The weather in California is very dry and windy. Due to fears that electricity lines might spark wildfires, which happened last year, California’s Pacific Gas & Electricity is planning a mass power outage. This means that 800,000 Californians would be without power by the end of the day.
This is a big problem for owners of electric vehicles; no power means no changing. Tesla has sent out an in-car alert for EV owners warning them to charge their vehicles fully in advance of the outage. Tesla has also activated the Storm Watch feature on the PowerWall to store extra electricity before the outage.
Tesla has used the system in the past to warn drivers to charge ahead of hurricanes. Since the Tesla battery lasts many owners for several days of use, lots of owners don’t charge every day. Odds are some owners had no idea that electricity would be cut off.