How Long Does a Tesla Battery Last? - Their Rated Lifetime Mileage

Electric vehicles like Tesla replace the traditional combustion engine with electric motors and batteries.

Tesla's batteries are integrated into their chassis

TechCrunch

Since electric motors have just a fraction of the moving parts of a combustion engine, the maintenance for electric vehicles is almost non-existent when compared to traditional vehicles.

Electric motors are extremely reliable and last a long time. So when someone is considering a Tesla or another electric vehicle, a common question is how long do the batteries last.

Teslas have large battery packs that give them a longer range than most electric vehicles. A Tesla battery pack can range from 65 kWh up to 100 kWh, giving some Teslas as much as 375 miles of range.

Factors That Affect Battery Life

How long an electric vehicle battery lasts will vary. There are various factors that will affect the lifespan of a battery. These factors fall into one of two categories, those under an owner’s control and those that are outside of our control, such as battery aging.

Lets first discuss those factors that we are in control of. A well maintained and cared for battery will increase its lifespan.

Avoid Low and High-State of Charges

Lithium-ion batteries, which most Teslas use degrade faster when they are left at a very low state, or a very high state of charge for long periods of time. That means that an owner should avoid using the battery all the way down or charging it to 100% on a regular basis.

Most Teslas should also not be charged to 100% for everyday use. Charging a battery to 80 or 90% for day-to-day use will greatly increase the life of the battery. This doesn’t mean that you can’t charge the battery all the way to 100% occasionally. A good example of when you’d want to charge your battery all the way would be when going on a road trip. However, it should not be done on a regular basis.

The exception to this rule is electric cars with lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP). LFP batteries use a different chemistry and are not affected by very low or high state of charges. Tesla currently uses LFP batteries in their standard range Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Tesla's feature thousands of small lithium-ion batteries

Electrek

Temperature and Climate

The temperature of a battery will also affect its battery life. There is a certain temperature range that a battery should stay within to prevent degradation.

The safe temperature range will vary based on whether the battery is being actively used.

This is one area where Tesla sets itself apart from the competition. Some EVs do not have thermal management systems for their batteries, letting the battery get as hot or cold as its environment.

This puts a great deal of stress on the battery and will cause degradation if the battery is left in cold or hot environments for prolonged periods.

Lithium-ion batteries will start to degrade when exposed to temperatures under 32°F or above 80°F.

Without a thermal system the power output of the car is also limited in order to prevent the battery from overheating.

Teslas have the best thermal management in any car. What this means for you is not only will the battery last much longer than in other EVs, but it will also allow the car to charge quicker and have higher performance.

Tesla battery management is fantastic and it is completely automatic. In fact, owners can’t even tell when their car is managing their battery’s temperature. It happens all automatically, while driving, charging or even while their car is sitting in a parking lot.

Reducing Fast Charging

Another factor that plays a role in battery life is extremely fast charging. Charging the battery at lower voltages is generally better for the battery than higher voltages.

Although the negative effects of fast charging are less severe than leaving your battery with a high state of charge, they should be limited if possible. We would recommend not using Tesla Superchargers as your main form of charging your Tesla.

Fast Discharging

In a similar manner in which fast charging routinely can decrease battery life, fast discharging on a daily basis will also have an affect on battery life.

Everyday driving with the occasional spirited drive is unlikely to have any affect on your car’s battery life. However, if a vehicle is raced on a track on a regular basis, it could lead to some negative effects.

Although fast charging or discharging can affect a battery’s lifespan, they are not major contributors.

Battery Aging

There are various other factors that will affect the lifespan of a Tesla battery pack. Factors that we won’t have any control over.

The biggest one of these factors is the age of the battery. The age of the chemicals inside of the battery will play a large role in determining the battery’s usable life.

Although lithium-ion batteries start to age the day they’re created, they can last up to 20 years.

Charge Cycles

Charging and discharging a battery is known as a charge cycle. Charge cycles are a large contributor to the lifespan of a battery. It’s why many batteries are rated by the number of charge cycles they can support.

