100,000 Miles On My 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 — The place Do I Stand Now?

Why I nonetheless love my Mannequin 3 after 3.6 years and virtually 100,000 miles.

Taking a look at my Tesla app, my Tesla Mannequin 3 odometer now reads: 99,377 miles. By the point that is printed, I’ll most likely be over 100,000 miles.

Determine 1: Me, my canine, and my 2019 Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary. Bayfield, Wisconsin — on Lake Superior. September 2, 2020. Picture by Mary Hasler.

I’m an enormous proponent of inexperienced expertise, and particularly electrical automobiles. I’m additionally an enormous Tesla fanboy! I nonetheless get an enormous kick out of my Tesla Mannequin 3 after 3.6 years and almost 100,000 miles. My earlier automobiles have been Toyota Camrys and Nissan Leafs, so my Tesla with twin energy, heated seats, a 12 speaker sound system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth. feels very very similar to a luxurious automotive to me.

Tesla has utterly rethought how cars ought to work, making many issues about working your automobile higher. My Mannequin 3 accelerates like a rocket, and I like having my fueling station in my storage and having the ability to completely skip journeys to the gasoline station for a smelly refill. I additionally get to skip the journeys to Jiffy Lube and sitting of their smelly ready room for a not so jiffy hour.

Teslas have a beautiful big display the place a lot of the controls are executed. The Tesla navigation utilizing lovely satellite tv for pc maps on the massive display is so good I don’t miss Apple CarPlay. The massive display can be nice for watching Netflix films and letting my grandkids play video games. The sound system is fabulous, and with the streaming service, I can play virtually any music I can consider.

I like utilizing my smartphone as a key that unlocks the automotive as I strategy and locks it as I depart when I’m ~15 ft away. There’s no begin button. As quickly as you contact the brake, your automotive is activated and able to go. With quite a few software program updates during the last 3.6 years, it seems like I’ve a brand new automotive each month or so.

Many Tesla improvements have been completely new to the automotive business. Many have been copied by different producers by this time, however routinely updating your automotive’s software program remotely such as you do with a pc continues to be a battle for some.

Full Self Driving (Beta)

I’ve the spectacular Full Self Driving (Beta) software program suite, which is able to completely drive my automotive to any location I put within the navigation. Nevertheless, sadly, it nonetheless screws up sometimes, so you have to be ready to intervene instantaneously. Additionally, it’s a little bit too timid, so you have to give it slightly assist with the accelerator pedal in heavy site visitors. Nevertheless, the steering stays completely automated.

In rural Northern Wisconsin, the place we spend the summers, I can provide a voice command for any enterprise or different location within the space and simply sit and watch the automotive drive on roads with no yellow or white traces to that location with no intervention. I solely must torque the steering wheel slightly or twiddle one of many thumb wheels on the steering wheel to let the system know that I’m paying consideration. There may be additionally a digital camera over the rear-view mirror watching my face, so I can’t look away from the street, take a look at my cellphone, or shut my eyes or the system will complain. It appears to me that the digital camera system for figuring out my consideration to the street is far superior to requiring my steering wheel twiddling. I hope that Tesla will take away the requirement to the touch the steering wheel quickly.

Tesla Mannequin 3 Lengthy-Time period Prices

Please see beneath my upkeep prices, which haven’t gone up since my report at 90,000 miles.

I do know that in principal EVs are a lot much less advanced than automobiles with inside combustion engines. Inner combustion engine (ICE) substitute price is ~$7000, as an ICE is far more advanced than an electrical motor — and it seldom runs over 200,000 miles and not using a very costly rebuild or substitute. As well as, ICE automobiles have very advanced transmissions (substitute price of ~$5000). You even have exhaust and emission management techniques, the radiator/cooling system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth., many parts which EVs wouldn’t have.

