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Tesla Advises Customers Hit By California Blackout to Charge Up

Tesla Rushes to Keep California Blackout From Killing Batteries

(Bloomberg) -- Before PG&E Corp.’s massive blackout swept across Northern California, Tesla Inc. issued a politely worded but urgent message to its many area customers: charge up your car, now.

Customers tweeted photos Wednesday of the notice popping up on the touch screens of their electric cars, advising them to top off their batteries while they still could. Utility owner PG&E began shutting off electricity to parts of the region early Wednesday to prevent its power lines from sparking fires during an expected windstorm.

Tesla Advises Customers Hit By California Blackout to Charge Up

“A utility company in your area announced they may turn off power in some areas of Northern California beginning October 9 as part of public safety power shutoffs, which may affect power to charging options,” the notice read. “We recommend charging your Tesla to 100% today to ensure that your drive remains uninterrupted.”

The notice wasn’t Tesla’s only response to the outages affecting the automaker’s San Francisco Bay Area home. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that the company was adding solar arrays and batteries to its charging stations as fast as possible.

To contact the reporter on this story: David R. Baker in San Francisco at dbaker116@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Craig Trudell, Kara Wetzel

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