Tesla Motors Model S

Earl, I don't see where the second article refutes anything from the first article. It just says that it's unlikely (the first article agrees it's unlikely also). It even says this:

It's true that a full discharge to zero percent state of charge can potentially be damaging to a battery.

Official word from Tesla:

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/plug-it

And it's true that if any of the 8,000 cells of the battery reach zero charge, they can irreparably fail, but you left out that there's a system that prevents them from ever reaching that point. If a handful of cells fail, I bet replacing those individual cells is cheaper than replacing the whole battery. And if all the cells deplete, it sounds like you just have to recharge them, then reboot the system.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened in those 5 cases -- the battery system just disconnected all the cells, so Tesla just recharged and rebooted them, and billed the customer for shipping the car/labor.

Could be, but I don't know. That's all I'm saying.

there's a system that prevents them from ever reaching that point

I've never heard of a system that can absolutely prevent a battery from fully discharging. But I can imagine some rich person buying one of these cars and leaving it unattended for months at a time.

I'm was just noting that the second article did not in fact rule out damaged batteries. And if it's not ruled out (and I don't see how it could be regardless of systems designed to prevent it), then the first article could in fact be true.

Note, I'm not judging this as a bad thing or not. Lots of expensive things can go wrong with any car... especially to an expensive car.

Yeah, if you're rich enough that a Tesla Roadster wouldn't be a car you drive all the time, I have no sympathy if dies because you don't take proper care of it.