All Xs still have the battery warranty, but it seems to mean less and less every month as Tesla finds ways to keep them alive until the warranty runs out.
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2013 Model S sudden battery failure
- Thread starter cmc1671
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All Xs still have the battery warranty, but it seems to mean less and less every month as Tesla finds ways to keep them alive until the warranty runs out.
islandbayy
Active Member
Thankfully 3 more years. November 2016 Build for my MX. Has gone down hill in supercharging rates too. at 50% SOC, it's like a brick wall and will drop from around 90kW to around 50kW. Peak charge rate currently seems to be around 112kW. 3 months ago I could hit 138kW peak. Temperature makes no difference on the peak.
Oh I'm dang sure it will "fail" a week or two after warranty is up. Making sure I have enough "Concern" noted with service where if that happens, I can go back and say it was an existing issue.
only problem is you also have to buy a car to replace the on you sold, potentially, so if it's also used, you lose out. OTOH, buying a new car and getting $7500 tax credit could be interesting. Only problem is Tesla doesn't have that anymore. I wonder how long till we get new EV credits, and how much it will be for Tesla.
Following...interesting that my 2013 P85+ was exactly 14 days out of warranty! HV at >$22k out of pocket quoted. I am disgruntled enough as an owner, practically an early adopter, as a shareholder this seems to be the tip of the iceberg of a bigger problem. Quite a few of the early year owners were/are people of influence. I hope one with the right PR and reach, expose this.
islandbayy
Active Member
Still not worth it. As raphy3 said, I'd still need to replace the vehicle(s). Sure I could go down to a 3 or y, but those are too much of a sacrifice. This is the wrong place to nit pick the differences, but they are too great.
I'm also grandfathered in for premium data on both vehicles, already upgraded both to MCU2, so got a lot of the add-ons there. I'm grandfathered in for unlimited supercharging for the life of the vehicle. I drive 45k/year, so that supercharging alone makes it worth while. Seems my 90d MS's battery has leveled off with degradation for now, at 248 miles per charge and a pack capacity of 73kWh. So as long as I can live with that range, I'm "OK". 3-4 years ago, I don't think I could live with that range, but with so many superchargers now, it's not so bad. My first MS was a MS60, with a 100% charge at new of 209.
My MX75D range is now about 209 at 100% charge with a pack capacity of about 65kWh. Where as I can nail the range spot on with the MS, the MX, I'm LUCKY to get 75% of the rated range in the summer and difficult to hit 50% rated range in the winter unless I kill the heat. The MX is mostly used as an in-town vehicle. We use the MS for longer drives, Milwaukee to Chitcago, or other long distance depending on what I need to get done, the MX is great around town car and 7 passenger when the In-Laws visit (for 6 months at a crack!)
tempting, but I would get fomo if the new bill passed and suddenly we can get $7500 off of a Tesla. I think that might push me to get a 3LR. Although as @islandbayy said the tradeoffs might be harsh and I haven't fully evaluated that yet (I know I'm going to miss the huuuuuge frunk, which I use like 4-5 times per year, so it's probably irrational to worry about it)I am selling my S and placed order for Y.
edit to add: are people interested in making a new thread that evaluates the tradeoffs of selling old S, getting new 3 or Y? I haven't looked around to see if it already exists yet.
So sorry to hear of your situation. Really hope you find a solution.
Really horrified to hear this story. I had been thinking of getting a 7 year old model S as a replacement for our remaining ICE car (to go with our awesome 2021 M3 LR). They're selling for up to £35k-£40k here in the UK. Seems like crazily bad value when a battery failure a year later could reduce the effective value to near zero.
All of the car manufacturers need a better plan than this for repairing batteries out of warranty though it will probably take a long concerted public campaign to shame them into action. This is the old anti EV scare story that batteries will have to be replaced at warranty expiry coming true.
My model S idea is now canned sadly, thanks to Tesla's apparent disinterest in battery repair. So much for sustainability.
Guess I'll have to get something much less interesting for a second EV like an ID.3. I can't justify the expense of another M3 for a low mileage second car.
Really horrified to hear this story. I had been thinking of getting a 7 year old model S as a replacement for our remaining ICE car (to go with our awesome 2021 M3 LR). They're selling for up to £35k-£40k here in the UK. Seems like crazily bad value when a battery failure a year later could reduce the effective value to near zero.
All of the car manufacturers need a better plan than this for repairing batteries out of warranty though it will probably take a long concerted public campaign to shame them into action. This is the old anti EV scare story that batteries will have to be replaced at warranty expiry coming true.
My model S idea is now canned sadly, thanks to Tesla's apparent disinterest in battery repair. So much for sustainability.