An EV has a really costly battery. Do I have to be frightened about changing it? I’m treating mine with child gloves and anticipate it to final over 10 years and over 500,000 miles. I virtually by no means cost over 80%, and no less than 3/4 of my charging is finished at Degree 2 in my storage. Nevertheless, I’ve used Tesla’s fabulous, quicker Degree 3 Supercharger community usually for lengthy cross-country street journeys. The EPA vary of my automotive was 310 miles when new. When your Tesla is charging, you’ll be able to set the cost restrict to 100% and your automotive offers you a battery vary estimate. Mine is studying 278 miles now (310 − 278 = 32 and 32/310 = ~10%), so I’ve seen ~10% battery loss, which isn’t unhealthy for 100,000 miles.

Others have additionally reported that Tesla battery loss is ~10% or so for the primary 100,000 miles, after which the battery degradation slows down after that. Nevertheless, I didn’t do that when my automotive was new and I can’t get EPA to do a brand new vary estimate on my used Mannequin 3, so it’s onerous to get a completely correct degradation estimate. My Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary was warrantied utterly for 50,000 miles. The drive system and battery guarantee will runout at 130,000 miles. Subsequently, the costliest parts of my automotive are warrantied for one more 30,000 miles.

The quite a few comparisons I’ve seen estimate upkeep and gasoline prices for EVs to be a lot decrease than for ICE automobiles. Nevertheless, the heavy EV battery causes tires to wear down extra rapidly than on an ICE automobile, so that’s an elevated price for EV upkeep.

In just below 100,000 miles, the overall price of the tires and out-of-warranty repairs for my Mannequin 3 have been $5441.42. That is greater than I anticipated, however most likely no more than what I might have paid driving a gasoline automotive with prices for repairs, tires, oil adjustments, emission inspections, brakes, different miscellaneous gadgets, and better price for gasoline. The massive financial savings will come going ahead the place the gasoline automotive will see these prices repeated plus muffler, exhaust, and emission management system substitute and ultimately transmission and engine rebuild. If I stay lengthy sufficient, I anticipate to drive my Tesla over 500,000 miles. It isn’t unrealistic to anticipate the electrical drive system and battery to final that lengthy.

Determine 2: Neighbor’s model new Tesla Mannequin 3 charging at my Storage. Three Lakes, Wisconsin. Might 28, 2023. Picture by Fritz Hasler.

In Determine 2, we see my neighbor’s model new Tesla Mannequin 3 charging in entrance of my storage. I observed him doing gradual 4 miles/hour Degree 1 charging subsequent door and invited him to return throughout the road for a 28 miles/hour Degree 2 cost at my home.

My Tackle Prolonged Service Warranties

I virtually universally keep away from shopping for prolonged warranties on merchandise that I purchase. That features the ~10 cars I’ve owned over time. I assume that I’ll lower your expenses with self-warranty. Within the instances the place the product — like a automotive battery or a set of automotive tires — comes with a guaranty, I’ve by no means collected on one.

I’ve just lately been deluged with adverts from Automobile Defend attempting to promote me an prolonged service guarantee on my automobile. I bought a quote from Automobile Defend. They need $220/month or $2640/12 months with a $100 deductible for every incident. If I had bought a Automobile Defend coverage after I went over 50,000 miles in November 2021, I might have paid 14 × $220 = $3000 by now. My restore prices over that interval have been $2247 much less the $300 deductible, or $1947. Subsequently, it has been cheaper thus far to go and not using a Automobile Defend coverage. I’ve informed myself that my EV can be so dependable {that a} Automobile Defend coverage could be a waste of cash. Nevertheless, I’m not unaware of the flowery laptop, show display, and electronics in my Tesla in addition to electrical seats and home windows, stereo system, and so forth., and so forth., and so forth., so there are many issues within the automotive that would fail … and now I’m studying about failure modes of issues I by no means thought of. For now, I’m forward and I’m holding my breath and hoping for one of the best for the long run.

See my itemized service prices in my 90,000 mile article.

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