Phantom Drain Citizen Science

Technical Input By

Written by

June 24, 2022

Going out of town? Help us out…with Science!

We are asking our community of citizen scientists to help us with a voluntary experiment to understand more about phantom, or vampire drain, which is battery drain that happens when the car is not in use and not plugged in. Since it’s a slow process, it is typically seen when the car is unused and unplugged for anywhere from one night to multiple days, such as while parked at an airport.

EV drivers of different makes and models have different experiences with phantom drain. Anecdotally, phantom drain seems most prominent in Teslas, but we would like to verify and quantify with this experiment.

To be eligible for this experiment, we ask that your vehicle will be unused and unplugged for at least 12 hours.

In the experiment survey form, here is the data we will request:

• Email address (in case we have follow-up questions – this is not shared or added to any mailing lists!)
• Duration of experiment - how long the car will be parked without charging
• Beginning and ending range estimate (in miles; for Bolt EVs, use the middle estimate)
• Beginning and ending state of charge (in %)
• Is your car indoors or outdoors?
• The zip code wherever your car is parked so we can factor in temperature, if outdoors
• Any additional software that you use to monitor your car, such as Sentry Mode or battery monitoring apps, or information that might be relevant (e.g. parked in the shade, whether you turned off monitoring apps, etc.)

All reported data will be aggregated anonymously and published for the EV community on this URL. The experiment is open to all battery electric makes and models.

Finally, know that you can contribute to this experiment multiple times! Feel free to share with your EV friends, too.

Sound interesting? Get started here!

Questions? Email us at support@recurrentauto.com and we’ll respond as quickly as we can!