When new, the 2016 Tesla Model S 90D had an NEDC-rated range of 346 miles and an EPA-rated range of 294 miles on a full charge. This made it the longest-range EV of its time, but how much travel distance can it still squeeze out of its original 90-kWh battery after being driven a whopping 430,000 miles?
Well, the video embedded at the top of this page, published on YouTube by AutoTrader, answers the question with help from former Top Gear host Rory Reid.
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Battery health
Any modern lithium-ion battery, be it in your smartphone or electric vehicle, will degrade over time. The question is, how much capacity will they lose after being used intensely for, let's say, eight years? Depending on what your expectations are, the answer could be either very much or not much at all.
Mind you, the car in question is still on its first battery and its original electric motors. That makes it all the more interesting, since similarly high-mileage EVs have had their high-voltage batteries replaced at one point or another in their lives.
EV batteries degrade over time, whether you like it or not, so after traveling more than the distance between Earth and the Moon during the past eight years, you’d think this particular Model S can’t manage anything more than a trip to the supermarket. Well, you’d be wrong.
With 214 miles of estimated range on the car’s screen and a planned trip of exactly 200 miles, Rory Reid set off on the highway with no intention of hypermiling the EV. Instead, he said he would drive at around 70 mph and doesn't hesitate to overtake other cars on the speediest of lanes.
In theory, the journey should have been easy. Things began to go south, however, after it started raining and the ambient temperature decreased slightly, which made the estimated range drop significantly because the A/C system had kicked in to get rid of the moisture build-up on the windows.
Gallery: 2023 Tesla Model S
It also meant that the car wouldn’t be able to complete the 200-mile journey on a single charge. Reid was forced to pull into a Tesla Supercharger to top up the battery of this 430,000-mile Model S. One bonus perk of this particular EV is that it benefits from free Supercharging for life, so getting a bump in the range has no added cost.
However, with just one mile of range showing on the digital gauge cluster, the car died right in front of the Supercharger stalls. The screens still worked and the windshield wipers did their thing, but the car wouldn’t move under its own power. The solution was to put the EV into tow mode and then push it near a stall to get it to charge.
But how far did it go before conking out? The reading on the trip computer said 186.8 miles, which is 107.2 miles or 36.4% less than the advertised EPA range when new. Is it good? Is it bad? You be the judge in the comments below.
