Tesla Model S Battery Life: How Much Range Loss For Electric Car Over Time?

Based on 84 data points from the 85-kWh version of the Model S and six from 60-kWh cars, the study concludes that the Model S will retain about 94 percent of its capacity after 50,000 miles, with losses thereafter shrinking to about 1 percent per 30,000 miles.

That means that after 100,000 miles, the typical Model S is projected to retain about 92 percent of its battery capacity and range.

I actually never said this. Not did I say the original quote “An engineer is someone who can make for a dime what any fool can make for a dollar”, which goes back in the early 20th century or earlier.

My friend Chuck Thacker — the main designer of the computers at Xerox Parc — has been heard to utter a version of this quote.

I was actually one of the people who did design the computer you are using to slur me.

See my reply to the above comment.

(Simple advice: type a person’s name into Google before making comments. Hint: I’ve spent a fair amount of time “out of the classroom with actual engineers”, including myself.)

“Tesla has pushed hard early on to ramp up the number of charging stations as a sales incentive. As the construction rate trails off, and the number of cars increases, that's when the problems will start to crop up.”

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I don't see Musk sitting on his hands and doing nothing about it if it becomes a problem. When you run the numbers, they are not that expensive to build. An article from a couple of years ago indicates that each SuperCharger site costs them between $100,000 and $175,000. (http://insideevs.com/tech-crunch-what-it-takes-to-be-a-tesla-supercharger-partner/)

SuperCharger access is currently a $2,000 option at the time of purchase and comes standard on the higher end trims. Although I'm sure there is plenty of profit built into that number, you could build a lot of SuperCharger sites if you allocated $2,000 per car. Last year they sold 31,000 Model S cars and I'd bet less than 10% lacked the option. This rough, back-of-a-napkin estimation puts it in the neighborhood of 400 stations that you could build with last year's sales.

But like I said, the biggest mitigating factor is that other types of fast chargers are being built as well. And unlike different grades of gasoline, all you need is an adapter in order to charge at a “foreign” charge station.

Once upon a time there were not too many gas pumps in the world, but that problem did not last long.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

True enough, particularly since we're both speculating about future conditions.

The agreements that Tesla is making with landowners is interesting. Your linked article isn't very clear about what happens after the initial 5-year period is up. Does Tesla, at that point, start to pay rent on the space?

I had the same exact question. At first I thought that maybe Tesla would just transfer control to the local business, but then I remembered that Model S customers are guaranteed free SuperCharger access for the life of the vehicle. So I don’t think that would work. Maybe at the end of the 5-year period the business has the option to either shut the stations down or renew the contract?

PS: My reasoning being that under the initial agreement, no money is exchanged hands; Tesla just gets to use a bit of their land in exchange for the business getting increased customer traffic. I would think that as long as Tesla Motors doesn’t take a nosedive, that a business would be willing to extend that relationship indefinitely and be more than happy not to charge rent.

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