Greetings Scotty and Community,
I am asking on behalf of a friend of mine. She has a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD that she bought new and now has 62K miles. The bumper-to-bumper warranty is up, but the battery and electric drive is still good up to 100K miles and 8 years of ownership.
The battery is not holding a charge and she has taken it in to TWO Tesla service centers and they gave her the same crap. That crap is referring to the fact that even though her battery is under warranty, Tesla WILL NOT honor it and she would have to pay $28K for a new battery. The car is worth $26K. Tesla customer service sucks and I have little faith if corporate will do anything about it. Should I give it a shot to have her call Tesla corporate? Because at this point, she is ready to get rid of the car as it also has suspension issues that are no longer covered under warranty. It is paid for BTW.
even though her battery is under warranty, Tesla WILL NOT honor it
why?
What reason did they give for denial?
Should I give it a shot to have her call Tesla corporate?
of course
I’m not a huge Tesla fan, at the same time, Tesla batteries are usually pretty resilient. The cells are made by Panasonic, IIRC. The same manufacturer of Toyota Prius batteries. And for batteries, Panasonic is reputable.
With that said, there are some circumstances that won’t be covered under warranty:
- lower range due to colder weather (it’s normal for batteries to have a harder time charging and holding a charge in colder climates)
- degradation to 70% capacity (it’s normal for a battery to lose capacity over time).
- physical damage.
- Possibly supercharging wayyy too much. She’d have to check the paperwork, but supercharging frequently kills the life of the battery. Slower charging is better.
What was the reason they turned her down for warranty?
Yeah I am surprised to hear of a battery doing that at that age as well.
As you mentioned, supercharging isn't good, and doing it to 100% is even worse. Maybe topping it up to full numerous times at a higher charge, like 60-70% possibly, that wouldn't be good either.
It still amazes me that they can charge the batteries so fast and it doesn't kill them even quicker than that are.
I am aware that degradation is normal as a battery ages, but this battery has degraded faster than normal. Also, since Fall 2022, she moved from South Florida to Central Florida, which resulted in her travelling back and forth as the stores that she owns are in South Florida. It is possible that she supercharges quite a lot when she is down south, which she is three days a week. Back at home in Central Florida, she uses her Tesla 240V wall charger. And she always charges to 80%.
I think fast charging all the time wears down the battery quicker. It does with phones at least.
Can you be more specific? What do you mean by "not holding a charge"? Like she charges it at night and by morning it's dead? Or the range between charges has been decreased? How far can she go on a charge? It is possible the battery is fine and there is a power drain somewhere?
Not that I would know anyway, but someone here might. Even better, though, is to try getting feedback from a Tesla forum. You are more likely to find someone who has had similar issues.
I believe it is a parasitic drain, and not because a light was left on. If she parks at night without plugging in at 70% charge, for example, she would come out the next morning and it would be at 50% charge.
Ok, then yeah, look on Tesla forums for parasitic drain issues. If there is not an obvious solution, maybe go to an independent auto electric place to see if they can find the problem.
There is plenty of info out there on finding a 12 v parasitic drain on a regular car, But this might require an expert.
Considering the size battery, losing 20% in roughly 12 hours is quite a lot. 75KW battery with wear, maybe 60kw, over 12 hours at 20%, that is about 1000 watts per hour!
@nlord Indeed, it is a lot. Kind of unbelievable actually. But you're using the wrong units . Energy (battery capacity, your power bill, etc.) is measured in Wh (Watt x hours, not Watts / hours. You multiply, not divide to get energy). You can consume 15 kWh of energy by running your microwave on full blast through the night. Maybe she's powering the house with her car 😆
Greetings Scotty and Community,
I would like give an update along with further steps. I recently asked about if my friend should call Tesla corporate about her battery not holding a charge. She told me that she did call corporate in addition to taking it in to two Tesla service centers and corporate told her the same crap that the two service centers gave her, "It is normal for the battery to do that."
The truth is that it is not normal and that Tesla is just flat-out refusing to replace the big 75 kWh battery under warranty even though it is only 5 years old with 62K miles (the warranty is 8 years and 100K miles). What further steps should she take at this point? The vehicle also has other issues not covered under warranty and at this point, she is ready to get rid of it. That's a shame, because other than the ailments described above, she loves the vehicle.
How much is the battery going down. Does she realize that winter range is worse?
She lives in South Florida, where it hardly gets cold. This happens in moderate weather (70-80 degrees). She is aware of the cut in range in cold weather.
She may have to apply lemon laws, I'm afraid.
on a five year old car? That's unlikely to work anywhere.
I'm pretty sure Florida lemon law only applies to the first 24 months.