Upgrading to a larger capacity battery, is it possible?

[D.E.]

It would seem to me that Tesla will have to offer some form of battery replacement/upgrade at some point once batteries start seeing less than about 60% of their original range. If not this would pretty much be a death knell for EV's in general. Who would want to buy a car that could not have it's powerplant replaced/refreshed?

But of course this does not help you in this current dilemma.

Battery degredation is slow. There’s a report of an X with 300,000 miles over 2 years that’s lost 13% of the original battery capacity. Most of it was within the first 9 months then very little after that. So if that is accurate and if it is characteristic of all our cars over a longer time period, then the 60% level may be at some time after the first million miles. The average driver puts between 13,000 and 15,000 miles per year on a car. At 15,000 miles per year it’ll take over 66 years to accumulate a million miles.

Here’s the article that has the information about that 300,000 mile X.
Tesla Battery Life Longer Than Anyone (Except Elon & JB) Expected | CleanTechnica

I believe you can buy a new battery pack for a Tesla, it’s expensive, though. I saw a number, $44,000, I don’t know if that is accurate and I don’t know which pack it was. Still, it may be the battery degredation issue is moot for a majority of owners.

 

[dgpcolorado]

Battery degredation is slow. There’s a report of an X with 300,000 miles over 2 years that’s lost 13% of the original battery capacity. Most of it was within the first 9 months then very little after that. So if that is accurate and if it is characteristic of all our cars over a longer time period, then the 60% level may be at some time after the first million miles. The average driver puts between 13,000 and 15,000 miles per year on a car. At 15,000 miles per year it’ll take over 66 years to accumulate a million miles.

Here’s the article that has the information about that 300,000 mile X.
Tesla Battery Life Longer Than Anyone (Except Elon & JB) Expected | CleanTechnica

I believe you can buy a new battery pack for a Tesla, it’s expensive, though. I saw a number, $44,000, I don’t know if that is accurate and I don’t know which pack it was. Still, it may be the battery degredation issue is moot for a majority of owners.

That certainly isn't characteristic of all or our cars. I'm down 13% at 65,000 miles (181 RM with a full charge) and that appears to be better than average for S60s, according to what I was told by service. Granted that our small batteries get worked a lot harder than the larger ones, but the idea that nearly all Tesla batteries will last for several hundred thousand miles without significant degradation is not accurate.

I asked about a replacement battery for my car, since I'm going to need one in a few years when I can no longer make my longer trip legs. The service guy looked it up and said the replacement cost was currently $16k and it would be a software limited 75 pack since 60 packs are no longer made. He thought the price would decrease somewhat in the future. Now that the 75 cars have been discontinued, however, I wonder if replacement packs will even be available in a few years? Will they continue to make a few old-style 18650 packs for those of us who need them? Hope so!

 

[dark cloud]

That certainly isn't characteristic of all or our cars. I'm down 13% at 65,000 miles (181 RM with a full charge) and that appears to be better than average for S60s, according to what I was told by service. Granted that our small batteries get worked a lot harder than the larger ones, but the idea that nearly all Tesla batteries will last for several hundred thousand miles without significant degradation is not accurate.

I asked about a replacement battery for my car, since I'm going to need one in a few years when I can no longer make my longer trip legs. The service guy looked it up and said the replacement cost was currently $16k and it would be a software limited 75 pack since 60 packs are no longer made. He thought the price would decrease somewhat in the future. Now that the 75 cars have been discontinued, however, I wonder if replacement packs will even be available in a few years? Will they continue to make a few old-style 18650 packs for those of us who need them? Hope so!

Significant degradation is subjective: is that more than 10%? 20%? Or 50%?

Not sure when this replacement question was asked, hopefully that number keeps going down over the next few years, but if you are paying for a 75 kWh pack I question why would they limit it to 60? Just because the car was a 60? Well if you put a new 75 is it not now a 75?

 

[dgpcolorado]

Significant degradation is subjective: is that more than 10%? 20%? Or 50%?

Not sure when this replacement question was asked, hopefully that number keeps going down over the next few years, but if you are paying for a 75 kWh pack I question why would they limit it to 60? Just because the car was a 60? Well if you put a new 75 is it not now a 75?

Good point. If I paid for the pack it does make sense that I would get the whole 75. I believe that the service guy was just guessing about the software limitation; his point was that it was only possible to order 75 packs now. Perhaps it would be different for a warranty replacement.

My sense is that a pack that goes more than 200k miles without being replaced is an outlier. Perhaps that will be proven wrong over time — there aren't many cars over 200k miles yet and a lot of those have had warranty pack replacements from what I've read.

 

[Knightowl]

Ive been thinking about this all day, rather than buying out my P90D at the end of the lease, I should return it and purchase a P85+

Then an idea crossed my mind, would tesla allow me to upgrade my battery to a 100kwh battery that I will buy from a wrecked 100D, so not an official upgrade through tesla but rather me changing out the battery for a higher capacity one

Anyone here know if that’s technically possible?

