[jrocks]

Question for all:

During my initial overview when we picked up our Karma, the dealer mentioned NOT to deplete the battery to the point where the car switches to Sport mode on it's own (guessing this happens at about 15% battery left)

Does anyone drive in Stealth and let their Karma switch on its own? If not, when (at how many miles remaining) do you manually switch to Sport?

Starting with a full battery this morning, I switched manually at 16 miles but wished I could take it down to 5 since I was going plug in at my destination. Didn't want to have any problems so I played it safe.

Thanks all for your input!

 

[Fabulist]

Question for all:

During my initial overview when we picked up our Karma, the dealer mentioned NOT to deplete the battery to the point where the car switches to Sport mode on it's own (guessing this happens at about 15% battery left)

Does anyone drive in Stealth and let their Karma switch on its own? If not, when (at how many miles remaining) do you manually switch to Sport?

Starting with a full battery this morning, I switched manually at 16 miles but wished I could take it down to 5 since I was going plug in at my destination. Didn't want to have any problems so I played it safe.

Thanks all for your input!

@Jrocks: I drive my car down to "0 Miles" EV range every day and it automatically switches to the generator at 15% battery level without any problems or drama. I am not sure why the dealers are telling owners to switch manually. In my experience over the last 2500 Miles of commuting, the car knows exactly what to do in that situation. I am running the latest version of 614. YMMV.

 

[dennis]

Question for all:

During my initial overview when we picked up our Karma, the dealer mentioned NOT to deplete the battery to the point where the car switches to Sport mode on it's own (guessing this happens at about 15% battery left)

Does anyone drive in Stealth and let their Karma switch on its own? If not, when (at how many miles remaining) do you manually switch to Sport?

Starting with a full battery this morning, I switched manually at 16 miles but wished I could take it down to 5 since I was going plug in at my destination. Didn't want to have any problems so I played it safe.

Thanks all for your input!

I routinely let it start the ICE on its own when the Battery Range goes to zero. No problems with this in 2400 miles.

 

[Sigurd]

I think 0 miles left is at 15% battery left. So, there's no need to manually shift into Sport mode. Let the car do it for you when it needs to.

 

[LonePalmBJ]

I think 0 miles left is at 15% battery left. So, there's no need to manually shift into Sport mode. Let the car do it for you when it needs to.

I agree with all of the above comments; I think your dealer was either misinformed or is being overly conservative. The car is very smart and will switch to the ICE whenever it needs to all on it's own.

For me, the only time I manually switch is on highways just to make sure I have enough Stealth range to be all electic on surface streets and approaching my destination. I've been turning it into a bit of a game, to see if I can roll into my driveway right as the battery gets to 0 miles/15%

Brent

 

[bigdaddyo811]

I would agree with your dealer. Typically I have never let the car go to zero. I have read over and over again on this forum how there arent issues. So, yesterday, I let it go to zero. Suddenly, the car would not drive. The PRND showed N when I booted up as well as the dash. When I put it into D or R it changed but the car would not move. Got stuck with 5 cars behind me. Embarrassing. Shut down, waited 3 minutes for the soft reboot and car started up again. Went to pick up kids. Waiting in line for kids at school and same thing. This time had to open the hood and do a hard reboot. Everyone looking thinking, "wow nice car...doesnt start eh?"...my dealer had told me the same thing - dont let it drop below 5 miles as that's when issues start....probably good advice until 6.15 but obviously only affects some cars...

 

[LJC]

You should not concern yourself, the car will automatically switch over to Sport at a given battery charge level.

 

[Fabulist]

I would agree with your dealer. Typically I have never let the car go to zero. I have read over and over again on this forum how there arent issues. So, yesterday, I let it go to zero. Suddenly, the car would not drive. The PRND showed N when I booted up as well as the dash. When I put it into D or R it changed but the car would not move. Got stuck with 5 cars behind me. Embarrassing. Shut down, waited 3 minutes for the soft reboot and car started up again. Went to pick up kids. Waiting in line for kids at school and same thing. This time had to open the hood and do a hard reboot. Everyone looking thinking, "wow nice car...doesnt start eh?"...my dealer had told me the same thing - dont let it drop below 5 miles as that's when issues start....probably good advice until 6.15 but obviously only affects some cars...

