Tesla batteries may retain more than 90 percent of charging capacity even after 160,000 miles

According to data gathered by a Tesla owners' group in Netherlands and Belgium, Tesla batteries retain more than 90 percent of their charging power even after 160,000 miles.

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The survey of over 350 owners of the Tesla EVs, found the charge capacity of their batteries dropped approximately 5 percent after 50,000 miles. However, beyond that charging capacity was lost at a much lower rate. If the present trend continues, then the batteries should have close to 90 percent capacity still at about 300,000 km or 185,000 miles. Even at 800,000 km or about 500 thousand miles, the batteries should still have about 80 percent capacity.

Another article claims: "A group of Tesla owners on the Dutch-Belgium Tesla Forum are gathering data from 286 Tesla Model S owners across the world and frequently updating it in a public Google file." The data shows similar results so it is probably the same study as the one mentioned earlier, even though the number of owners appears less and one particular Tesla model is involved. However, there could be two similar studies that generated similar results.

Battery degradation guarantees

Tesla has no battery degradation warranty on either the Model S and X luxury EVs. However, it does guarantee that its lower priced Model 3 will still have 70 percent charge capacity for 120,000 miles for the long-range battery model, and 100,000 miles for the shorter-range battery.

The Tesla battery degradation guarantee is somewhat more generous than Nissan's guarantee on its Leaf EV which is only 66 percent over 100,000 miles. The survey results show that Tesla should easily exceed this mark.

Loss of battery charging capacity over time a big concern

The loss of battery charging capacity over time is one of the biggest concerns faced by EV buyers. That this test shows the rate of decline appears to decrease at higher mileages is reassuring. However, larger scale surveys are needed to confirm the trend revealed in this study.

Tesla patents a machine for swapping EV battery packs

Tesla has filed a patent application for a machine designed to permit technicians to swap EV battery packs in a quarter of an hour. The company had toyed with the idea of such a machine back in 2913. It didn't work out but the company did not give up on the project. The new design is much more compact than an earlier one shown a few years ago. It could be even more mobile and could be put in places where the fast Superchargers are not available.

Previously published in Digital Journal