Batteries degrade over time and this is a problem especially in electric cars when the battery does more than just power your car’s lights. However the good news is that apparently after some testing by a Dutch-Belgium Tesla owners group, they have discovered that Tesla has been somewhat conservative with their estimates.
For those unfamiliar with Tesla’s estimates, the company had estimated that the battery on its Model 3 cars will retain about 70% battery capacity after 120,000 miles for its long-range battery, and about 100,000 miles for its short-range battery. However based on the testing done by the group, they theorized that Tesla’s batteries should hold about 90% capacity even after 185,000 miles and about 80% after 500,000 miles.
However it should be noted that this is a relatively small sample of 350 owners in the group, which means that while it does appear to be promising, there’s no guarantee that all Tesla car owners will experience the same battery degradation rate as others, especially since there are other factors that account for battery degradation.
Also there is the fact that the Model 3 has different battery cells and a new battery pack architecture which means that the numbers the group has gathered from testing other Tesla models might not necessarily be applicable, but it could be worth looking into if you’re considering a Tesla for the long-term.
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