Tesla Model 3 Battery Warranty Includes 70% Retention Guarantee

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Tesla Model 3 Battery Warranty Includes 70% Retention Guarantee

For up to 100,000 miles on the standard battery and up to 120,000 miles on the long-range battery.
The battery retention portion of the warranty differs from that of the Model S and X. Neither of those Tesla carry a retention guarantee, nor does Tesla list degradation from battery usage as part of the Model S & X warranty. However, long-term tests have proven that most Tesla suffer only very little degradation over time, far below the 70% threshold put forth by Tesla for the Model 3.

Here’s the wording from Tesla in regards to the Model 3 battery warranty and retention guarantee:

Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty

Your vehicle’s Battery and Drive Unit are covered under this Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty for a period of:

•Vehicles with Standard Range Battery – 8 years or 100,000 miles (160,000 km), whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.

•Vehicles with Long Range Battery – 8 years or 120,000 miles (192,000 km), whichever comes first,with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.

This 8-year time frame lines up exactly with the Model S and X, though neither of those vehicles have a listed mileage limit.

As for the more basic new vehicle warranty, the Model 3, like the S and X, gets 4-year, 50,000-mile coverage:

Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty
Subject to separate coverage for certain parts and the exclusions and limitations described in this New Vehicle Limited Warranty, the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty covers the repair or replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or workmanship of any parts manufactured or supplied by Tesla that occur under normal use for a period of 4 years or 50,000 miles (80,000 km), whichever comes first.

Here are the battery-related warranty details from Tesla’s Model 3 New Vehicle Limited Warranty document:



https://insideevs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/battery-0.jpg

 

[internalaudit]

There's no need to limit charging to 90% then?

 

[swaltner]

Yay! I know the degradation on Tesla batteries has been much slower than on batteries like the Nissan Leaf, but it's good to have a number put on what is not normal and placed in writing in the warranty. This lack of a capacity warranty was one of my beefs with Tesla since I believe every other manufacturer has a capacity warranty. I'll have to find something else to be incredulous about now, like ...

 

[internalaudit]

How about the lack of Right to Repair where we can't be looking for major electric component like battery and DU in the scrap yards because the will be rejected? With ICEV, problem with at transmission, just swap with a better one in the junk yard.

It's not like Tesla is accountable for work passed the warranty / ESA warranty so without the Right to Repair, it's just pure gravy for Tesla to swap major components to keep the cars running.

 

[Milkfloat]

Interesting... if we go with 3 miles per kW/h, and battery life of 500-1000 cycles (Apple quote 500 cycles to 80%as warranty on their iPhone batteries which get much more abuse).

So if you have a 1 kW/h battery it has a life of 3 x 500 - 3 x 1000 or 1500 - 3000 miles

Multiply up 30 kW/h = 45,000 to 90,000 miles
60kW/h = 90,000 - 180,000
75kW/h = 112,500 - 225,000
90W/h = 135,000 - 270,000
100W/h = 150,000 - 300,000

So it shows that smaller batteries will wear out more quickly Leaf's are still getting at least 500 cycles and closer to 1000. Tesla also seem to be getting 1000+ cycles from their battery on the S... Clearly a 3 with a smaller battery (than S/X) will have slightly less life - but it's still similar to ICE (and in many cases will significantly outlast an ICE).

 

[jsmay311]

Interesting... if we go with 3 miles per kW/h

"kWh", not "kW/h".

Sorry to nitpick, but the inner high-school physics teacher in me dies a little everytime I see this.

 

[GregRF]

Glad to see that the motor is now included in the longer warranty. Up until now the website just said Battery Warranty.

Does the charger electronics fall under battery warranty (it is now housed in the battery case) or is it under the general warranty?

 

[insaneoctane]

70% seems like an almost 0% liability position for Tesla's battery tech. Would have much preferred 80% or more, which might have raised Tesla's liability from 0.001% to 0.1% or so (obviously made up numbers). I appreciate @Milkfloat taking a data based approach to guessing what the warranty really means. We do have new cell technology/packaging in the model 3, I certainly wonder how many miles my LR will last. I plan to put 200K miles on it in 10 years and am putting a lot of faith in tesla that I won't need to sink a ton of money in maintenance or repairs to do so. I could change my plans after a few years if data starts to tell me that I should not try this, but buying and selling a car sooner than I normally do will just add to the already higher cost of purchase /ownership that I've already committed to in order to own a tesla....

 

[insaneoctane]

Glad to see that the motor is now included in the longer warranty. Up until now the website just said Battery Warranty.

Does the charger electronics fall under battery warranty (it is now housed in the battery case) or is it under the general warranty?

