If you ask about the most popular auto experts, the names Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, the legendary former Top Gear (and now Amazon) triumvirate, keep coming up. Something happened to James May in his Tesla Model S that can happen to any electric car driver. He “no longer jumped”. To be able to drive again, May had to take on a lot.
“Captain Slow”, as he is called by his colleagues with a malicious wink, had parked his car at home and left the charging cable plugged in the whole time. When he wanted to leave after a long time, he couldn’t even open the door. The car was dead!
What happened? Have the batteries discharged via the charging cable at some point? Did Bill Gates have a hand in it? Or was Elon Musk keen on publicity, whether positive or negative? Far from it. But that with the unloading is close.
You have to know: Electric cars not only have the large battery, which is built into the floor of the Tesla Model S and from which the drive is fed, but also a completely normal 12-volt car battery like a car with a classic combustion engine. The normal power consumers such as headlights or infotainment are supplied, but also the central locking. Above all, with 12-volt electricity, the high-voltage network is deactivated when the car is parked. And activated when you start.
The 12-volt battery can discharge normally and also break. In most electric cars, it is recharged from the high-voltage battery when the voltage drops. But even this gradually loses charge (this is called the “vampire drain”), and then nothing works anymore and you need start-up help.
Which brings us back to James May
May’s problem wasn’t actually that the battery was dead, but that it is extremely difficult to reach in the Tesla Model S. It sits under a cover under the front hood. And you can’t get into the car without electricity.
To open the hood, you have to reach behind the fairing on both front wheel arches and pull a cable. Several covers and plastic parts have to be removed from under the hood, whereby clips tend to break off (not to mention fingernails). Then you are at the battery and can supply it.
James May’s solution for the future: He wants to lay a permanent connection from the battery to the outside so that the charge status of the 12-volt battery can easily be maintained via the charging cable.
How good that the Tesla is not the only car that is available to him. For example, an Alpine A110 can be seen in the video …