The owner of a five-year-old Tesla 3 shows how the factory battery capacity can still be 95 percent after all this time.
At the turn of the millennium, many people were still skeptical of the just-coming electric drive for several reasons. At the time, the most common argument against the technology was that within a decade the world would be full of heavy, environmentally damaging and now waste batteries. Fortunately, the developments of the past twenty years, which have significantly increased the lifespan of energy storage units, have done much to dispel initial concerns.
According to a study published at the end of August by the startup Recurrent Auto, the batteries of Tesla Model 3 EVs in the USA still have an average of 90 percent capacity even after 5 years of daily use.
This is supported by the well-known Tesla YouTuber, Andy Slye, who also owns a five-year-old Tesla Model 3. The video he uploaded a few days ago shows that his vehicle, which has already covered 135,000 kilometers, can still be charged to 95 percent. It’s important to note that this is an excellent performance because his car is powered by a nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) battery, which is much more prone to degradation at over 80 percent charge than lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries. The creator of the video gives tips on what to keep in mind if we too want to maximize the life of our electric car’s storage unit.
First of all, if you can, always charge the vehicle at home with your own type 1 or 2 charger, because fast charging can also contribute to the so-called degradation, which actually means a continuous decrease in energy storage and delivery capabilities. According to experts, if the car’s charge is not too low or too high, there is no significant difference between using a home charger and fast charging in terms of battery life.
According to the other good advice, if our car uses an NCA battery, it is worth changing the charging settings so that the charge is maximized at 80 percent. Thus, it will never exceed the critical level, where the device degrades much more easily. Of course, this is difficult to stop if the car owner is a more anxious type who fears that the range may not be enough to get home. However, a little “risk-taking” is not too great a price to pay for a more sustainable technology to be truly sustainable.
