Surprising Range Loss And Battery Degradation

• The proprietor of this six-year-old Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary rear-wheel drive notes the nice and the unhealthy after 150,000 miles.
• The evaluation covers guarantee repairs, out-of-pocket repairs, reliability, vary loss and battery degradation.

Driving an electrical automobile for lots of of hundreds of miles will inevitably result in some degradation of the high-voltage battery. There’s no option to escape it, however the price of degradation–and the vary loss that comes with it–may not be fairly the boogeyman anticipated by some.

Take YouTuber Andy Slye’s 2018 Tesla Model 3 Lengthy Vary rear-wheel drive. He purchased the automobile new six years in the past and lately drove it previous the 150,000-mile mark, so he has loads of expertise with the automobile.

Throughout his possession, he had a few points, a few of which have been fastened without spending a dime when the automobile was nonetheless underneath guarantee, whereas others, like changing the entrance suspension management arms and lateral hyperlinks, have been paid out of pocket.

The automobile appears surprisingly good for such excessive mileage, with minimal indicators of damage and tear on the driving force’s headrest and the driving force’s facet B pillar. All in all, Slye mentioned he doesn’t remorse shopping for the automobile within the first place–which was a $50,000+ affair again in 2018–and that over the course of his six-year possession, he saved over $20,000 simply from not having to continuously replenish a gasoline automobile.

His charging stats present a mean price of simply $40 monthly for residence charging when considering an annual mileage of roughly 20,000 miles. The best way he sees it, even after paying for out-of-warranty repairs, the Model 3 nonetheless saved him over $10,000 in gasoline payments.

However what concerning the vary loss and battery degradation? When new, the pre-facelift Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary RWD had an EPA-estimated vary of 310 miles on a full cost. Now, the guess-o-meter on Slye’s EV exhibits 280 miles, so a 30-mile or almost 10% discount. 

The battery well being check confirmed a results of 83%, whereas the information extracted from Recurrent (an app that’s utilized by tens of hundreds of EV house owners in the US) confirmed a spread rating of 98 with a predicted vary of about 296 miles on a full cost.

In different phrases, after six years and 150,000 miles, this specific Tesla Mannequin 3 has had minimal vary loss and battery degradation and can most likely proceed to supply many extra miles. If the high-voltage pack fails–which is a risk–Slye mentioned that he’s to not involved about it as a result of there are firms on the market that provide refurbished batteries for round $7,000 to $8,000, whereas a alternative from Tesla will set you again $13,000–nonetheless lower than the $20,000 financial savings.