Fubar.

Just cough up some BTC or Dogecoin and Elon himself will fix it!

I have another suggestion - if the computer is on, check the charge level of the 12V battery, and turn on the the system to charge it occasionally... Just drain the big high-voltage battery a tiny bit, what's the big deal?

while the dismantling seems problematic, 1 hour is nothing when messing with body panels. I'm impressed.

but any car battery can die when left undriven and other cars don't have trickle charger ports installed from factory, you have to add those yourself. (and should)

The design flaw is not that the 12V conventional battery can die or lack of charger port. It's that you can't open the hood to replace it (or other parts of the engine) in a Tesla (or the Model S at least) when the 12V battery dies. Conventional car models use a MECHANICAL means to do that.

A dying 12v in EVs isn't a problem with just Teslas. When I leased my Nissan Leaf many years ago, they warned me about the same thing, except the battery only charges when the car is actually on, not while it's charging. Fortunately, the battery never went flat on me, and even if it had, I think it was a damn site easier to access than Tesla's.

Why does James May (or anyone else for that matter) have a
£100k car standing parked for months? A: hes got too much money and cars, thats why. its obscene. if he doesnt drive the fucking thing, sell it, rent it out or better yet, loan it out to someone in need. he'll be helping someone, saving the environment, and get rid of his stupid battery problem, which, if he can afford to have a tesla sitting unused and charged in a garage, he could afford a mechanic to fix for him.

The top gear assholes succeeds to disappoint again, like the time they faked problems with the tesla roadster to give it a thumbs down.

Fuck off , James May.

You can legitimately hate them because you don't like Top Gear or rich people. But here, May is just pointing out a very stupid design flaw. Calling a mechanic won't make the problem go away. He spent an hour looking into the problem, and it's an education for fellow Tesla owners. Is that a crime?

I guest that Tesla Roadster episode especially pissed you off? They're petrolheads, of course they bash the Roadster in those early days of EV to justify the V8 and V12s for their vroom vroom thrills. It's called TV antics (deceptive? Yes). Most have come around to recognize EV is the future. You think every races/segments in Top Gear are unscripted? Come on... Top Gear's been just pure entertainment and no reporting every since Clarkson took over the rein.

have you seen the new Porsche 911? it has NO HOOD!

Like many cars with remote unlock, the Nissan Leaf has a "hidden" key in the keyfob, and you can unlock the door and pull the manual hood-release to access the 12V battery. No biggie.