Warning: Battery Replacement Cost Increase (now $8500)

[cwerdna]

The battery swap percentages at https://survey.pluginamerica.org/model-s/charts.php are pretty terrible for model year 2012 for when this survey was done in 2015.

The drive unit swap percentages are... plain terrifying. Nearly 40% of 2012 Teslas have had the drive unit replaced? I can't think of any car in the last 15 years with reliability that bad. I had... no idea.

Yep. The Model S DUs were pretty terrible until they hit a certain revision.

You gotta "love" some of the fanboys over at TMC. See https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... st-2788639. https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic. ... 26#p531626 has pointers to two other guys who are on at least their 7th+ DU.

Edmunds on their "long term" S at https://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2 ... ap-up.html within 17 months and ~30K miles had a DU replaced for noise, then that one failed completely (HV battery pack and 12 volt got replaced too) then that one developed noise, so replaced again.

There's also this guy who I've called out more than once: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... st-3137992.

[downeykp]

The battery swap percentages at https://survey.pluginamerica.org/model-s/charts.php are pretty terrible for model year 2012 for when this survey was done in 2015.

The drive unit swap percentages are... plain terrifying. Nearly 40% of 2012 Teslas have had the drive unit replaced? I can't think of any car in the last 15 years with reliability that bad. I had... no idea.

Other than the piss poor Leaf batteries.

[Valdemar]

One can argue that Leaf batteries performed as designed

[jkenny23]

One can argue that Leaf batteries performed as designed

Is that sarcasm? Hard to believe they would design a car with one component limiting the vehicle's life by a factor of 2 or more. I'm on my second battery at 112k miles and no drivetrain or other issues yet, will be interested to see how far this Leaf will survive, I'm taking good care of my 2nd (2013) battery and no degradation on it yet.

[SageBrush]

Nearly 40% of 2012 Teslas have had the drive unit replaced?

Very few failures. The motors were replaced due to noise and only in the context of other-worldly customer support by Tesla.
Besides, it was first year model, small numbers were made, and it was resolved quickly.

[Valdemar]

One can argue that Leaf batteries performed as designed

Is that sarcasm? Hard to believe they would design a car with one component limiting the vehicle's life by a factor of 2 or more. I'm on my second battery at 112k miles and no drivetrain or other issues yet, will be interested to see how far this Leaf will survive, I'm taking good care of my 2nd (2013) battery and no degradation on it yet.

They did, they just failed to communicate clearly that hot climate shortens the life of the pack 3x times.

[BuffaloBillsfan]

I had typed something that I wanted to retract

[cwerdna]

The battery swap percentages at https://survey.pluginamerica.org/model-s/charts.php are pretty terrible for model year 2012 for when this survey was done in 2015.

The drive unit swap percentages are... plain terrifying. Nearly 40% of 2012 Teslas have had the drive unit replaced? I can't think of any car in the last 15 years with reliability that bad. I had... no idea.

Other than the piss poor Leaf batteries.

Those Leaf batteries didn't fail. Sure, they had gradual degradation much worse than Nissan claimed but they still charged and still provided propulsion.

This unlike numerous Model S and 3's where the packs had something inside that flat out failed and wouldn't propel the car or had some serious wonkiness that wasn't gradual capacity loss.

[cwerdna]

Nearly 40% of 2012 Teslas have had the drive unit replaced?

Very few failures. The motors were replaced due to noise and only in the context of other-worldly customer support by Tesla.
Besides, it was first year model, small numbers were made, and it was resolved quickly.

If you had a car that at under 11K miles was under warranty and made noises like this: https://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2 ... noise.html (in Oct 2013) that cost over $103K (https://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2 ... ction.html and https://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-s/2 ... offer.html), you sure as heck would want it fixed.

The drive unit noises were NOT resolved quickly. It took years to finally arrive at a DU that didn't have a good chance of developing excessive noise before 15K miles. Notice this guy's replacements 4 replacements already by 2015: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... ost-982006?

The -Q revision DU came out probably Feb 2016 (https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... t-15903620) and seemed good to the 7 DU replacement guy in June 2016: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... st-1603011 and again in 2017: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... st-2066344.

Plenty of folks have posted videos of their DU noises that caused a trip to the SC, usually resulting in a DU replacement. And yes, Elon's had a bunch of excuses and reasons over the years (e.g. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... lon.34141/ from late 2014 and https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads ... ion.56835/ from late 2015).

Although the noise problem seemed to by solved revision -Q time, I can still point to outright DU failures of Model S or DU's manufactured after that point, including -Q.

[BuffaloBillsfan]

I had typed something that I wanted to retract

All I see is "delete me." Do you want that post deleted?

Yes please. Sorry for the confusion