This Tesla Model 3 Just Hit 250,000 Miles With Only One Minor Part Failure

It’s still on its original battery and motors, and it drives like new, even though it spent most of its life as a taxi.

Photo by: RSymons “RSEV” (YouTube)

By: Iulian Dnistran

Sep 12, at 10:00am ET

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A Tesla Model 3 traveled 250,000 miles in less than five years.
The American EV is still on its original powertrain, and the running costs have been minimal.
A single part needed replacing because it failed prematurely, with the rest of the money going to regular maintenance.

Electric cars are cheaper to run than their combustion-powered counterparts. It’s something that hardcore EV enthusiasts have known for years, and now that more and more people are getting behind the wheel of a battery-powered car for the first time, that knowledge pool is slowly getting bigger.

An EV has significantly fewer moving parts than a gas car, so there are fewer things that can go wrong. (Yes, battery failures happen, but research shows that modern packs, built after 2022, have a failure rate of just 0.3%).

As an experiment, Richard Symons, who runs the largest used Tesla showroom in the United Kingdom, bought a second-hand Model 3 that was previously used as a taxi. The idea was to see how a high-mileage EV would perform in the long run, and the results are pretty impressive.

The 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range in question recently passed the 250,000-mile mark, but despite the high number on the odometer, surprisingly little has been needed to keep the car on the road.

The front bumper exterior speaker failed prematurely and needed replacing, but other than that, the car only needed regular maintenance. With an average of 150 miles traveled every day, it chewed through six sets of tires, several wiper blade sets, and various bushings.

It’s still on its original battery and electric motors, and the traction battery still has 84% of its original capacity. In the real world, on a nice summer day, it can deliver roughly 284 miles on a full charge, which is still plenty for most people.

When it comes to charging performance and daily usability, the 250,000-mile Model 3 still feels like new. There are no squeaks, no rattles, and it can still hit 60 miles per hour from a standstill in 3.8 seconds. After an 11-minute Supercharger charging session, the battery’s state of charge increased by 30%, and the real-world range increased by 85 miles.

During Symons’ ownership, the high-mileage Model 3 has averaged 4.15 miles/kilowatt-hour, which is very good, though the average speed wasn’t disclosed in the video. Charging the car from solar energy or during the night on cheap electricity also helps keep the costs down.

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The original brake rotors, brake pads, brake fluid, and coolant are still there, and the only improvement made to the car is a set of upgraded rear shock absorbers. The originals were still good, but they were swapped for a little bit of extra comfort.

Though it might seem like an outlier, this Tesla Model 3 is certainly not the only high-mileage EV out there. There have been countless stories from owners who have been running their electric cars for hundreds of thousands of miles with minimal problems and costs. One Tesla owner we spoke to drives a 160,000-mile 2015 Model S P85D every day, and it still feels like new.