Ratcliffe coal

I can leave my EV for a week with no obvious discharge. I'm unlikely not to drive it for a longer period.

And of course petrol goes "stale" and volatiles evaporate, when ICE vehicles are left for a period.

Neighbours left theirs for substantially longer than that during lockdown, after which it refused to unlock and had to be trailered to the garage ...

Loss of charge is minimal in practice. Some early cars (Teslas in particular) had high parasitic losses. Manufacturers have learned and lithium batteries have very low self discharge rates.

Tim

Almost certainly a 12V battery issue, not a traction battery problem. A jump start would have got them going. No different from an ordinary ICE car.

Tim

But doors, windows, boot, bonnet couldn't be opened ...

I had that with a previous car when left at an airport car park. I opened the door manually and got a jump start from a neighbouring car.

I can’t speak for every EV but mine certainly has a mechanical door lock (and mechanical bonnet release). Again, no different from ICE vehicles. Now the key access isn’t obvious but it’s there.

Tim

Only a problem for a strimmer or lawnmower. I can't think of any situation where a car that has not been used for many months has failed to start. And if you use esso synergy premium it has no ethanol at all, so can be left for even longer.

Those west african car thieves have a way :-)

Why weren't they running it once a week?

I can definitely confirm that a carburettored car, stored over the winter, is harder to start and runs rougher after being off the road over the winter ... especially with modern petrol.

Yes, the locks are often well hidden, but they are there.

In the case of our EV, although I haven't tried it, the 12V battery is supposed to be automatically charged from the traction battery if it gets low - assuming that the traction battery isn't below a certain charge level.

I think that ...

a) they know better now than to just leave it parked and unplugged for months (it's a PHEV)

b) they do know now the recommended way to 'break' into it if required

Even without lockdown, they have shopping delivered weekly, so with no visits it sat on the drive plugged-in. I think the HV battery was fully charged (blue light on dash, making them think it was all fine) but as mentioned the 12V had gone flat

My Kia Picanto did that a couple of weeks ago. Not and EV or anything like, just an ordinary petrol ICE with a 12v battery. But one morning, absolutely dead. Normal key-fob did nothing. Fortunately I remembered and was able to unlock the driver's door in the old traditional way, with the key in the door! Opened the bonnet and measured the battery voltage - 5.5 volts! I was amazed. Recharged it slowly over the next

Is it really necessary to disconnect the battery every time I charge it? I don't completely disconnect it, only the +ve terminal, but it's a bit of a faff, and connecting the charger directly to the battery terminals without disconnecting anything is much simpler.

With mine, if you open the door using the mechanical key (such as when the battery in the fob is dead) the alarm sounds, and even having done it when necessary, I can't remember how you get it to shut-up ...

I tried to star my lawnmower yesterday. Battery extremely dead. Its only been around 4 months since it was last used.

Whether or not it will hold the charge its now got is a moot point. (We jumped it)

My battery was too flat even to sound the alarm, but it went off when I reconnected the freshly-charged battery. Fortunately the car was in my garage, so it didn't disturb the neighbours, and it stopped automatically after about thirty seconds. Bloody loud though, right in my ear as I was doing up the battery connections!

I still don't understand why it went so very flat.