Any M3 with Aftermarket HV battery?

[nicksp]

I had replaced my 07 Prius battery once with an aftermarket battery and it served me well till I traded it in. I recently purchased a used 18 M3LR and plan on keeping it for some time and I was wondering if anyone here has a aftermarket HV.
Also can we anticipate that in 3 to 4 years there will be more aftermarket batteries or Tesla will reduce the price of their batteries?

 

[jjrandorin]

I dont believe such a thing exists, at least not yet.

 

[brkaus]

A large quantity of Teslas won't reach the end of their 8-year warranty until 2026. I wouldn't anticipate significant changes until after that time.

 

[davewill]

I doubt replacement pack prices from Tesla will decline much. What we're likely to see are not aftermarket batteries, but shops installing salvage packs or doing minor refurb.

 

[RayK]

Even if such a thing exists, I personally would be extremely wary of putting a huge Li-ion battery pack into a vehicle. At this point in time, an "aftermarket" source would have very little history on their design, safety or qualifications in offering something like that.

 

[cbdream99]

I think there are there several factors affecting this:

(1) Not an easy task to develop and make a pack that will work with various versions of Tesla or others.
(2) Not enough batteries that are out of warranty and failed, at least time wise.
(3) Unless there are enough markets to make such a big investment, it is not going to be profitable.
(4) There is always a chance that Tesla changes their software and making this attempt failed, unless Tesla opens up the related softwares.
(5) New Tesla price is dropping, making investing on a "new" battery on a much used car less desirable.

Some local shops have tried to refurbish the pack or from a salvaged car, they are cheaper than Tesla but also with shorter warranty, unless you are really a fan and live close by, there are certain risks and inconvenient at least.

 

[3sr+buyer]

A company in New Zealand is trying to make an aftermarket battery (liquid cooled LFP) for the early Nissan Leaf (whose factory batteries with high-degradation air cooled LMO), but it was originally targeted for 2022 but is not out yet. So don't hold your breath on aftermarket batteries for Teslas.

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A more reasonable possibility may be aftermarket reuse of salvage batteries, or reconstruction of batteries by combining a good matched set of cells (from a battery with bad case or electronics) with a good case and electronics (from a battery with one or more bad cells resulting in too much mismatch for Tesla BMS to tolerate). There has been some aftermarket activity attempting to combine cells from various batteries, but the Tesla BMS tends not to like that due to low tolerance for mismatch.

 

[nicksp]

Thanks for the very informative replies. I was not clear when I said Aftermarket. What I meant was refurbished batteries. Today there are a few places that claim to provide this service and I was hoping that in a few years there'll be more.

 

[3sr+buyer]

Thanks for the very informative replies. I was not clear when I said Aftermarket. What I meant was refurbished batteries. Today there are a few places that claim to provide this service and I was hoping that in a few years there'll be more.

Refurbished batteries with full sets of matched cells are more likely to be offered successfully than those where there is attempt to mix and match cells from different batteries, based on previously observed rapid failures when the latter have been attempted with Teslas.

A refurbished battery with a full set of matched cells can come from:

• A crashed car with no crash damage to the battery.
• A battery which failed due to failure other than in a cell (e.g. electronics, case, etc.).
• A battery with a failed cell where all cells are removed and replaced by a matched set of cells (possibly from a battery with failures in the non-cell parts).