How Many Miles Will a Tesla Last? Mileage of a Tesla Battery
Tesla Motors has been at the forefront of electric vehicle development and innovation. The company has been making headlines for the past few years for bringing forth pioneering technology for EVs and their batteries. Tesla cars are some of the most popular choices in the EV category today. They’re sleek, stylish, and environmentally friendly — how could you go wrong? But what about the batteries? How many miles will a Tesla last before you need to change its battery?
How Many Miles Will a Tesla Last? Tesla Battery Mileage
Tesla is known for its electric cars. They are innovative and they have a great reputation when it comes to the Tesla battery lifespan on each car. The company has currently been working on creating a new battery that may last even a million miles. But the question that many people ask now is how long does a Tesla battery last in the current model of cars?
Let’s find out how long these batteries last and what you can do if your battery dies before you expect it.
Tesla Battery Components
When looking at the battery lifespan, it is important to first look at what the batteries are made of.
Tesla cars are fully electric vehicles that take power from batteries instead of gas. You can recharge the battery pack by attaching the car to a compatible electrical outlet.
The company uses lithium-iron phosphate technology for making the battery. It’s a nickel-heavy technology that hardly uses or almost excludes cobalt. The combination of nickel and lithium to power the batteries is quite different from the lead-like other car batteries, such as those found in gas cars. This makes it safer, lighter weight, less toxic than traditional car batteries made with lead-acid components.
An average Tesla battery is made up of around 2170 individual lithium-ion cells. The life expectancy depends on these cell numbers. For this reason, Model 3 battery packs last more than the battery units in other Tesla models. The battery of a Model 3 Standard Range version has 2,976 cells in a battery pack.
The Lifespan of Tesla Batteries
How many miles will a Tesla last? The current Tesla batteries last a very long time. Each battery module can survive around 300,000 to 500,000 miles. Remember that a battery pack in a Tesla car consists of several modules. You may need to change one module at a time instead of replacing the entire pack altogether.
A battery pack may still work after the 500k miles but with a reduced range per charge capacity. The range of a Tesla battery deteriorates approximately 10% after running 160,000 miles. So, a battery running beyond 500k miles means working at 40% less than its original power.
Tesla has been relentlessly working on making batteries that last even longer than the 500k miles threshold. In a 2019 tweet, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, said that they had designed the Model 3 drive unit and body as tough as a commercial truck that can survive riding a million miles. It’s expected that the company would develop a battery pack too that will accompany that vehicle for its lifetime.
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What Happens If My Tesla Battery Dies?
If your battery dies in a Tesla then you need to bring it into a service center for repairs or replacements. The replacement cost of one battery module is between $5,000 and $7,000 and a pack has several modules. For example, a Model 3 has four battery modules, while a Model X or S could have up to 16 modules.
The warranty for a Tesla car battery is 8 years or up to 120k to 150k miles (depending on the models), whichever comes first. If the battery pack dies before that time or mileage, Tesla will replace it according to the warranty conditions. However, most battery packs will easily last beyond 150k miles or 8 years.
While the replacement cost of Tesla batteries seems way higher than a gas-run car battery, you will actually save a lot of money by driving a Tesla electric car.
The maintenance cost for the first 150k to 200k miles could be $5,000 to $6,000. During that time, the car owner can save around $20k in the gas price.
Conclusion
How many miles will a Tesla last? It will depend on how you drive, what you prioritize, and how you maintain the battery. If you drive the car in a way that keeps the battery at an optimal temperature and charge, you will likely get more than 300k miles that Tesla promises. Letting the battery run down and then charging it will deteriorate it faster. So, charging and draining the battery in the correct way also plays a role in determining the battery’s life.