Tesla Model 3 owner revealed battery health and maintenance costs after driving 155k miles

A Tesla Model 3 owner who has driven more than 150,000 miles (241,401km) over almost five years has revealed the battery health and maintenance costs. 

Lawrence was one of the first to get his hands on a 2018 Performance Model 3.

When new, the dual motor Model 3 Performance had an EPA estimated range of 310 miles (498km). 

Lawrence explained that he lives in an apartment so he has no home charging option available to him.

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The Tesla revealed the impact on its battery health

Instead, he regularly uses a Tesla Supercharger – visiting every one or two days. 

Lawrence says it only takes him around 10 minutes to get his car charged – unlike this Cybertruck owner who spent a lot more time juicing up.

Lawrence told the Tesla Joy YouTube channel in 2023 that he had seen ‘conflicting’ data on whether Supercharging your Tesla a lot was bad for battery health – but says in his case the difference appears to be ‘negligible’. 

So how does the battery degradation look in Lawrence’s Model 3?

Well, he estimated that it has lost between eight and 10 percent of its battery capacity after traveling 155,000 miles (249,448km). 

However, he then shares a shot of the Tessie app that showed his Model 3 had 75.2-kilowatt hours of usable battery capacity when new, and now its maximum capacity is 66.2 kWh. 

This equates to an 11.4 percent loss in almost five years. 

Lawrence went on to say that the drop in range isn’t really something he notices on a day-to-day basis. 

He avoided having maintenance on the car

Next, Lawrence spoke about maintenance and admitted that he avoided standard service until he had drivn 145,000 miles (233,354km).

“I wanted to see how far the car would go before something broke,” he said.

Fair enough. 

And if you’re wondering what did break, Lawrence went on to say that he’d had to replace the charging socket, which cost around $600; the 12V battery, which was around $125; and the upper control arms, which cost Lawrence ‘a few hundred bucks’. 

In all, he says he’s spent around $1,000 in maintenance in almost five years. Not bad, right?

A fellow Tesla owner recently shared the impact driving more than one million miles (1,609,344km) in his Tesla Model S had on the EV’s battery.