decent incline to complete the last half mile, which the car did at about 5 mph. LESSON LEARNED: NO RESERVE.

 

[Crazymind]

I end up with 20% range very often!

 

[BigBob]

I think i'd sooner sit in a lay-by waiting for recovery than go to that lecture!

 

[JWreck]

Lol. I’ll assume your gas car was often running on fumes too ?

 

[Lekfx]

For anyone who didn’t get to the end of the OP story, there’s at least 3-5 miles of range (my experience, others have reported more) after you get to zero and the red warning comes on. No big deal for the battery since it has a pretty big buffer to full capacity.

Thanks for the reality. I appreciate your return to the intention of my OP. I knew there is a “limp-in” ability and that is indeed what got me home. I would have made it just fine if not for the weather factor, which was worse than predicted.

And to all you well-meaning respondents above (and below), thanks for all that brilliant advice. Thing is: I already knew every bit of it. Honestly, I knew every one of those gems of wisdom before I drove out. It was a kind of experience experiment. I fully knew I could run out, and decided to give it a go. This is a small town that I know very well, and my route would be about five miles less than the surprisingly accurate range estimate by the system. I admit I could have chosen better weather, and that seems to be the variable that caused my stranding. My intention in posting my account of the misadventure was actually not to solicit your brilliant advice (and scorn), but rather to point out the shockingly useless help I received from the systems in place. Imagine being asked by the Porsche SOS bot to characterize the nature of my SOS by “pressing one”, when there is no keyboard available! Porsche, sometimes you suck. I won’t restate the other ridiculous failures that piled on. Thanks for your attention. Plug in now.

 

[Lekfx]

Lol. I’ll assume your gas car was often running on fumes too ?

You know what they say when you “assume”, don’t you?

I have never run out of gas in my 52 years of driving. How ‘bout you?

 

[Lekfx]

A self inflicted wound. You would have left home with a 5 or 6 mile cushion in an ICE vehicle's tank only because there is a gas station on every other corner. You have to know getting an EV charge away from home doesn't work like that. Not to mention that running the battery down to 1 or 2% isn't the best for the battery's health or your blood pressure. As was already mentioned, the moral of your story is to plug in when you get home.

really? How useful. Thanks for the wisdom.

 

[Lekfx]

I have noticed fairly massive impacts on range when driving in rain. Anecdotally, I’d say that it is more significant than temperatures in the 25F range. Glad you made it home without too much drama.

I believe that is the reason I did not get the predicted range I saw when I started out. Including the fact that I was hyper-milking the whole way. I’d say I lost about six miles of range, or about 20% Due to rain and chilly temps.

 

[Lekfx]

Are you the kind of person who perpetually has low battery on their phone? ?

Leaving only a few miles of buffer is crazy, and doesn’t account for any hurdles or even margin of error. I wouldn’t be comfortable with less than 20 miles (pref 50 miles) of range buffer!
Granted, I might be a little ocd!

I have never run my phone battery to empty. Never run out of gas. Never missed a flight, lost my keys, or forgot to pay a bill. For some reason, people contributing to this thread seem to assume I’m some kind of dumb-ass. I can assure you, I am most certainly not.

 

[JWreck]

OP, you can’t post a detailed story about how you ran out of energy and then get mad when people rib you a little for it.

 

[gtm]

really? How useful. Thanks for the wisdom.

Hey, you posted about how your got stuck, when you actually managed to get home without assistance, and complained about the whole affair. So I'm not sure of what your were saying. Don't trust the range estimate when your are right on the ragged edge? Don't rely on road side assistance? What did you expect the response to be if you post about pushing the envelope when logic says you didn't have any reason to do so?

"... I knew there is a “limp-in” ability and that is indeed what got me home. I would have made it just fine if not for the weather factor, which was worse than predicted."

So you waited, and made multiple frustrating phone calls, when you knew you could probably get that last mile out of the battery. And the point of your post was what exactly?

 

[Lekfx]

Living on the edge is OK for some things, but you might want to reconsider that approach for your Taycan EV if you want to maintain battery health over the long run.

Either on the forum, or in my random reading, I came across this video entitled "How to ruin your electric car's battery - 3 simple mistakes" . It is a 13 min video summary of a 1 hour lecture on battery chemistry and its effect on battery health, and it offers a few simple rules to maintain the long-term health of your EV battery. My guess is that we've all come across some version of these rules, so unless you want to watch the video (which is good BTW) here is the Cliff Notes summary.

• Rule #1 - Don't store your Battery at 100%
  • Store at a Low SOC in a Hot Environment -- If it's hot, keep the SOC at 30%.
  • Store at any SOC in a Cold Environment -- If it's cold you can store your car at 85%.
• Rule #2 - Don't wait to Recharge (Routinely)
  • Plug-in After Every Trip -- Generally top out your charge at 75% or 85%.
  • Stick to low SOC ranges -- Stick to a 25% range of use. For example if you charge to 85%, recharge when you get down to 60% (a 25% range).
• Rule #3 - Don't charge to 100% (Routinely)-- Save this for the night before a long trip, or if you are entering Montana.
  • DC Fast Charging is OK -- The charger will control the charging current so that it won't charge faster than the EV battery can handle.

The idea of "sticking to low SOC ranges" and charging frequently to maintain battery health is a bit new to me, so I pass it along for your consideration. YMMV.

Thanks for the notes. Some interesting stuff here, most I already know. My tragic tale is NOT MY ROUTINE. It was ONE exceptional experience and will not be repeated. I don’t “live on the edge”.

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