Posted on 07/17/2018 3:09:08 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
Tesloop, a Tesla-only shuttle service based in Southern California, recently had a Model S reach 400,000 miles on the odometer and gave an account of how it is holding up.
Tesloop has incurred a combined maintenance cost of roughly $19,000 or about $0.05/mile. This cost breaks down to $6,700 for general vehicle repairs and $12,200 for regularly scheduled maintenance.
(Excerpt) Read more at electrek.co ...
Batteries are chemistry. And chemical reactions continue if the batteries are used or not. There is deterioration just from the chemical reactions.
“The typical estimated life of a Lithium-Ion battery is about two to three years or 300 to 500 charge cycles, whichever occurs first. One charge cycle is a period of use from fully charged, to fully discharged, and fully recharged again.”
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-shelf-life-of-a-lithium-ion-battery-that-is-in-storage
Notice the “whichever occurs first”.
I should add that there is a lot of propaganda when it comes to electric cars. A lot of facts are hidden.
I would keep that car in service for as long possible. They get free supercharging and free battery replacements until the 8 year warranty is up. The spreadsheet says they saved $41K in electricity costs so far.
You’re right. The article says they plan to keep it another 600,000 miles. As a commercial customer it looks like they are getting a great deal.
I read the article and did some research as well and still not impressed. 400k miles in 3 years is impressive but that’s anything but normal and putting a lot of miles on a car 3 years old is completely different than putting 400k miles over 8 years and driving 50k miles per year which is also high considering normal is around ~15k miles per year. Drag the maintenance cost out over 8 or more years (26 years if you drove ~15k miles per year to get to 400k miles) for that many miles and it’s a hell of a lot more than $0.05/mile.
Looks to me like they would save over $200K in electricity and battery costs in 8 years. That is pocket change to Tesla and they get real world research data in exchange.
...and they get real world research data in exchange.
And some good publicity for the brand, plus they spelled the name right.
Most people see Musk as a rent-seeker, yes he comes with interesting products, still a rent-seeker.
I do enjoy his zero to sixty events, keeps the competitors on their toes.
The Dodge boys are having many a sleepless night, and have resorted to using a cheater rollout.
Why hell! Given a sufficient rollout, my wife’s Prius can do a sub-three second 0-60! And not a 4WD. So there.
I totally enjoy the show of the piston pusher vs the wiring wizards.
Racing causes extra maintenance costs. Maybe it is less so with Tesla vehicles. It will be interesting to see if they deny these warranty costs in the future.
I’d give serious consideration to a total transmission flush with those miles.
I’ve been told my brakes last that long because I never use them!
That’s another thing, no way to check trans fluid level, totally sealed system. No dip stick.
You just described my wife’s RAV4.
When either of my Toyotas needs a new battery, $89.95 will get one about anywhere. For a Tesla or Prius, $7000 minimum. I remind my wife of that whenever she wants to entertain a hybrid. It’ll save you money on gas but you will lose your ass on everything else (if I put a little more time into that, I could probably make it rhyme).
And I strongly suspect that this maintenance cost of $19,000 leaves out a WHOLE LOT of things. I’m betting there’s expensive things that broke where the company said to the analyst, “That’s an anomaly, it’s being re-designed, don’t count that.”
I agree with you, my wife and I have been running Toyotas for 20 years. You can bet we haven’t put $19,000 in maintenance cost for all 4 of them combined, not even close. For years on end, it’s just change the oil and a little bit of other routine maintenance. Change the battery at 6-7 years, new water pump at over 100,000 miles, a few little things like that.
19 grand in maintenance and there’s probably a bunch of things they’re not telling us that they did? They’re crazy.
Yeah, I found the same thing. You know they’re not going to make somebody be out driving the car on Christmas day and other holidays. So what they did is run the car on a dyno or similar kind of test stand. You know what that means? It’s running in a nice climate-controlled room with no rain, no winter conditions, no 100-degree days, no roads that look like they were bombed by the enemy, etc. And they still racked up $19,000 in maintenance costs. Stay far away from that car.
My 1940 Buick Special cost me $300 (used); I’ve, maybe, put $1,000 in it over the years. I would happily challenge any Tesla owner to a 1 on 1 demolition derby.
Maybe there’s something going on with the detection system itself, like a switch that occasionally sticks when it feels a hard enough impact or something. Just throwing that out there, I really couldn’t tell you.
Haha!! No doubt.
The most damage that occurs to an engine is during start-up (this assumes not overheating). Limit the number of start-ups and you can greatly extend the mileage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.