[Max] Drucker took delivery of Roadster No. 340 in May 2009, more than a year after placing a $50,000 deposit for the vehicle. He said he has driven the car 13,000 miles and followed Tesla’s service guidelines. He moved into a rental house while his home was being renovated and parked his Roadster in the garage, leaving it with a 25 percent state of charge. He didn’t touch it for six weeks and found it dead when he attempted to start it earlier this month.

“It wouldn’t do anything,” he said. “It wouldn’t even unlock. It took four guys two hours to get the car out of my garage and onto a flatbed truck. The car wouldn’t even roll.”

He sent the car to the Tesla store in Los Angeles. Three days later, Drucker said, Tesla told him the battery must be replaced at a cost of $32,000 plus tax and labor. He said Tesla told him the warranty will not cover the repair, and his car remains at the Tesla store.

“I’m going to sell the car for salvage,” Drucker said. “I’m done with this Roadster.”

Drucker complains that Tesla has not adequately warned owners of the risk or done enough to mitigate it.

... Tesla’s point that batteries require a minimum level of maintenance by owners was echoed by EV advocates and Thilo Koslowski, an auto analyst with Gartner.

“This isn’t all that surprising,” Koslowski said. “This is what you’d expect with batteries. The same thing will happen with the battery used by your internal combustion engine. If you don’t maintain it, it will go dead. The issue here for Tesla is the battery is of course a significant part of the drivetrain. It is very expensive, and there are liability issues.”

... Koslowski said it is possible to revive a “dead” battery. However, it is a complicated, time-consuming process and there’s a risk the battery was damaged by being depleted. This makes it unlikely an automaker would be willing to revive a dead pack.

[A much older Wired article included complaints of dead batteries in those crummy little Zap Xebras. Bricking in a Tesla Roadster is significantly worse publicity for the EV industry than the Volt burning issue, IMO. Tesla would be wise to replace Max's battery.]