One of the first mass-produced Tesla Model 3 passed the 100,000 miles (162,000 km) mark and its owner is keen to share with us how the car and especially its Li-Ion battery have aged. Despite critics claiming a used battery would render the car impractical to use after just a couple of years, Andy Slye’s experience shows this couldn’t be further from the truth.
EV skeptics think electric vehicles are a bad choice because their Li-ion batteries degrade long before the car would become junkyard material. This comes on top of the battery being costly to replace. This is why it’s interesting to see how some of the first mass-produced Tesla Model 3s fare in the battery department.
Of course, aside from the naysayers, the rest of us found out that Tesla vehicles tend to keep their batteries in good condition even after hundreds of thousands of miles. We know this from older models on the market, like the Model S and the Model X. The Model 3 and Model Y though, being newer, have not reached a meaningful milestone to allow third parties to assess their reliability.
Being the cheaper offerings from Tesla, people are interested to see if their Li-Ion cells are just as good as those used in the bigger brothers of the Tesla S3XY family. Well, thanks to electric vehicle advocate Andy Slye, who got his Model 3 back in 2017, now it’s time to find answers to our questions. Slye has covered more than 100,000 miles (162,000 km) in his Model 3 Long Range RWD variant, and so he knows first-hand how the Li-Ion battery fares after all these years and miles.
The most remarkable take from Slye’s experience driving one of the first Tesla Model 3 is that the battery only lost 2.2% of its capacity in four years of abuse. Rated at 310 miles (499 km) of range when it was new, the car still manages to cover 303 miles (488 km) at the moment. The YouTuber mentions that he took good care of the battery, with most of the charging being done at home, using Tesla’s home charging solution. He is also confident he will not need a replacement over the ten years he intends to keep his Model 3.
Tesla Model 3 batteries are of newer generation than those 18650 cells used in the Model S P85 that currently holds the record with 292,000 miles (470,000 km) before needing a new battery. Of course, these are still the same NCA chemistry Tesla uses in most of their vehicles. What would be really interesting to see is how the new LFP batteries in the Model 3 and Model Y perform over time. I guess we’ll have to wait another three years to find out.
After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions. Full profile
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