The Electric Car Does Not Start: the Main Causes and Solutions

Electric cars that run on electric motors have become an excellent alternative to ICE cars. They are environmentally friendly and maneuverable, and the charge of the batteries is enough to overcome long distances. Modern models increasingly resemble gadgets with an incredible range of options. But, like any technology, electric vehicles also have problems. The owner may experience a car failure to start. Very often, such failures appear under the influence of several factors.

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The Electric Car Does Not Start: the Main Causes and Solutions

Electric cars that run on electric motors have become an excellent alternative to ICE cars. They are environmentally friendly and maneuverable, and the charge of the batteries is enough to overcome long distances. Modern models increasingly resemble gadgets with an incredible range of options. But, like any technology, electric vehicles also have problems. The owner may experience a car failure to start. Very often, such failures appear under the influence of several factors.

The Battery Is a Problem

A dead battery is the most apparent reason an electric car does not respond. For example, Tesla cars never completely shut off. Even at night, they continue to work:
● Battery status monitoring.● Software update center.● Sentry Mode, which allows you to track activities around the machine.● Intelligent call of the electric car.
Maintaining these functions in active mode consumes up to 5% of the charge every 6 hours. Therefore, a practically discharged battery will ultimately go out overnight.

The second reason is that the battery drains quickly. As the car's mileage increases, it loses performance. But sometimes, the battery cannot hold a charge in a recently purchased electric vehicle. Such consequences arise if it is often allowed to discharge completely. Its capacity drops with increased load due to constant trips at high speed, the use of climate control 24/7, and defects in the thermal stabilization system.

You Need Diagnosis of the Car

The battery lasts for 1000-1500 charge cycles. When connected to a household power outlet, a depleted battery will take up to 12 hours to recover fully. At the charging station, this process takes 3-6 hours. It is optimal to keep the charge indicator from 20 to 90%. Turning off unnecessary applications and functions, switching to an energy-saving driving mode, and checking tire pressure helps to reduce the charge loss. 

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If the battery is draining too quickly, diagnostics are needed. With the help of special programs, each battery element is checked. If necessary, damaged blocks are replaced. If corrosion occurs, clean or install new terminals. The oxidized contactor must be replaced.
To troubleshoot the cooling system, the tightness of the water pump, radiator, and pipes and the amount of coolant is evaluated. Broken electrical wires are carefully connected and wrapped with insulating tape. Damaged power cables are replaced with new ones. Avoiding such manipulations and sending the car to a service center is better.

No Touchscreen Access

Modern electric vehicles are technologically complex systems that largely depend on software. If it fails, the sensor goes out, overheats, and generally stops starting. Insufficient CPU cooling in fast charging mode results in slowdowns, constant restarts, or a blank screen in the Tesla Model 3 or Model X. As a result, it is impossible to start and drive an electric vehicle.

Restarting Software Is the Best Solution

In electric cars, the systems are programmed to self-heal, so you must reset the computer to fix the failure. There are 2 ways to do this: standard and deep reboot. The first one takes about 3 minutes. To launch it on Tesla electric cars, you must press and hold the scroll buttons on the steering wheel. The second method involves turning the power off and on. If an error is displayed on the screen, you must do the following:
● Park and close all doors.● Go to the Controls section.● In the Protection and Security menu, select Power Off.
Do not touch anything for 5 minutes so that the onboard computer stops all systems.
Then open the doors of the electric car or press the brake pedal so that the vehicle wakes up. If the touch screen is frozen, press the brake pedal, scroll wheels, and buttons above them. Remove fingers after the sensor starts.
In severe cases, a hard reset may be necessary. It provides, in addition to restarting the onboard computer, turning off and on the battery. Therefore, it is better to entrust this procedure to professionals.

Faulty Key Fob

Many electric vehicles have a keyless entry option, so they start with a key fob. If it fails, the car will not recognize the driver and will not open. In this case, it is attached to the lower part of the windshield on the passenger side. The car should come to life within 20-30 seconds. When receiving the message, Key is unavailable, change the battery (usually, it lasts 5 years). A notification will appear on the dashboard when it runs out of power. The replacement is reported to the system by turning off and on the Walk Away Door Look option in the Protection and Security section.