Should I avoid cars with 85kwh packs?

[flynnstone]

I’ve been reading about Tesla’s OTA updates limiting the 85kwh cars, and reducing range overnight. I found a 2014 P85 I’m interested in, but am questioning if i should avoid all 85kwh cars given the current battery-gate/charge-gate/etc?

Is it as widespread as it appears on here, or limited to a minority of Model S cars?

 

[Akikiki]

Sounds to me like you should simply avoid Tesla's.

 

[BlueOvalFan]

There are documented issues but I wouldn’t characterize them as wide spread. My P85D seems to be just fine with nearly 50k mikes in the clock. No capping, or severe charging limitations—still lovein’ the car.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I’ve been reading about Tesla’s OTA updates limiting the 85kwh cars, and reducing range overnight. I found a 2014 P85 I’m interested in, but am questioning if i should avoid all 85kwh cars given the current battery-gate/charge-gate/etc?

Is it as widespread as it appears on here, or limited to a minority of Model S cars?

I’ve been reading about Tesla’s OTA updates limiting the 85kwh cars, and reducing range overnight. I found a 2014 P85 I’m interested in, but am questioning if i should avoid all 85kwh cars given the current battery-gate/charge-gate/etc?

Is it as widespread as it appears on here, or limited to a minority of Model S cars?

This thread seems to have a lot of happy 85 pack owners.
7 years later what is your 100% on your 85kWh battery?

It's an older car though, but that's why they are so much cheaper than new ones.

 

[flynnstone]

Sounds to me like you should simply avoid Tesla's.

Sounds like you should get a life

 

[Az_Rael]

I’ve been reading about Tesla’s OTA updates limiting the 85kwh cars, and reducing range overnight. I found a 2014 P85 I’m interested in, but am questioning if i should avoid all 85kwh cars given the current battery-gate/charge-gate/etc?



Is it as widespread as it appears on here, or limited to a minority of Model S cars?

So far it is not widespread. Our early 2015 P85D hasn't been capped.

You can always ask to see a 100% charge at rated miles (not ideal) to see what the current range of the car is. This is probably good practice buying used EVs anyway.


As far as chargegate, that one might be harder to tell if the car you are buying has been limited. How much do you plan to supercharge? We rarely supercharge so I have no idea if our 2015 has been slowed. We tend to only take the cars on a road trip if it is less than 6 hours drive otherwise we fly. In those shorter trips the extended charging time would be less of an issue. Really depends on how often you road trip.

 

[johnnyS]

they are good cars--just older. The features are not as complete. Since they cost less, they can be a good starting point for your Tesla journey.

 

[MacGreiner]

Sounds to me like you should simply avoid Tesla's.

The dude asks a completely legitimate question and you reply with this. Wow.

 

[flynnstone]

So far it is not widespread. Our early 2015 P85D hasn't been capped.

You can always ask to see a 100% charge at rated miles (not ideal) to see what the current range of the car is. This is probably good practice buying used EVs anyway.


As far as chargegate, that one might be harder to tell if the car you are buying has been limited. How much do you plan to supercharge? We rarely supercharge so I have no idea if our 2015 has been slowed. We tend to only take the cars on a road trip if it is less than 6 hours drive otherwise we fly. In those shorter trips the extended charging time would be less of an issue. Really depends on how often you road trip.

Thank you for the feedback! I won’t be supercharging much, if at all. I have a Model 3 today; but want to go back to an S

 

[nwdrive]

Thank you for the feedback! I won’t be supercharging much, if at all. I have a Model 3 today; but want to go back to an S

If you aren’t worried about supercharging, I wouldn’t worry about an 85 pack. Not very many people got “capped”, but most if not all will take an eternity to supercharge compared to a model 3 after the slowdown. My 2014 s85 range is still 252 at 100% after 60k miles, so day to day it’s great, just not as good for distance anymore. 85s are good packs as far as I’ve seen.

 

[samppa]

If you're looking for an older Tesla, 85 is probably the best bet, between 60/70/85 batteries.

You could buy the needed adapter and get scan my tesla. Then you can easily read bms info for any car you're testdriving.

My S is 03/2014, has just over 100k km, and bms reports full nominal capacity at 75,2kWh. When new, 85 battery nominal was actually 81,5kWh.

 

[flynnstone]

If you're looking for an older Tesla, 85 is probably the best bet, between 60/70/85 batteries.

You could buy the needed adapter and get scan my tesla. Then you can easily read bms info for any car you're testdriving.

My S is 03/2014, has just over 100k km, and bms reports full nominal capacity at 75,2kWh. When new, 85 battery nominal was actually 81,5kWh.

I just got a call from Tesla that they charged it to 100% overnight, and the battery is at 248 miles of rated range. It’s a single owner P85 with every option including AP1, and seems to be in overall great shape. Selling for just under $44K from Tesla with 2 year bumper to bumper warranty, and drive unit/battery covered until the end of 2022.

My plan has been to pick it up and drive the P85 for a year or so, and then move up to a 100D. I doubt I’ll ever use supercharging. I’m in the process of selling my LR Model 3 (just prefer the size of the S).

