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My Tesla Model 3 battery warranty expired so I performed a battery health test to find out the actual battery life after 5 years and 120,000 miles.

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Recently I surpassed 120,000 miles on my 2018 Tesla Model 3. I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars by not buying gas or oil. But if you’re familiar with Tesla’s warranty then you’ll know that the bad news is my battery warranty has expired. Battery replacement cost is probably the biggest fear of people who are hesitant to buy an electric vehicle. But based on Tesla’s 2022 Impact Report, they think it’s is a non-issue by showing that even after 200,000 miles their batteries only lose an average of 12% of their capacity. Let’s find out if this is actually a legitimate concern by using my Tesla Model 3 as a real life test. When I first got my Model 3 the estimated range on a full charge was 310 miles. But we all know that batteries degrade over time and hold less charge after a certain amount of cycles.

But the Lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles are not the same and are not used the same as those in mobile devices. The chemistry is different, allowing for more cycles and longer life. EVs also have thermal management systems that ensure stable operation in optimal conditions. When it comes to electric vehicles, the battery is by far the most important and most expensive component of the car. Fortunately for owners, Tesla has a really good battery warranty which covers the battery & drive unit on a Long Range Model 3 for a period of 8 years or 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, and this assures the battery will have at least a 70% retention of capacity over the warranty period. How do we determine the battery health other than the estimated range? Using an app like Recurrent is one way to track battery health. Another way is to do an actual real world driving test by charging to 100% then driving at a relatively slow steady speed until the battery dies and see how many kWh the car used. But there’s also an even more official battery health test from within the car itself.

The Model 3 has four battery modules that Elon Musk said costs around $5,000-$7,000 per module back in 2019. However, even if just one battery module goes bad, Tesla still replaces the entire battery pack because the they want to be sure that the battery has 100% health and they can’t do that when they mix and match modules at the service centers. Instead, they send old battery packs to their battery plants to be refurbished. According to a Tesla invoice from 2020, a 75kWh battery replacement for a Model 3 costs $16,550 with the actual battery costing $13,500.

That’s quite an expensive repair, but I’ve always been adamant that I probably won’t ever have to replace my Model 3 battery based on my estimated range so far which has been quite impressive. I try to follow healthy charging habits by avoiding Supercharging and charging mostly at home and only charging to 80% for daily driving and rarely going below 20% state of charge. Recurrent says my Model 3 has an excellent range score of 93 and my expected range is around 280 miles which is only about 10% degradation so far after 120,000 miles. I’m going to take the risk and keep driving my Model 3, but what would you do in this situation?

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