Fast-charged Model S battery gets warranty replacement at 416,000 miles in a testament to Tesla longevity

Those on the fence about purchasing an electric vehicle on account of the perceived battery longevity are starting to get the first real-world examples of how durable those packs actually are.

While the 430,000-mile Tesla Model S that is still going strong after losing only modest range and acceleration chops has been highly publicized, there are apparently more members of the EV hypermileage club like it.

One of those hails from Australia, again a Tesla Model S, but this time a more recent 2018 year, which makes the 416,000 miles (666,666 km) the battery covered before lighting up with an error message all the more impressive.

Tesla then replaced the battery within the car's 8-year warranty, and the Model S is now only on its 5th service, with the first brake pad job done at the 278,000-mile mark, or about 460,000 kilometers. The brake pads didn't even need replacing, explains the owner in the video below, but since the Model S was in the shop to do the A/C service, Tesla's mechanics said they might just as well do those, too.

Besides battery endurance, potential EV buyers are also worried about longevity, but current owners are often registering only 10% degradation in a decade.

Granted, Tesla had some issues with the design of the battery pack's cooling system in the first Model S years up until about 2015. This and some other recalls brought a lot of warranty replacements, warping the failure rate statistics, but since then EV batteries have shown remarkable endurance.

What's even more impressive is the fact that the 416,000-mile Model S was regularly topped up at a fast charger as the owner covers a lot of mileage every day, and even that fact didn't affect the battery life cycle much.

Some of the major battery and EV makers in China are so confident in the new electric car battery chemistries that they are pushing for 15-year EV warranties and 85% capacity retention to become standard.

NIO, for instance, which uses CATL batteries like Tesla, is of the opinion that mandating a 15-year warranty will make the used EV market freeze go away. There are 20 million electric vehicles about to go out of warranty in the next few years, it argues, and worries about battery longevity will affect their resale value.

CATL and others already have batteries that are good for a million miles on the original pack, or 50 years of vehicle service. Thus, a 15-year EV battery warranty doesn't sound all that far-fetched, given what existing cars like said Model S are apparently able to pull off even with faster charging.

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