3 Year/36,000 report, my experience w/ Tesla

[CMcConnell]

Of topic a bit, but I am a new P3D+ owner. It's a ridiculously awesome car. I should know. My son gladly inherited my very low VIN 2011 Chevy Volt.

The day I got my Volt it gave me 40 miles all-electric before switching to gas. Today, 8 years and 100k miles later, it still provides 40 miles all electric. That's right, no perceptible battery degradation at all!

Oh, and essentially zero maintenance: two oil changes, and one new set of tires. Other than being a bit rusty, the disk brakes look like new (I always drove one-pedal in Low).

As many have said, once you go EV, you'll never go back.

 

[rjcbox]

Chevy Volt/Toyota Prius = gateway EVs

 

[rjcbox]

Great article and expresses my own enthusiasm for my Tesla Model S 75. Such a nice ride I am eager to find a reason to go. I've just passed 33,000 miles, and I'm alarmed at the rate of wear on the tires. I don't have a measurement, but I'll be lucky to make it to 40,000 before replacement is necessary. They are Goodyear 245/45R19 98W. Still, I would favor "quiet" over "longer tread wear" when selecting a new tire. Any opinions on tires?

Tesla used a lot Continentals and Goodyears in early years, which seemed to wear relatively fast. They switched to Michelin Primacy for awhile. That's what I had and would expect ~40k miles until tires wear to 3/32

 

[CMcConnell]

Chevy Volt/Toyota Prius = gateway EVs

Ugh. Whenever anyone lumps the Volt and Prius together, I throw up a little bit. The Volt is a muscular EREV that does 0-60 in under 9 seconds (admittedly slower than a Tesla), and the other is a conventional hybrid that struggles to even get to 60!

 

[dgpcolorado]

Here's some better science vs my N=1:

Tesla battery data shows path to over 500,000 miles on a single pack

So far as I am aware, no Tesla battery pack has made it to 200k miles in the wild without being replaced (if you can find any reports that say otherwise, that would be interesting). My 2014 S60 is down 11.5% at 55k miles and service tells me that is fairly good: capacity is 80-85th percentile of the 60 packs. Some others reported here at TMC are much worse.

I would hope that the newer packs being put in the Model 3 will hold up better than the old ones, especially compared to the old S60s that get worked harder than the larger packs of the same vintage. However, we won't know about the Model 3 packs until the cars rack up the miles and years.

 

[rjcbox]

-This Model S has 250,000 miles w/ 7% degradation as of last year - pretty good (but anecdotal)
Tesla Model S Surpasses 250,000 Miles - Just 7% Battery Degradation

-My 70D was closer to 2% degradation @ 36,000 miles (again anecdotal)

-11.5% seems high based on individual reports I've seen

-This scatter plot of 286 sample size is what one would expect statistically. There are outliers of course, but the trend line is very reassuring for a long battery life, far exceeding the typical lifespan of gas engines

 

[dgpcolorado]

-This Model S has 250,000 miles w/ 7% degradation as of last year - pretty good (but anecdotal)
Tesla Model S Surpasses 250,000 Miles - Just 7% Battery Degradation

-My 70D was closer to 2% degradation @ 36,000 miles (again anecdotal)

-11.5% seems high based on individual reports I've seen

-This scatter plot of 286 sample size is what one would expect statistically. There are outliers of course, but the trend line is very reassuring for a long battery life, far exceeding the typical lifespan of gas engines
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I've seen that report before but since the battery pack was serviced and replaced, I don't think it really counts. Here at TMC, @Bighorn is the longest I've seen -- I think he had his S85 pack replaced at 197k miles.

The old-style S60 packs seem to show much greater degradation than the larger packs. I could speculate as to why but only Tesla knows, so far as I am aware. That could be why the S60s have a shorter warranty on the battery than the S85s.

 

[rjcbox]

Yes, this 250,000 mile pack needed service once.

The TeslaLoop 200,000 mile pack was replaced, reportedly due to software issue showing the pack had 6% less than actual range. The software OTA update was not yet available for months, so Tesla replaced the pack instead under it's Unlimited Mile/8yr warranty. Since then the software update to more accurately reflect range (in a high-mileage battery) has been installed on all vehicles

 

[Bighorn]

I did have my P85+ pack go bad at 197k miles--it was down 11-12% at the time. I'm dubious about the Tesloop 200K mile firmware explanation and the mere 6% degradation. From memory, their second battery lost over 20% after 100K miles.

 

[minderbinder]

85D - 3 years, 70k miles, 3% degradation (262 rated, down from 270). I agree with all the OP’s points wholeheartedly!

 

[xav-]

Great review. Thank you for taking the time to post.

I am in my 3rd month of ownership of our M3 and love it.

Here in Ontario, Canada, if we charge at night ( 7pm - 7 am ) it is costing me about 10% of the price of gas. 20% if charging during peak hours. Yes, we pay a lot more for gas than in the US.

For a full charge, empty to full, its about $5 CDN overnight. $10 CDN during peak hours.

Really a great car.

Vin

In California if we find ourselves charging during day time we definitely pay a lot more than the price of gas (40 cents per kWh if I recollect)

 

[xav-]

Of topic a bit, but I am a new P3D+ owner. It's a ridiculously awesome car. I should know. My son gladly inherited my very low VIN 2011 Chevy Volt.

The day I got my Volt it gave me 40 miles all-electric before switching to gas. Today, 8 years and 100k miles later, it still provides 40 miles all electric. That's right, no perceptible battery degradation at all!

Oh, and essentially zero maintenance: two oil changes, and one new set of tires. Other than being a bit rusty, the disk brakes look like new (I always drove one-pedal in Low).

As many have said, once you go EV, you'll never go back.

Dang from volt to performance 3... what a switch

 

[xav-]

I think a big difference between Tesla and Chevy is Chevy will max out battery capacity at 65 or 70 pc.. (at least that is the case on my gen 2 volt)

 

[CMcConnell]

I think a big difference between Tesla and Chevy is Chevy will max out battery capacity at 65 or 70 pc.. (at least that is the case on my gen 2 volt)

I think that's correct, although I was thinking it was more like 85%. Minimum also is set at around 10%. The VOLT shows the "min" and "max" as 0% and 100%, and at least on my 2011 provides no min-max adjustment. They are hard coded, so to speak.

Early rumors were that Chevy could surreptitiously adjust the min-max to give the impression of zero battery degradation. That would have been fairly clever, but at least one GM engineer denied it. One thing is for sure, GM battery maintenance is conservative, and they go crazy on thermal management.

 

[rjcbox]

As many have said, once you go EV, you'll never go back.

Yup!