Well, sure, if it's 72 and partly cloudy out. My car can do that for years by leaving the windows open. This feature only really matters when it's swelteringly hot out.
What if I park a black Tesla at the San Diego airport for a week-long vacation, and it's 100 degrees and unmitigated direct sun? Will I come back to a battery that can't get me home?
That would be when I would want this feature to avoid damage to my car from it overheating. But also when it's most likely to run down the battery.
Isn't "up to a year on full charge" also the longest you can leave a Model S parked before the battery goes flat and it's bricked? It does sound like they've calculated their figures based on the cooling never actually kicking in.
Not even. You lose about 1% per day, and then the manual warns that it's bad to let it sit for more than two months after it goes to zero. That's about five months total, if you start from 100%, before something bad happens. I don't think they specify exactly what, but better not to find out.
If it can handle a year on a full charge, then unless your battery is below 2%, it'll last a week. And if it was below 2%, you probably wouldn't be able to make it home anyways.
The parent's point is that the circumstances would dictate how quickly the battery drains, so it wouldn't always last a year on full charge. (And therefore not always a week with > 2% charge.) That said, it's not trying to keep it chilly, just not deathly hot, so I expect it would still be fine.
