Man says his 140,000-mile Tesla Model S 85D just did the impossible with something that ‘makes absolutely no sense’ and he has 100% legit proof

This Tesla Model S owner discovered something pretty surprising about his 10-year-old, 140,000-mile Tesla Model S 85D.

This is a very old car, by EV standards, and it’s also a discontinued model, which essentially means that sooner or later updates will no longer be available.

But they are for now, and the car is still in incredible condition.

It actually performed in a way that’s almost impossible to explain.

This is an older version of an already old car

This YouTuber – TESLA Model S Adventures – owns a Model S 85D, which is basically an older version of a vehicle that’s not being produced anymore.

In 2019, Tesla updated the Model S lineup, but they also changed the naming scheme.

The previous 75D, 85D, 90D, 100D and P100D, were all gone.

They were references to the battery pack capacity in kilowatt-hours – so 75 was for 75kWh, 90 for 90kWh and so on.

So it made sense logically, but it was also confusing because there were simply too many.

It was also unnecessary, which is why Tesla simply replaced all of those names with three simple variants: Standard Range, Long Range, and Performance.

So not only is this a discontinued vehicle, it’s a relatively obsolete version, too, and that’s what made this guy’s discovery even more impressive.

This Tesla Model S’ performance is difficult to believe

Despite having 12 percent battery degradation, the Model S 85D surprised its owner by very nearly matching the original EPA range.

And when we say it ‘nearly’ matched it, we aren’t saying it fell short – it’s actually quite the opposite.

The car covered 707 kilometers through Europe’s demanding Carpathian Mountains, averaging 152Wh/km.

This means it managed to cover 452 kilometers – or 280 miles – which somehow exceeded the original factory rating of 435 kilometers.

That’s like using a 10-year-old iPhone that somehow outperforms a brand-new one in terms of battery life.

And it gets even better when you realize he wasn’t even driving on a highway.

In theory, constantly going downhill and uphill and downhill and uphill again should reduce the range compared to highway driving.

While the descent allowed for significant energy recovery via regenerative braking, the climb usually offsets those gains, making the result even more impressive.

So, all in all, it all averaged out.

That’s an incredible result for an electric car that’s over 10 years old, and further proof that, in some cases, BEVs can be more reliable than we think.

Then again, it seems like this is a hit-or-miss situation.

For every Tesla owner with excellent battery results, there’s always one with a surprisingly underwhelming experience in a lot less time.