200 mile daily commute - effect on battery life?

[dsm363]

That will be a good test of degradation. Even if you could find a 110V outlet there will help a little. It will add hardly nothing during the winter but help keep range from falling and will add maybe 25 miles during the day in warmer weather. If you tell them you are willing to pay for the install, they might go for it. Maybe you could donate a J1772 station that is reserved for your use for the year and tell them you'll leave it there when project is done.
80mph in winter will be cutting it close even with max charge I'm guessing. Slowing down to 70mph might make that trip more possible in a few years. Hopefully a Supercharger is built along that route at some point.
The pack isn't warranted against normal degradation so you may find yourself needing to buy a new pack sooner than 8 years if you continue that long commute. Might just be worth buying a new Model S in 5 years and hopefully a 110kWh pack or something is out.
Have you thought of the lease that you can write off as a business expense if that is possible?

 

[rdrcrmatt]

Have you thought of the lease that you can write off as a business expense of that is possible?

That's exactly what I'm doing.

 

[dsm363]

That's exactly what I'm doing.

Great. If you are leasing then you can get a sense of how your range is doing at the end of the 3 years and decide to keep going with that car and buy it after 5 years or get whatever new version is out in 3 years.

 

[rdrcrmatt]

Great. If you are leasing then you can get a sense of how your range is doing at the end of the 3 years and decide to keep going with that car and buy it after 5 years or get whatever new version is out in 3 years.

That's one idea.. but with the miles I plan to put on it, I'll be taking a huge hit in terms of the "lease"...

One thing that has me really concerned about buying this car is resale value in 5-7 years. Am I buying a 100k car to only get 20k back out in 5-6 years?? Who would pay 35-40k for a 5+ year old car? This isn't an exotic by any means, and isn't going to be a collectors item (imo)... but I could be wrong. I hasn't happened yet today. lol!

 

[JRP3]

With the kind of mileage you do what sort of resale value would any car have, if it were even still running? You did say you might hit 500,000 miles in 8 years.

 

[dsm363]

That's one idea.. but with the miles I plan to put on it, I'll be taking a huge hit in terms of the "lease"...

One thing that has me really concerned about buying this car is resale value in 5-7 years. Am I buying a 100k car to only get 20k back out in 5-6 years?? Who would pay 35-40k for a 5+ year old car? This isn't an exotic by any means, and isn't going to be a collectors item (imo)... but I could be wrong. I hasn't happened yet today. lol!

You're right. The Model S you'll may buy definitely won't be a collectors item so wouldn't factor that in. The resale value after so many miles will likely be very low but would expect any luxury car with that many miles on it to not sell for much. Hopefully you could get more than $20,000 after 5 years. If the car is in good shape, the person buying it might be able to swap out the pack and be ok but that is a ton of miles. I guess you'll need to do the calculation on how much gas you'll save and see if the math makes it doable. It still won't be as economical as buying a used Prius of course so you aren't buying the Model S purely for practicality.

 

[Mike_Schlechter]

I'm in a similar boat to yobigd20, just from the other direction. I have a just under two hour commute from CT to SoHo. Due to a slipped disc in my neck the train is just too uncomfortable, so for the last month I've been driving almost every day (125 mile round trip).

At first I was concerned about the batter life, but with warranty I have let that slide from my mind.

One thing I've been doing for the last week is taking a semi-extended minute break on my way home at the Darien Supercharger; adding about 70 to 100 miles depending on how much Tesla-time is needed by interested passers by.

Is there an impact on regularly Supercharging along with the longer daily trips?

 

[yobigd20]

I'm in a similar boat to yobigd20, just from the other direction. I have a just under two hour commute from CT to SoHo. Due to a slipped disc in my neck the train is just too uncomfortable, so for the last month I've been driving almost every day (125 mile round trip).

At first I was concerned about the batter life, but with warranty I have let that slide from my mind.

One thing I've been doing for the last week is taking a semi-extended minute break on my way home at the Darien Supercharger; adding about 70 to 100 miles depending on how much Tesla-time is needed by interested passers by.

Is there an impact on regularly Supercharging along with the longer daily trips?

Tesla's "official" word will say there is no impact. Lithium Ion experts would say that's one the worst possible thing you could do. Though I've heard Tesla employees say that daily supercharging is not good even though that is not their official stance. Personally, I have a hard time believing that supercharging is healthy for the battery. One tech said that the faster the charging, the harder it is for the batteries to balance themselves (charging for ALL cells stops when the FIRST cell reaches target), therefore the faster the charging the more the cells become imbalanced and lead to lower possible range. But I interpret imbalancing to be different than battery 'degradation' or actual damage (e.g. trickle charging repeatedly for months using 110v should "restore" battery balance thus "restore" range back to original). But faster charging = higher heat = BAD for battery, though Tesla's battery cooling system "should" mitigate this to make it "safe". Honestly I have no idea who is right or wrong on this topic. I don't think anyone does, not even Tesla considering you'll get conflicted answers depending on who you talk to.

 

[JRP3]

I would think that as long as you finish your charging at home at normal rates then normal balancing should take place. Since he's only partially depleted when supercharging then presumably he's not getting full current anyway, or at least not for that long.

 

[Mike_Schlechter]

I never charge over my "daily" level / pre-4.5 non-range level, so hope I'm good.