From Tesla, not unless your pack dies under warranty and they only have a larger pack to replace it with. Would love to be able to choose a 100kw pack to replace my 85 in the future if it dies and who knows, maybe 100kw will be the smallest they have left by the time it does.

 

[GoEagles997]

I drive at least 30K miles a year and 'm a little concerned now about how much battery I would have after 5+ years after purchasing a MS from Tesla's CPO program. I plan on getting a 75D.

 

[Evoforce]

I drive at least 30K miles a year and 'm a little concerned now about how much battery I would have after 5+ years after purchasing a MS from Tesla's CPO program. I plan on getting a 75D.

Are you joking? These are not Nissan Leafs.

 

[Shock-On-T]

I drive at least 30K miles a year and 'm a little concerned now about how much battery I would have after 5+ years after purchasing a MS from Tesla's CPO program. I plan on getting a 75D.

Hi mate, I do about the same mileage here in Australia and have a 75D. I’m about 2.5 years in, with about 60,000 miles.
My “typical range” at 100% has gone from 379km to 370km in that time, about 2.4% drop.
I’m pretty happy with that! The Tesla BMS is very good.

 

[GoEagles997]

Are you joking? These are not Nissan Leafs.

Some of these threads I have read about the 90Ds degrading a lot faster had me a little scared, I’ll do some research about it. Thanks for the info!

 

[GoEagles997]

Hi mate, I do about the same mileage here in Australia and have a 75D. I’m about 2.5 years in, with about 60,000 miles.
My “typical range” at 100% has gone from 379km to 370km in that time, about 2.4% drop.
I’m pretty happy with that! The Tesla BMS is very good.

Very informative!

 

[GoEagles997]

Are you joking? These are not Nissan Leafs.

Also to be clear, I was specifically talking about the 90D packs. Not any other size.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Most cost effective solution to getting a larger battery is to sell your existing Tesla and buy a used one with the larger battery and upgraded configurations you need. Cost far less than trading in your current Tesla for a brand new one.
Used to make sense to sell used and buy new when the full Federal Tax Credit was in force, but now not so much.

 

[MXWing]

Most cost effective solution to getting a larger battery is to sell your existing Tesla and buy a used one with the larger battery and upgraded configurations you need. Cost far less than trading in your current Tesla for a brand new one.
Used to make sense to sell used and buy new when the full Federal Tax Credit was in force, but now not so much.

Delta is ~1,750, not $3,750.

 

[AMPd]

Most cost effective solution to getting a larger battery is to sell your existing Tesla and buy a used one with the larger battery and upgraded configurations you need. Cost far less than trading in your current Tesla for a brand new one.
Used to make sense to sell used and buy new when the full Federal Tax Credit was in force, but now not so much.

That’s another option we’re mulling, most likely the route we’ll end up going.

I really want the 100D. The range would be awesome and supercharging faster than 90kW would also be nice.

 

[RZRZ]

Out of curiosity why would you want the P85+ over a rare P85D that has the + suspension?

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

Out of curiosity why would you want the P85+ over a rare P85D that has the + suspension?

much more fun!
unless you want to pull the fuse on the D but then I hope you can drive veeery well!
awd just does not feel/ perform the same when you push them.

I am planning on upgrading my P85 eventually to whatever I can fit in it. Ideally a 100 pack as of now but when the time comes I expect to be able to get more than that (although there are a couple of changes that need to be managed to make it actually work). 83k miles and my range hasn't dropped in a couple of years ~250 @100%. The change that I believe is noticeable is regen and power limiting thresholds.
I was told by the mobile tech that replacing contactors and one(?) other fuse will bring back any peak/continuous power that is lost but I don't believe the batteries haven't lost some repetitive peak power output.

 

[smilepak]

If it was me, I would take the P85D over P85+ due to several improvements between the modules. Plus, you been driving the P85D and know that vehicle condition and quality. The P85+ is a CPO and how the last owner maintain it is not 100% known.

On the battery side, I am disappointed there is no battery upgrade path.

 

[seenhear]

I wonder if those 75kwh software limited to 60kwh batteries show artificially less degression than a "real" 60kwh battery would, since any decrease in range could be hidden in the untapped capacity of the battery? I mean you could charge to 100% every time and Be really only charging it to 80%.

 

[Mikes68charger]

I agree I have a P85+ and once she is paid off and in need of a battery I would have no concern to pay $15k or so in 5 years for a 100kw battery vs buying a new car as the resale of my P85+ in 5 years will be crap, this is ofcourse if the rest of the car holds up

 

[ucmndd]

I wonder if those 75kwh software limited to 60kwh batteries show artificially less degression than a "real" 60kwh battery would, since any decrease in range could be hidden in the untapped capacity of the battery? I mean you could charge to 100% every time and Be really only charging it to 80%.

Nope they degrade just fine. Mine lost 10+ miles before I unlocked it to a 75.