Are either charger or the inverter part of the motor? I'd, unfortunately, guess not...

 

[brkaus]

Are either charger or the inverter part of the motor? I'd, unfortunately, guess not...

The believe the the inverter is part of the drive unit.

The charger is not.

 

[SteveG3]

70% seems like an almost 0% liability position for Tesla's battery tech. Would have much preferred 80% or more, which might have raised Tesla's liability from 0.001% to 0.1% or so (obviously made up numbers). I appreciate @Milkfloat taking a data based approach to guessing what the warranty really means. We do have new cell technology/packaging in the model 3, I certainly wonder how many miles my LR will last. I plan to put 200K miles on it in 10 years and am putting a lot of faith in tesla that I won't need to sink a ton of money in maintenance or repairs to do so. I could change my plans after a few years if data starts to tell me that I should not try this, but buying and selling a car sooner than I normally do will just add to the already higher cost of purchase /ownership that I've already committed to in order to own a tesla....

I agree. I wouldn't be surprised to see the 70% number come to be used in the media to "anti-sell" EVs. Not saying this will take Tesla out of being "supply constrained," but, that it gives an opening to ding EVs generally on something Tesla has actually demonstrated they can do very well... retain battery capacity.

 

[insaneoctane]

I agree. I wouldn't be surprised to see the 70% number come to be used in the media to "anti-sell" EVs. Not saying this will take Tesla out of being "supply constrained," but, that it gives an opening to ding EVs generally on something Tesla has actually demonstrated they can do very well... retain battery capacity.

It's responsible, just not impressive. Tesla might want to see how the new cells hold up for a few years and could easily up the coverage (probably not retroactively) to maintain a leadership position on this. Again, it is responsible, just not impressive.

 

[kavyboy]

Again, it is responsible, just not impressive.

That's not a bad trend (and I don't think you're implying it is).

 

[GregRF]

The believe the the inverter is part of the drive unit.

The charger is not.

Yes, I believe the inverter would be covered with the drive unit.

But is the charger part of the battery now? I'd imagine that if there was a fault in the charger they could just replace that part under the rear seat in the new electronic hump of the battery case. If they were to swap batteries I'd imagine that you'd end up with a new charger. So this seems like a fuzzy area of the warranty to me.

 

[Trips]

Is this in response to other automakers putting out a similar warranty or do the new batteries degrade faster?

 

[vigge50]

There's no need to limit charging to 90% then?

Not sure about that.
For the first, if you look at Model S and Model X they are not close to 70% after a few years and 100 000 miles wish means that charging to 100% every day would maybe only make the degradation go faster but not reach 70% in 8 years. What do you want, a battery with 75% or 90% after 8 years or 100 000 miles?
For the second, it says in the pdf file that the warranty will not cover if you ignoring warnings from the car, can the warning about not charge to 100% often count as this? If so, the warranty won't cover degradation.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Is this in response to other automakers putting out a similar warranty or do the new batteries degrade faster?

I'm not aware of any other manufacturer warranties against degradation other than Nissan, who did so because of premature degradation issues. I know that GM claims degradation could be 40% over the first 100k miles with the Bolt, but I'm not aware of a warranty against degradation.

 

[Runt8]

Am I the only one who sees this as a bad thing? After all the data showing very minimal degradation of Tesla batteries, if mine is down to 75% at the end of the warranty period I'm not going to be very happy, and would expect a warranty replacement. I hope Tesla doesn't use this artificially low number as an excuse to not replace defective batteries.

 

[mtndrew1]

Am I the only one who sees this as a bad thing? After all the data showing very minimal degradation of Tesla batteries, if mine is down to 75% at the end of the warranty period I'm not going to be very happy, and would expect a warranty replacement. I hope Tesla doesn't use this artificially low number as an excuse to not replace defective batteries.

Well as the capacity guarantee for the S and X is “Good luck! Kisses, Elon” and the guarantee for the original Leaf had to come via class action lawsuit guaranteeing 64% retention at five years or 60k miles and that the only other 200+ mile car in this segment (Bolt) has a 60% capacity guarantee I’d say this coverage is pretty solid.

 

[Trips]

I'm not aware of any other manufacturer warranties against degradation other than Nissan, who did so because of premature degradation issues. I know that GM claims degradation could be 40% over the first 100k miles with the Bolt, but I'm not aware of a warranty against degradation.

BMW i3, Kia Soul, VW e-golf, Mercedes B2502 - 8 years, 100k miles - 70% capacity
Nissan Leaf - - 8 years, 100k miles - 75% capacity
Chevy Bolt - 8 years, 100k miles - 60% capacity

Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi - None