Man who bought cheapest Tesla Model 3 in the UK does full battery health test and cost breakdown after hitting 232,500 miles
Published on Mar 03, 2026 at 4:46 AM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Mar 02, 2026 at 9:46 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
The man who bought the ‘cheapest Tesla Model 3′ in the UK has done a full battery health check after it reached 232,500 miles.
When YouTuber Chargehads picked this EV up at auction last year, it only had 217,000 miles on the clock.
Given that it was the cheapest Model 3 in the country when he picked it up, it looked as if he’d got himself a bargain.
But one year and approximately 15,000 miles later, how was this car holding up?
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How was this Tesla Model 3 looking at 232,500 miles?
There were some imperfections to note, including curved wheels and worn-down PPF (Paint Protection Film).
But on the whole, the car had held up remarkably well, and that included the interior too.
For the sake of this assessment, the owner looked at the following: cost over the year of ownership, current resale value, and battery health test results.
Purchased for $14,310 (£10,700) and with $16,192 (£12,100) spent on repairs, he managed to generate enough money from content around the car to put towards its repairs.
That’s a win in our books.
Despite its mileage, this Model 3 would probably go for between $14,000 and $16,000, which is not too bad considering.
But what about the ever-important battery health?
As any EV driver knows, an electric car is only as happy as its battery – Rich Rebuilds found that out the hard way when he took the Mitsubishi i-MiEV out for a spin.
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How was the battery looking?
On a previous test, the battery had a capacity of around 71 to 73 percent.
After a year, this had gone down to 70 percent capacity.
The battery had degraded by around 30 percent overall, which isn’t too bad.
But in the last year, it’d lost around 10 miles of range, which isn’t great.
But despite this, the cell voltage balance was good according to the Scan My Tesla reading, at 6 to 8mV – a good indicator of battery condition.
So, on the whole, it hadn’t fared too badly.
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Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
