This Tesla Model 3 Still Has 95% Battery Capacity After 135K Miles. Here’s Why

The owner of this five-year-old EV kept the battery in tip-top condition by using two simple tips.

This Tesla Model 3 Still Has 95% Battery Capacity After 135K Miles (Source: Andy Slye / YouTube)

Photo by: YouTube

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Oct 18, 2023 at 9:00am ET

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One argument that gets thrown around online regarding electric vehicles is that their high-voltage batteries – the thing that provides energy to the electric motors – will be more or less dead weight in about a decade, making them unworthy rivals to gas-powered cars.

While this may have been true before the turn of the millennium, advancements in battery chemistry and thermal management have greatly increased the longevity of lithium-ion packs to the point where they can be used for longer than ever before.

At the end of August, a study from Recurrent Auto that analyzed battery data from about 6,300 Tesla Model 3s in the United States showed that, on average, they still had about 90 percent capacity after five years of daily usage.

2021 Tesla Model 3

Now, though, a video published by well-known Tesla enthusiast Andy Slye on this YouTube channel (embedded at the top of this page) shows how his Model 3 still has 95 percent battery capacity after five years and roughly 135,000 miles driven.

Mind you, his Long-Range EV is powered by the nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA) type of battery that’s susceptible to higher levels of degradation when charged to over 80 percent state of charge (SoC) compared to the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry, making it quite an impressive feat.

What makes this even better is the methods he used to achieve a degradation rate this low are very simple and can be applied by just about every EV owner out there.

First off, he mostly charges his Model 3 at home from a Level 1 or Level 2 charger, even though he has a whopping two million free Supercharging miles in his Tesla app that he can use to recharge at the company’s vast network of DC fast chargers.