 

[flynnstone]

If you aren’t worried about supercharging, I wouldn’t worry about an 85 pack. Not very many people got “capped”, but most if not all will take an eternity to supercharge compared to a model 3 after the slowdown. My 2014 s85 range is still 252 at 100% after 60k miles, so day to day it’s great, just not as good for distance anymore. 85s are good packs as far as I’ve seen.

Thanks! I’ll hardly be using supercharging (if ever at all). Seems like a great car from a value perspective

 

[AmpedRealtor]

My 2013 P85 is unaffected and has not been capped. In fact, I have been unaffected by the vast majority of issues presented in these forums.

 

[Akikiki]

I’ve been reading about Tesla’s OTA updates limiting the 85kwh cars, and reducing range overnight. I found a 2014 P85 I’m interested in, but am questioning if i should avoid all 85kwh cars given the current battery-gate/charge-gate/etc?

Is it as widespread as it appears on here, or limited to a minority of Model S cars?

My earlier reply to you was pretty flip. I apologize. Since my truly negative remark, a good many people have stepped up to defend owning an 85. It not an accurate assessment of the performance or longevity on the 85 or another to judge just on what is being reported by a some owners from updates. Battery range changes both up and down have occurred from firmware updates since the first S's were on the road. We don't know how or why they decide to tweak the range settings, but they do. As I recall, we have also seen posts on changes for 70's & 75's. Tweaks have changed my 85 and 90 up and down a little. But I don't expect to see some permanent down turn in range that would scare me off owning an 85. However the rule around here has always been buy as big a battery as you can afford always go for range. There I hope that is clearer and worth your read.

 

[flynnstone]

My earlier reply to you was pretty flip. I apologize. Since my truly negative remark, a good many people have stepped up to defend owning an 85. It not an accurate assessment of the performance or longevity on the 85 or another to judge just on what is being reported by a some owners from updates. Battery range changes both up and down have occurred from firmware updates since the first S's were on the road. We don't know how or why they decide to tweak the range settings, but they do. As I recall, we have also seen posts on changes for 70's & 75's. Tweaks have changed my 85 and 90 up and down a little. But I don't expect to see some permanent down turn in range that would scare me off owning an 85. However the rule around here has always been buy as big a battery as you can afford always go for range. There I hope that is clearer and worth your read.

Appreciate that. Thanks

 

[stopparde01]

I would consider something other than an 85. I have a June ‘14 85 CPO. No AP, payed extra for an 85, now at 43K miles, max charge went from 252 to 240, supercharging went from 75KW or more down to 55KW max peak, tapering down to taking 2X time to charge to 100%.
More fan noise when charging and now if you charge at 90% there is a new buzzing noise that never stops until the charge goes well below 90%. Vampire drain also seems to have increased a bit. Had the MCU screen replaced once. Of course no netflix/youtube etc on mcu1.
Service center: everything is within specs. One day i’ll ask them to show me those specs...
Still happy , but concerned about warranty expiring in a year or so....

 

[DanCar]

You should read the stories about the 90 kWh packs, there worse.

 

[samppa]

I just got a call from Tesla that they charged it to 100% overnight, and the battery is at 248 miles of rated range. It’s a single owner P85 with every option including AP1, and seems to be in overall great shape. Selling for just under $44K from Tesla with 2 year bumper to bumper warranty, and drive unit/battery covered until the end of 2022.

My plan has been to pick it up and drive the P85 for a year or so, and then move up to a 100D. I doubt I’ll ever use supercharging. I’m in the process of selling my LR Model 3 (just prefer the size of the S).

I'd also look at non-p models. You might get better value with less money. Real world driving, there isn't much difference in acceleration.

 

[swegman]

Owning a voltage capped AND charging rate limited P85 plus a model 3, I would suggest avoiding Tesla vehicles at this time. My P85 car was forcibly updated to 2019.16.1 without my permission and I immediately lost 31 miles of range. Tesla kept insisting that my battery is better than other batteries of similar age and mileage and that what I saw was merely normal degradation. When I pointed out that ScanMyTesla shows the battery voltage is being capped to under 4.1 volts, they started saying they don’t accept third party test results, but that continued that my vehicle was selected by Tesla to be part of a test sample (which was not relayed to me beforehand) to test new BMS algorithms. When I said I wish to opt out of the test sample group I was informed the only way to do that would be for Tesla to decide to drop me from the sample group (which they said was unlikely) or for me to get a court order against Tesla.

What is even more depressing to me is the reduced supercharging rate that most cars are experiencing today. Tesla loves to advertise how quickly one can charge the battery. But in practice they are reducing the charge rate so that a charge session takes 50% to 100% longer than a year ago.

Even the model 3 has been affected, though to a lesser extent. my concern is what will happen to all the other Tesla cars as they age; will they also be voltage capped.

I was very keen on Tesla, having been the 251st reservation for a model S when the car was first announced. I am also a stockholder in the company and part of the class action lawsuit. It is outrageous that Tesla does things to ones car to reduce charge speed, range and performance without informing an owner beforehand as to the reason for having to take such action, and then, when confronted with the evidence, deny that they did anything until their back is against the wall.

Yesterday, Tesla sent me a communication trying to persuade me to trade in the model S for a new model S that is not range capped. Sounded to be like they are trying to get the cars using the older style 18650 cells off the road. But I’m waiting to see how Tesla resolves the problems before I even think about buying another Tesla.