Guess I'll have to get something much less interesting for a second EV like an ID.3. I can't justify the expense of another M3 for a low mileage second car.
Electric700
Active Member
I think you should escalate and if you don't get a good response about repairing the battery, consider sending a tweet to Tesla leadership...something like "Please offer a low-cost out of warranty battery repair option with a full warranty for at least four years."
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
There is no escalation path in Tesla.
They don’t repair customer batteries. They probably never will. They swap them, and remanufacture the cores they take in to be sold to someone else.
I mean, by all means, tweet if it makes you feel better.
The "cheap" repair is already available: Tesla offers reman battery replacement for 12k
Be also mindful that the initial 8 year unlimited mileage warranty was for both the battery and drive unit.
Drive unit out of warranty are around 10k, so be mindful of that as well if you plan on buying an out of warranty S.
I'm not trying to discourage you: personally I plan on keeping mine after the end of the warranty, but those costs, I've factored them in in my TCO for the coming years (ie I highly expect to have those costs within 2 years post end of warranty), and I prefer to keep the S.
Drive units have gone down in price at least for my Model S 85. Tesla replaced my rear drive unit for just under $5000 for a new unit 2 months ago.
After saving up for months - I'm finally pulling the trigger on new 90kwh battery pack from Tesla.
Backstory:
My 2013 S85 barely has 80k miles - software update/charge gate came a few months of being outside of the 8 yr warranty. I started noticing max charge (90% in my case since I never charge at 100%) dropped gradually from 210 to 190 down to 40 miles. Practically woke up the following morning after seeing the low SOC the front dash stating I need to call it in for Tesla service. Surely enough tesla mobile service tells me that I have to replace HV battery at whopping 22k.
I couldn't afford at the time being so I sent to Grubber for repair. Car sat in Gruber service ground for almost 5 months waiting to be repaired. When I am finally next in queue, the fire broke in the main service center and Gruber lost all equipment to service my vehicle. My car was in the 2min youtube video of the fire right next to 3 fire fighters as they were inspecting what was left of the service center. Picture attached.
Fast forward to today, basically no choice but to ship the car back to Tesla Service center near our home in CA. Biggest fear at this point, we barely had the money saved up for the new battery, I don't know if we can afford another 5k to replace drive unit.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for the read. With this experience, we will probably sell our 2018 MX a year before the warranty expires. Love driving teslas but this journey has been an absolute nightmare.
Backstory:
My 2013 S85 barely has 80k miles - software update/charge gate came a few months of being outside of the 8 yr warranty. I started noticing max charge (90% in my case since I never charge at 100%) dropped gradually from 210 to 190 down to 40 miles. Practically woke up the following morning after seeing the low SOC the front dash stating I need to call it in for Tesla service. Surely enough tesla mobile service tells me that I have to replace HV battery at whopping 22k.
I couldn't afford at the time being so I sent to Grubber for repair. Car sat in Gruber service ground for almost 5 months waiting to be repaired. When I am finally next in queue, the fire broke in the main service center and Gruber lost all equipment to service my vehicle. My car was in the 2min youtube video of the fire right next to 3 fire fighters as they were inspecting what was left of the service center. Picture attached.
Fast forward to today, basically no choice but to ship the car back to Tesla Service center near our home in CA. Biggest fear at this point, we barely had the money saved up for the new battery, I don't know if we can afford another 5k to replace drive unit.
Sorry for the long post. Thanks for the read. With this experience, we will probably sell our 2018 MX a year before the warranty expires. Love driving teslas but this journey has been an absolute nightmare.
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ucmndd
Well-Known Member
That’s a bummer. Have you considered going with a remanufactured battery? Others have reported costs for that option at ~half the $22k you’re referencing.
Yes, I have. I had reached out to multiple service centers and I would get one of below:
1.) I would be totally ghosted when sending email inquiry. No response on emails regarding alternative battery replacement.
2.) Visiting in person result in "Sorry we only do brand new battery replacement that your vehicle qualify for which is the 90kwh pack."
Yep. And, there are so many people (esp. newer folks) who will believe it based upon hearsay and random crap they throw out there like "million mile". How long do EV main battery packs last before failure (not just manageable degradation)? is an example of such a new person who thinks that packs should last "Forever really".
There seems to be no shortage of such people everyday and maybe an increasing # of people who believe it. It just seems pretty risky from a financial point of view to hold any Tesla once its battery pack warranty is over.
Besides plenty of packs failing under warranty and being replaced, not surprisingly, I keep seeing more and more reports of failures past warranty and thus being socked with a huge bill/estimate.
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