Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Heres a question, as I havent been keeping on the real specifics, but doesnt force-charging a battery faster have an impact on the overall life of the battery?
And these things are brand new, what happens when its time to replace the batteries? Whats the cost and procedure on that?
Generally maintenance on these things is going to suck because parts arent everywhere or readily available, but you know that up front. What is the life-cycle of Teslas? How long do they last and do you fix them or just get a new one?
Is there ever going to be any kind of secondary market for them?
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Yeah these are good questions:
Force charging: At 240v, it shouldn't have an impact on the long term health on the battery. Charging frequently at the Tesla Superchargers (which are quite a bit faster) will have an impact if you do it every day. Charging to 100% (or 393 km) every day will also degrade the battery long term.
Battery life: My understanding is that the battery is stated to last 300k-500k miles (Powertrain, 500k miles). I guess we'll find out? Replacement cost is $5000-$10000 although the cost is decreasing. Anecdotally, I saw some YouTube video of a Tesla ride-sharing company that drove their Model S 700k+ miles. They replaced their battery twice but they did acknowledge they treated it poorly initially.
Life cycle: I guess we'll find out? My standpoint is that there's so much less moving parts in these things that maintence may be costly but much less frequent (i.e. no transmission flushes, oil changes, basically anything engine-related). I'm comfortable with that. Also, I imagine over a longer period of time more maintence options will be available. My time frame for driving this is 5-10+ years before evaluating a new vehicle.
Secondary market: There's basically zero market for used Teslas in Alberta ATM. Very limited in Canada. So I don't know. This wasn't an issue I investigated as it's a vehicle I intend to own for the mid/long term.