Posted on 11/08/2023 5:42:21 AM PST by Red Badger
An Uber driver covered more than 300 miles a day six days a week in his 2019 Model 3 SR+, making two Supercharging stops per day.
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There's probably no better way to convince people that electric vehicles are as good as internal combustion cars for every use case scenario than having EVs undergo tough trials, and ride-hailing vehicles have it tougher than most. So can a Tesla Model 3 handle that kind of punishment long-term?
Yes and no, according to Dobson, a Model 3 owner who has used his car for Uber duty for almost a year and a half now. YouTube creator Kim Java first featured him in one of her videos in July 2022, when he traded in his Toyota Camry for a slightly used 2019 Tesla Model 3 to use as an Uber car. He spent $53,000 on the Tesla – more than he had ever spent on a car – but he immediately started making savings in fuel and maintenance. The savings added up to $10,000 since he bought it, which is impressive. However, he was unlucky to make the purchase before the EV maker started cutting prices like crazy. Had he waited a few more months, he would have gotten a much better deal on his Model 3 Standard Range Plus.
Alas, that is not his main problem with the Tesla. Dobson covered 120,000 miles since July 2022, which is a lot for a regular user but quite normal for an Uber driver who drives six days a week, more than 300 miles a day, and supercharges twice a day.
The big problem is that the high-voltage battery pack of his Model 3 died recently, and he claims it's because Tesla didn't prepare the Model 3 for the daily grind a ride-sharing vehicle typically has to deal with. The battery died suddenly, Dobson says, and not through progressive degradation.
In a previous video shot when the car had covered 90,000 miles, the battery showed degradation of 11 percent, but after crossing the 110,000-mile mark, he began to see a quick drop in degradation and driving range – down to 170-180 miles at 100 percent SOC.
There may have been something wrong with the battery because a Tesla should lose only about 12 percent of battery capacity after 200,000 miles, according to the EV maker's 2022 Impact Report.
Dobson claims Tesla told him the degradation was attributed to regular wear and tear, but he didn't agree with that, arguing that the degradation was too rapid. It's not clear if the fact that he typically did two Supercharging stops a day, often charging to 90 or 95 percent state of charge, was a factor in the demise of the Model 3's battery.
A typical ride-sharing EV covers more miles in a week and goes through more charging cycles than most EVs for private use cover in months. Some claim that frequent Supercharging, especially when done over a recommended limit, can put significant stress on the battery, though a recent Recurrent study showed little to no difference in battery degradation between frequent fast charging and rare fast charging on Tesla EVs.
Whether or not Supercharging was to blame, one day the Uber driver charged the car overnight at home and had 170 miles of available range, but when he used a Supercharger later in the day, the range didn't go past 35 miles. At that point, he received a notification from Tesla to bring in the car for a check.
He took the car to Tesla Service for an evaluation and was later told that it would cost $9,000 to replace the battery. He accepted that, and he now limits charging to 80 percent at Tesla's recommendation, typically getting 160-170 miles of range from that.
Tesla gave him only a one-year warranty on the new battery, leading Dobson to suspect the battery was not new but refurbished. He also believes that because his car's fully charged battery theoretically offers 207 miles of range at 100 percent SOC, which is 14 percent less than what an identical Tesla Model 3 with a brand-new battery would get.
Dobson goes into great detail in the 34-minute video, so make sure you watch it so that you can get an idea of what exactly happened here. (We would have loved to get Tesla's side of the story about this case, but as you know, the EV maker does not maintain a PR department in the United States.)
How much does it cost to replace an internal combustion engine?
Without doing the math I suspect he spent more on replacing the batteries then gasoline would have cost him (and not counting the time to fill - perhaps 15 to 20 minutes compared to the time to recharge the batteries twice a day.)
So much for the savings.
Reminds me of the case of one of the hybrid models, where the computer essentially shut off the batteries due to the batteries getting dangerous to operate (I think, or maybe the batteries just crapped out, not sure) and thus forced the vehicles to operate as gasoline-only types - which the owners didn’t appreciate.
At least from research, in my market, you can rebuild an IC engine for about $4,000.
“where the computer essentially shut off the batteries due to the batteries getting dangerous “
Nothing like the attack of the “Safety Police” again.
IIRC, it was a faulty temperature sensor that made the computer think the batteries were overheating...............
The econazis are clever, and climate change fear is pervasive.
My progressive son just informed me the other day that even though EVs are inefficient, and as heavy as a ice car and a half, that there is hope!
Battery makers are developing new improved batteries that are lighter, more energy dense, and charge faster.
Yeah, right.
The bad news about Tesla was buried: they replaced his battery, but with one that has only a one-year warranty? Not OK.
The newest batteries does not solve the problem of energy density. The closer you push electrons together, the more costly it becomes to keep them together, not to mention dangerous.
I suspect that there is going to be a hard limit to this that cannot be overridden, even if you had god level knowledge of maximizing energy density in batteries.
Yes. And when those cars are prevalent and forced on us, they will all have that “safety feature” built in.
But it won’t be used for other purposes.
Except when criminals are driving one and they want to capture them. Then they will use it to remotely shut off the batteries.
But only for that.
Oh, when someone is a criminal because they didn’t pay their taxes on their house, or their excise taxes on their car.
But that is, of course, only a limited use. They will never use it for any other purposes.
Except for if there is an epidemic lockdown and they want to limit travel of people so it doesn’t spread. Then, if you get more than one mile from your house, they could shut off the batteries.
Or if you are wanted for hate speech. Or if you are a Conservative. Or if Americans are using too much energy. But they would only limit you to using your EV for five miles of travel a day, to save the environment, of course. Or if you were traveling to Washington DC to engage in a protest, and the authorities got wind of it from an online forum and they didn’t want you to protest.
And so on.
But this kind of thing will never be used for those kinds of things.
Ever.
We promise. Cross our hearts and hope to die with needles sticking in our eye.
“I suspect that there is going to be a hard limit to this that cannot be overridden, even if you had god level knowledge of maximizing energy density in batteries.”
I’m not smart enough to know the practical limit for battery technology. What I do know is that they econazis will push more and more promises, and climate change followers will buy it all.
I have been pricing them for a 5.3liter Chevy I need to replace. $2500-$3500 are the quotes I have received for a remanufactured engine with a 3 or 4 year warranty FWIW.
“We’ve always had a ‘Climate Crisis’, Winston”................
Well, to be fair...my gas-guzzling F150 dies after approx 550 miles.
But then, I refill the gas tank.
A brand new fully warrantied Chevy small block 350 cost me $5K, fully installed in my 98 K2500.
Egad. With each passing day, it looks like Orwell had access to a time machine.
“The savings added up to $10,000 since he bought it, which is impressive.”
$10,000 - impressive savings
-$9,000 - new battery cost
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$1,000 - not such impressive savings
I would also like to know how much he spent on the electricity (probably coal plant generated), both on the road AND at home overnight.
“ Egad. With each passing day, it looks like Orwell had access to a time machine.”
Huxley, Orwell and Rand were modern day prophets.
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