Tesla Battery Degradation - The results using real data and why the Plaid is the worst Tesla

We've 100s of thousands of data points from 10's of thousands of cars and we've charted the numbers to show whats happening with battery degradation
For most, the news is great, for Plaid owners, the news is not so good compared to others Teslas and not a car we'd want to buy when it reaches high mileage

Part 2 of this series looks at ultra high mile cars:

And we've also looed at the accuracy of the EPA ratings

00:00 Intro and method
00:44 Battery pack
01:07 Model 3 Long Range
03:23 Model 3 Standard Range
05:30 Model 3Y Performance
06:20 Model Y Long Range
07:05 Model SX 2021 Facelift
08:15 Model S 85D
08:50 Model S 90D
09:45 Model S 75D
10:40 Model S P100D
11:30 Conclusion

[mattiastighezza]

As a PhD student working on batteries life cycles I wish there is a link for these data to be publicly available

[jdjdr]

2021 model s plaid here. 66k miles. Fully charged I get about 330 miles. Which is about 5% loss. I believe the plaid versions are simply driven harder and probably charged beyond 80 more frequently to achieve max performance.

[solarguy]

Nice info. My own 2015-MS85D has 210, 000 miles and has 89% battery still. It lives in a cool, but heated garage .. I Supercharge 10% and my L2 is 3 kW .. keep your battery cool guys.

[rhiantaylor]

Worth remembering that the bigger the battery (i.e. LR model) the fewer cycles needed for given lifetime distance covered. Just think how many "100 mile" full charge cycles a 24kWh Leaf needs to cover 100, 000 miles.

[MarkBarrett]

I was a technician at a dealership.
Every once in a while, they want the old part back after a warranty replacement.
I would imagine the outliers would show good information to manufacturers about the parts.

[Yanquetino]

I'm curious about the extreme outliers in the graph. My previous Model 3 dropped to 94.35% after nearly 6 years and 78, 737 miles. So far, it looks like my Ioniq 5's battery is tracking the same pattern.

[SteveLoughran]

Nice analysis-especially how it clearly clusters battery chemistries.
1. Be interesting to see the long term LFP lifespans.
2. And similar studies for different brands. There are rumours that VW-Audi MEB lifespans aren't great -but I've not seen large datasets to confirm or deny this. And without that: all we have is "anecdata"

[leehunt]

Great info, from the UK, got a 2014 Model S 60, 100K miles, now at 51.6kWh (usable). 10% degradation if you include the 2.8kWh buffer.

[Sparky]

On future videos, would you consider adding kilometres?

Also, why use KW when SOH% would give you consistent numbers across battery sizes?

[MoneySavingVideos]

My 2011 Nissan Leaf lost 50% of its battery capacity after only 20, 000 miles and 5 years because I left it unused each of the 6 month winters. I wish I was warned. It sold new for $32, 500 and I got $3, 000 on a trade in. At the end when charged it only had a 50 mile driving range in winter.

[sirtyjuan]

Are these graphs accessible to everyone? Can you provide a link?

[PetrSilhanek-iwsx]

I do have 2 problems with those data presentations. First I do not see dead betteries mentioned anywhere... As my understanding is that batteries that malfunction may actually be a bigger problem then degradation and anyone I hear about with high milage Tesla has exchanged battery several times. And second problem is this reported capacity - where does it come from? Is it the battery controller/electronics. In case of laptops or phones - so many times I have seen electronics report almost full capacity and then the device suddenly died at 60%. Which means the data is often inaccurate and never for the better. A good data would come from measuring the last full power cycle of the battery.

[RedShiftedDollar]

I'm sorry but this analysis is completely ridiculous. These trends suggest near infinite battery life if you attempt to extrapolate beyond 120k miles. The rate of degradation at the 100k mark appears to be zero for many of the trends but there is no way this is actually true. The reason is that the battery does not die in a linear fashion. At end of life, the battery will perform reasonably well and then suddenly start to degrade rapidly. Also, the KHW capacity is as reported by the computer system and is not independently measured. How do we know the computer system is reporting accurate data, especially as the mileage gets up there? Again, the rate of degradation at end of life is expected to accelerate rapidly, so it is completely improper to make claims like 9.5% degradation going from 50k to 100k miles. What if going from 100k to 130k experiences another 10% degradation, then going from 130k to 170k experiences a 70% degradation to failure? Do you see how in hindsight, the 9.5% degradation of performance figures cited for the early mile cases are completely incorrect? That 9.5 % reduction in reported capacity actually represents 50k miles out of a total expected life of 170k miles for a true reduction in life of 50/170 or 30%. So although the battery voltage only dropped a small amount, and therefore the total maximum reported capacity will seem like a small amount, this can represent a much more significant reduction in overall battery life.

You have to be really careful performing these types of analysis on nonlinear systems because you will produce highly misleading results.

[willriley]

I don't think Tesla can claim batteries last 250k miles when some have to get multiple battery replacements. Obviously some might get there but its also obvious that some do not make it there on the original battery.

[SchwuppSchwupp]

Is the database public? Great information!

[naftyloescher]

Thanks so much for the video!
In germany we have both Fremont and China Versions of the Model 3 LR, so what you want to buy used is a 2022 Model 3 from China which still has the parking sensors but also has the Matrix LED.
And yeah the LFP cells in the standard range have very little degradation, it would be so nice to have them in the LR models, but I think it would be too heavy...

[RaglansElectricBaboon]

My car is a S60D with a 100kWh battery swapped in. Both had been crashed prior to me getting them. My car would really mess up your chart but its no longer on Tesla's network so luckily you don't see that anomaly =D

[medhurstt]

Good info but I think you should have added trend lines and it would have been very interesting to have tracked individual cars if you have that data. Some cars battery capacities obviously plummet and it would be good to see them more closely.

[cantkeepitin]

The average degradation is not showing the risk. The scatter plot clearly shows the individual degradation and individual RISK is much larger. You need good luck and treat your battery well. Not easy under many conditions.

[leonetzell]

Great info, but what about the ambient temprature? Eg. the cars that has been in the northern countries with an average annual temperatur of +8 vs. +20? Has that any impact on the battery capacity?