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Tesla Owner Drives Their Car Over 18 Miles After Hitting 0% Battery Charge

When your Tesla battery reaches 0%, you might think that the car dies and is no longer usable. There are reports that this isn't the case. One Tesla owner drove over 18 miles after hitting 0% on his battery.
Tesla Owner Drives Their Car Over 18 Miles After Hitting 0% Charge

Your Tesla Battery At 0%

What happens when your Tesla battery reaches 0%? The answer may surprise you and isn't that simple.

This is because I've seen multiple reports where someone drove their Tesla to 0% and was still able to drive their car.

Now, once the Tesla got to 0%, the car started to limit how much energy output there was in order to conserve energy, but this leads me to believe that there is an additional buffer of battery capacity beyond the 0% mark.

Tesla Model X Owner Drives Over 18 Miles on 0% Charge

Another Tesla owner, POGAuto, drove his Model X around the block over and over while at 0% and drove 20 km and was still able to drive around his block.

This owner was able to make it into his driveway after 18 miles (30 km) of driving, but wasn't able to go any further.

The battery probably still had some charge because the electronic controls on the center screen were still on.

The car ended up locking him out, and he tried to open the charge port and was able to manually lift it.

After a bit of charging, the car had enough energy to be opened and for him to go back in. Charging was slow at first, but then picked up after a while once he got back up over 0%, covering the reserve range he used.

Another Tesla Owner, Tesla Joy, Hits 0%

There was a Tesla owner, Tesla Joy, who let her car get to 0%. In fact, there is a growing group of owners who are part of the "Zero Percent Club". She was a quarter of a mile from the Supercharger when she hit 0%, but she was able to get to the Superchager and charge.

In addition to this, Elon Musk himself confirmed that Tesla vehicles have a usable reserve of 5 to 15 miles of range even when the battery reads "empty".

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How Long Supercharging Took from 0% to 90%?

When Tesla Joy plugged in her car, because the Supercharger was more than half full, it set the charge limit to 80% and on the V3 Supercharger, it said 35 minutes, which uses up to 250 kW.

She typically goes up to 90% for weekly usage, and she changed the charge to go to 90% instead of 80%. Charging took about 40 minutes total to go from 0% to 90% and the 80% to 90% charge took about 5 minutes.

Tesla's battery management system will make sure to limit the charge as it gets fuller, as a battery can't charge as fast when the charge gets closer to 100%.

Tesla Joy has been driving her car for over 5 years and doesn't have any range anxiety. She has driven many times below 20% and even 10%. She's been at less than 5% many times.

If your Tesla goes beyond even the usable reserve and dies, well then your best option is to call Tesla service directly through the Tesla app to get towed - or charge your car with a portable battery supply and see if it can give you the additional charge you need.

However, it's relatively safe to say, especially in Tesla vehicles beyond the year 2018, according to Elon Musk, there is reserve range between 5 and 15 miles your Tesla will use, even after 0% battery.

In Other Tesla News: Inside the mind of Elon Musk - how much he cares about humanity.

What do you think happens when your Tesla battery reaches 0%, and what happens when the car battery is used up fully, even the reserve range?

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Hi! My name is Jeremy Johnson, and I am a Tesla investor and supporter. I first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, I've become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla I can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies like Aptera. I cover Tesla and EV developments at Torque News. You can follow me on X.COM or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow my Tesla news coverage. Image Credit, POGAuto, Screenshot

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