What is battery damage in our readers’ Tesla Model 3s. TM3 SR+ RWD/RWD/LR/Performance test results

We recently asked you about battery damage in your Tesla. About 59 percent of those who responded gave us a description of the Model 3, so we decided to focus on that car. For the Tesla Model Y, Model S and X we have less data overall than the Model 3, so we will discuss them in separate materials. The conclusion drawn from the results of TM3 should be at least similar to TMY, because to the best of our knowledge, the cars use the same cells (except for the version built on the basis of 4680 cells).

Tesla Model 3 battery damage

Let’s start with a caveat: we had about 30 votes, which is not a statistically significant number. In addition, different types of batteries can degrade in different ways, so we don’t know how much uncertainty the following data has. Especially since different programs also produce different results. Last but not least: Tesla can improve the software, which will affect the energy consumption and thus the range. For all these reasons, we decided to test the worst-case scenario to draw the situation from the “couldn’t be worse” category.

Here is the chart we got based on your votes:

Decrease in frequency due to battery degradation and distance Figure 3 Tesla Readers (dots) with continuous trend. The dotted trend line is the worst case based on hard data

trend line (blue, continuous) we decided based on all the data, we still haven’t found that LFP cells degenerate faster than NCM or NCA. The maximum distance applies to vehicles with NCA cells, the record holder drove 330,000 kilometers in four years. A solid trend line shows that battery capacity decreases with mileage, but the car will reach about 70 percent around 530,000 kilometers.

Let’s add that the polynomial trend line was best suited for the initial trend of decreasing capacity. Notable: initially, the column decreases more strongly, because in the conduction process, a layer that binds lithium ions is formed on the electrons. Later, the damage decreases and the trend line stabilizes.

Really? 300,000 km mileage or 20-25 years of life

Research tends to dismiss extreme results, but we took them seriously. In the worst case scenario Tesla Model 3 will reach 70 percent capacity with less than 300,000 kilometers. The range of 60-70 percent is considered to be the time when the linear reduction of the battery capacity can be broken for various reasons: from the aging of individual cells, which the BMS should match with others, to the general damage of the cells. battery. Then it may be necessary to replace the battery.

Approximately 300,000 kilometers of mileage, according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics, is about 23 years of driving a car.. We have a feeling – for now it’s just a hunch – that this threshold for needing to replace the battery will be around 20-25 years of life AND vehicle mileage. For comparison: the same simulation with the VW ID.3 led us to 400,000 km of mileage and 20-30 years of operation.

If you have not yet completed our survey, we invite you to share your knowledge. All we need is the car model, year, mileage, range originally advertised and current range. As more data comes to us, we will certainly revise the material:

Note from the editorial office of Elektrowóz: you are surprised that you know the different types of your cars and you study cell suppliers on this basis. chapeau bass!

A useful addition comes from Mr cooler:

There is a lot of variation when it comes to the frequency and damage reported. In addition, different programs report damage differently: ABRP: 6.8% and Tessie only 4.9 at 53km mileage.

M3 LR 2021 E3LD battery. It does not match the range reported by 100% when it was new – 555km, now 541km (ie 2.5% damage according to this factor).

In turn, considering how much the current battery report (not used, it is more), is 74.5kWh now, according to the network 76kWh when new.

But I can use it on the road from 100% to 0%, only about 70-72kWh. The rest goes somewhere. Considering that people drive 54 km from the time it shows 0%, it is difficult to know how much battery is there, which algorithm (more or less optimistic) is in the current program and what it was three years ago.

The second insightful opinion was given by Mr. hikeruk:

In the ScanMyTesla software there is a ‘full pack time new’ parameter, which for my TM3 LR is 78.8 kWh. The second parameter ‘full standard package’ shows the current capacity calculated by the BMS.

I did several tests over a period of 12 months. The procedure I used: discharge the battery to 10% or less, then recharge it with AC not exceeding 5kW.

The full denomination package during this period was between 77.3 and 74.5. The lowest I got was when the outside temperature during charging was 0°C-5°C.

So I decided to test the theory. The ‘…new time’ parameter is checked by the BMS at the factory for a constant outside temperature, probably around 20°C. So I waited with the next measurement until now, when it warmed up and the temperature during charging was in the range of 14 ° C-20 ° C.

Result – full pack denominator = 76.8 kWh. After 33000km and 17 months of use. A screenshot is attached.