@BigDaddy, you should, of course, play it safe and go with works for you reliably. I would only suggest that you report this to your dealer and Fisker, if you have not already done so, because the general experience appears to be that even with the known bugs in 614, the car can figure out when to switch on the generator automatically when the battery is down to reserve levels and you may be having a problem that is not part of the known 614 bugs, such as wiring/connector issues.

 

[jrocks]

I would agree with your dealer. Typically I have never let the car go to zero. I have read over and over again on this forum how there arent issues. So, yesterday, I let it go to zero. Suddenly, the car would not drive. The PRND showed N when I booted up as well as the dash. When I put it into D or R it changed but the car would not move. Got stuck with 5 cars behind me. Embarrassing. Shut down, waited 3 minutes for the soft reboot and car started up again. Went to pick up kids. Waiting in line for kids at school and same thing. This time had to open the hood and do a hard reboot. Everyone looking thinking, "wow nice car...doesnt start eh?"...my dealer had told me the same thing - dont let it drop below 5 miles as that's when issues start....probably good advice until 6.15 but obviously only affects some cars...

Yikes, this is what I was worried about. The dealer did say that after 615 this wouldn't be a problem but I had wondered why I hadn't read about this as a known issue.

I did give a list of all known issues to the dealer to check prior to taking delivery - and checking the contacts was one of them. Anyone else experience any zero battery problems.

I guess I could try it around the the neigborhood and see what happens..just don't want to get stranded.

 

[FredFriendly]

Count me as another who has had no problem with the Karma auto-switching to the ICE.

Actually, this car has been perfectly reliable (and great fun to drive) as a vehicle (which is the most important thing). All my problems have been with Command Center.

 

[Fnorrod]

I'm with FredFriendly (knock on wood.) My daily commute is a bit over 40 miles round trip, if I run any side errands I wind up using the ICE. I've consistently switched to sport mode with 2-4 miles left on the battery under the theory (based on an earlier post) that the performance will be better than letting it go all the way to zero. I also like to switch back to full battery and glide down the driveway.

I've never had any issues with the ICE engaging nor seen any issues at all with the drivetrain. The car currently has about 2100 miles on it.

 

[musique]

I always drive in stealth and numerous times it's dropped to 0 miles. It's worked fine, it's switched over to ICE and I haven't had any issues. I only have about 900 miles on it.

 

[DKV]

I let mine drop to 0 miles twice a day. Never had a problem. 3.000 miles

 

[marcus]

No problems with 0 almost every day.

 

[jrocks]

Thanks for the response everyone. I'm convinced that the car should work as everyone has mentioned (when Stealth hits zero - automatic switch to Sport) with no problems so I'm going to give it a try this weekend and will report back to all for future reference.

 

[Skibum]

I was also nervous the first time I let it drop to zero. Made sure it happened when I was near the house (circled the block a few times) just in case. But the ICE kicked in smoothly and gave me the confidence I needed...

 

[ffcars]

I've had no issues with letting mine go to 0 miles. The ICE switches on automatically.

 

[Nimisys]

Thanks for the response everyone. I'm convinced that the car should work as everyone has mentioned (when Stealth hits zero - automatic switch to Sport) with no problems so I'm going to give it a try this weekend and will report back to all for future reference.

it't won;t switch the dash, that will still say stealth, but you will hear the ICE running. since 613.5, we haven't seen issues with the crossover either.

 

[9xclubchamp]

No problem here, but when the ICE kicks in it still displays Stealth not Sport. Is that normal?


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?ofkt45

 

[Nimisys]

yes that is normal