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 in all probability 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. Photograph by Mary Hasler.

I’m an enormous proponent of inexperienced expertise, and specifically electrical autos. I’m additionally an enormous Tesla fanboy! I nonetheless get a giant 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 on., and so on., and so on. feels very very like a luxurious automobile to me.

Tesla has fully rethought how cars ought to work, making many issues about working your automobile higher. My Mannequin 3 accelerates like a rocket, and I really like having my fueling station in my storage and with 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 stunning large display the place many of the controls are executed. The Tesla navigation utilizing stunning satellite tv for pc maps on the large display is so good I don’t miss Apple CarPlay. The large display can also be nice for watching Netflix motion pictures 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 really like utilizing my smartphone as a key that unlocks the automobile as I method and locks it as I go away when I’m ~15 ft away. There’s no begin button. As quickly as you contact the brake, your automobile is activated and able to go. With quite a few software program updates over the past 3.6 years, it looks like I’ve a brand new automobile 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 automobile’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 automobile to any location I put within the navigation. Nonetheless, sadly, it nonetheless screws up sometimes, so it is advisable be ready to intervene instantaneously. Additionally, it’s a little bit too timid, so it is advisable give it just a little assist with the accelerator pedal in heavy visitors. Nonetheless, 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 automobile drive on roads with no yellow or white traces to that location with no intervention. I solely have to torque the steering wheel just a little 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 digicam over the rear-view mirror watching my face, so I can’t look away from the street, have a look at my telephone, or shut my eyes or the system will complain. It appears to me that the digicam system for figuring out my consideration to the street is way 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 under 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 complicated than automobiles with inner combustion engines. Inner combustion engine (ICE) substitute price is ~$7000, as an ICE is way more complicated 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 complicated transmissions (substitute price of ~$5000). You even have exhaust and emission management methods, the radiator/cooling system, and so on., and so on., and so on., many parts which EVs wouldn’t have.

An EV has a really costly battery. Do I should be fearful 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 at the least 3/4 of my charging is finished at Degree 2 in my storage. Nonetheless, I’ve used Tesla’s fabulous, sooner Degree 3 Supercharger community usually for lengthy cross-country street journeys. The EPA vary of my automobile was 310 miles when new. When your Tesla is charging, you may set the cost restrict to 100% and your automobile provides you with 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 dangerous 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. Nonetheless, I didn’t do that when my automobile was new and I can’t get EPA to do a brand new vary estimate on my used Mannequin 3, so it’s arduous to get a completely correct degradation estimate. My Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary was warrantied fully for 50,000 miles. The drive system and battery guarantee will runout at 130,000 miles. Due to this fact, the costliest parts of my automobile are warrantied for an additional 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 autos. Nonetheless, the heavy EV battery causes tires to wear down extra shortly than on an ICE automobile, so that’s an elevated price for EV upkeep.

In slightly below 100,000 miles, the entire price of the tires and out-of-warranty repairs for my Mannequin 3 have been $5441.42. That is greater than I anticipated, however in all probability no more than what I might have paid driving a gasoline automobile with prices for repairs, tires, oil modifications, emission inspections, brakes, different miscellaneous gadgets, and better price for gasoline. The large financial savings will come going ahead the place the gasoline automobile will see these prices repeated plus muffler, exhaust, and emission management system substitute and finally transmission and engine rebuild. If I dwell lengthy sufficient, I anticipate to drive my Tesla over 500,000 miles. It’s not 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. Could 28, 2023. Photograph by Fritz Hasler.

In Determine 2, we see my neighbor’s model new Tesla Mannequin 3 charging in entrance of my storage. I seen him doing sluggish 4 miles/hour Degree 1 charging subsequent door and invited him to come back 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 through the years. I assume that I’ll lower your expenses with self-warranty. Within the instances the place the product — like a automobile battery or a set of automobile tires — comes with a guaranty, I’ve by no means collected on one.

I’ve lately been deluged with advertisements from Automotive Defend attempting to promote me an prolonged service guarantee on my automobile. I bought a quote from Automotive Defend. They need $220/month or $2640/12 months with a $100 deductible for every incident. If I had bought a Automotive Defend coverage once 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. Due to this fact, it has been cheaper up to now to go and not using a Automotive Defend coverage. I’ve informed myself that my EV will likely be so dependable {that a} Automotive Defend coverage could be a waste of cash. Nonetheless, I’m not unaware of the flamboyant pc, show display, and electronics in my Tesla in addition to electrical seats and home windows, stereo system, and so on., and so on., and so on., so there are many issues within the automobile that would fail … and now I’m studying about failure modes of issues I by no means thought-about. For now, I’m forward and I’m holding my breath and hoping for the very best for the longer term.

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

Please add your experiences with repairs in your Tesla autos within the feedback part under!