Considering used S 90D, but battery concerns

[Dylan McNamee]

Hey all, I've been lurking here for years, and have finally decided to jump in to the pool. For my family's needs, a Model S 90D (no "P", even though the CPO folks seem to be over-flowing with them - I've got two teenagers - too hard to insure).

A local car in beautiful condition is sitting on a local lot. According to CarFax, it's been there for 6 months. When we went to test drive it, there was 90 miles of range. This dealer doesn't have a high capacity charger, so they just plugged it in to a low-amp charger for 3 hours. Apparently that brought it from 60 miles to 90 miles.

My main concern is: does having it sit for months, dribbling down to 60 miles of charge, do damage to the batteries? And, if I bring it to the local Super Charger, will a single charge tell me reliable information about the health of the batteries? Everything else about it checks out: only one owner, clean title, very nice condition, etc, but this could be a deal breaker.

Thanks! From my lurkings, I've been really impressed by this community - I'm looking forward to becoming a full-fledged member.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

I'd have no concern.

Take it to a local Supercharger, set to Max Range Charge, plug it in, get some lunch. If you wait about 45 minutes to an hour you'll have a decent idea of what the battery health is.

But why worry?

The reality is you're covered for UNLIMITED miles and a full 8 years, AFAIK. Be sure to query Tesla to make sure, but I'm about 99.9% sure that you'll be fine.

 

[Raechris]

Not likely, damage is going to zero or sitting at 90+ for a long time. I wonder if tesla would pull data to help you vet the car / also to confirm warranty status (esp on battery). Hopefully the dealer can either find a L2 or use L1 to get charge up to 90% so you can see what BMS reports. Good luck.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

Concur.

I believe the batteries last nearly forever is just left sitting at mid-level SoC. Super low, or above 90%, for long periods of time, are the areas where life might be a hair lower than expected.

 

[Doc Savage]

Our S90D is at 30,000 and going strong, without any battery concerns.

 

[Dylan McNamee]

Okay - it sounds like the consensus opinion that this probably isn't an issue. I'll check it out with the local super charger before committing, but I think we're good on that front. Thanks, all!

 

[PhilDavid]

Maybe see if you can take it to a Tesla SC so they can do a Pre Purchase Inspection for you and perhaps give you some idea about the health of the battery.

Might not be a bad idea to do the PPI in any case so they can check the whole car over for you.

 

[kaidou]

wait, did they let you test-drive the CPO car? I've never seen/heard of this before.
Lucky you!
Tesla warranty is great. so don't worry about battery.

 

[Jkhood]

The SC is located at 4330 SW Macadam Ave, Portland, OR

 

[PhilDavid]

wait, did they let you test-drive the CPO car? I've never seen/heard of this before.
Lucky you!
Tesla warranty is great. so don't worry about battery.

He's considering buying this car from a dealer so he is of course treated awfully by the dealer by being able to call and inquire about the car, see the car in person, and take the car for a test drive

 

[Shateam]

I would also check the battery pack part number. It’s located on a sticker behind the passenger side front wheel.

There are several versions for the 90D and anecdotal evidence suggests that part #1088790-00-A is the latest and greatest.

 

[Canuck]

90 battery pack degradation

 

[WaitingForY]

you should be fine. Ask the dealer to allow you to charge it to 100% at the supercharger and see what the "rated" miles are.

 

[Sousagil90D]

Is it facelift or pre-facelift? I have the last version of the 90D and it still charges at 112kw after 60k miles but a friend of mine has a 90D pre facelift that kept losing the max charge at the superchargers and now does not go higher than 98kw.

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

Is it facelift or pre-facelift? I have the last version of the 90D and it still charges at 112kw after 60k miles but a friend of mine has a 90D pre facelift that kept losing the max charge at the superchargers and now does not go higher than 98kw.

This depends on how often you supercharge. It looks like you rarely supercharge, while your friend supercharge often.

Though there is no evidence yet, but currently only the 100KWh packs seem to be immune to the charge rate degradation because of high supercharging usage using the currently supercharger. That might change once they release the supercharger v3 with higher charging rates.

 

[Sousagil90D]

This depends on how often you supercharge. It looks like you rarely supercharge, while your friend supercharge often.

Though there is no evidence yet, but currently only the 100KWh packs seem to be immune to the charge rate degradation because of high supercharging usage using the currently supercharger. That might change once they release the supercharger v3 with higher charging rates.

I supercharge 4 times a week average, a lot more than my friends does. The fact that my battery is the last generation of the 90kw pack is probably the reason why my battery is not being throtlled. I assume its also degrading less that my friends pack, but I cannot know for sure.

 

[Canuck]

I have the last version of the 90D and it still charges at 112kw after 60k miles but a friend of mine has a 90D pre facelift that kept losing the max charge at the superchargers and now does not go higher than 98kw.

This depends on how often you supercharge. It looks like you rarely supercharge, while your friend supercharge often.

I supercharge 4 times a week average, a lot more than my friends does. The fact that my battery is the last generation of the 90kw pack is probably the reason why my battery is not being throtlled. I assume its also degrading less that my friends pack, but I cannot know for sure.

Supercharging makes little difference to degradation because of thermal cooling -- unlike the Leaf where fastcharging a hot battery on a hot day with no thermal cooling leads to fast degradation. My early S85 has been supercharged twice most weekends for years and it shows less degradation than the first batch of 90 batteries. When I supercharge on hot days, with a hot battery, you can really hear the compressor rev up to cool the batteries before filling them. On my Leaf and Chademo there's silence -- not even a fan! Tesla did it right. Nissan did a major fail.

I'm convinced the degradation we see with the 90s is related to the addition of silicon to the first 90s but that's just my theory based on reading posts here.

 

[dane a]

Hello, my name is Dane, this message is mainly for Canuck, while I largely agree with the analysis
regarding the Leaf, having owned both a Leaf and now a CPO 2015 85D. The Leaf is a fine car, less
so on the 2011/2012's mainly due to battery degradation, I would disagree that it was a
"major fail" of Nissan. Keep in mind the Leaf was built to a certain price point (i.e. lack of a thermal
management system) with a different design mission for the vehicle i.e- shorter city type
commutes/errands for which the Leaf does quite well. To Nissan's credit they did replace some of older
(faster degrading traction packs), and did revise the battery chemistry/technology after mid 2013
to slow the rate of degradation. The low entry level price point of the Leaf (used for me) allowed me to
try an electric car to help me decide if I wanted to persue a Model S. I'm happy to say it did.

 

[Dylan McNamee]

Thanks to this thread, my other research, and the dealer's willingness to drop the price by
a bit, my family is now joined by a gorgeous red Model S 90D. As you all suggested, the
battery charged up just fine. Very pleased. Thanks for your help!

 

[hiroshiy]

Thanks to this thread, my other research, and the dealer's willingness to drop the price by
a bit, my family is now joined by a gorgeous red Model S 90D. As you all suggested, the
battery charged up just fine. Very pleased. Thanks for your help!

Congratulations !!! I'm glad you found a perfect car.