One charge cycle is equivalent to using an amount of energy that is equal to 100% of the battery capacity.

For example, if you charged a battery to 100% and discharged it down to 50% twice, then that would be equivalent to one charge cycle.

Although Tesla doesn’t specify the exact number of charge cycles for their batteries, it is believed that they will last up to 1,500 charge cycles.

What Happens When a Battery Ages

As a battery ages and degrades, it will start to hold less of a charge. A battery that has degraded, may only hold 90% of its original capacity and that capacity will continue to drop as the battery continues to age.

Eventually, the battery will no longer have a practical use in the vehicle and will need to be replaced after many years.

It’s normal for a new Tesla to lose some capacity in its first year. We’ve seen degradation rates of up to 5%. However the battery degradation will generally stabilize after the first year and the degradation rate will drop.

Conclusion

There are many factors that go into how long a Tesla lithium-ion battery will last. Mindful owners can reduce battery degradation and increase their lifespan properly maintaining their battery.

Owners can let Tesla manage their battery state by leaving the vehicle plugged in and not charging their cars all the way to 100% on a daily basis, unless of course they have a LFP battery.

However, there are other factors that will also have a big part in how long a Tesla battery lasts.

Since there are many factors that go into how long a Tesla battery will last, the exact mileage someone gets out of a Tesla battery will vary.

Since we know that newer Tesla batteries have a lifespan of about 1,500 charge cycles, we can use that to estimate the battery's lifetime mileage.

Taking charge cycles and the car's EPA mileage into account, we estimate that the lower range Model 3's battery will last about 400,000 miles.

While at the higher end, the Model S has a 375 mile range according to the EPA, bringing the battery's lifetime mileage up to 560,000 miles.

In 2019, Elon Musk commented on the Model 3's battery longevity, saying that the Model 3 has a battery that should last 300,000 to 500,000 miles.

Although the car's battery may last only 300,000 miles, other parts of the car are designed to last much longer. The car’s body and drive unit are made to last one million miles. So even after the battery needs to be replaced, the car still has a lot of life left.

The average person in the US drives an average of 14,000 miles per year. If a Tesla battery only lasted 300,000 miles, it would still last approximately 21 years for the average driver.

Although Tesla is at the forefront of electric vehicles and battery development, work continues to find batteries that last longer, are cheaper to produce and have higher capacities.

Battery Warranty

All Teslas come with the typical new car warranty. However, Tesla offers a separate, longer, battery and drive unit warranty.

The exact battery warranty will vary slightly by model, but their terms are fairly similar. The warranties range from an 8 year or 100,000 mile warranty, all the way up to an 8 year or 150,000 mile warranty, whichever comes first.

The warranty is based on the battery holding a minimum of 70% of its capacity over the course of the 8 years.

Future

Battery technology has stayed stagnant for a long period of time. It’s only more recently that electronics and now electric vehicles are pushing for improved battery technology.

We’re likely to see tremendous improvements in battery technology over the coming years as companies figure out how to produce batteries with higher capacities and reduced weight.

Electric cars, boats and even planes will continue to push for improved battery technology.

Million Mile Battery

Tesla is currently developing higher capacity, structured battery packs that will decrease the weight of a vehicle, leading to better efficiency.

Tesla is developing their new structured battery packs

Electrek

One of Tesla’s goals with its new battery technology is to have a battery that will last one million miles.

Real World Battery Lifespan

Tesla released their first Model S in 2012, so there are now various Teslas with high mileage that give us a better idea of how long a Tesla battery will last in the real world.

Tesloop, a company that offers one-way Tesla rentals between major cities has several Teslas with high mileage. One of their vehicles racked up more than 400,000 miles, although the battery did need to be changed at 317,000 miles.

Another owner, Hansjörg Gemmingen has almost 900,000 miles on his 2013 Model S. His car has gone through two battery replacements during this time, but it’s a true testament to the longevity of Tesla’s batteries.

Keep in mind that these vehicles are 8 and 9 years old now and Tesla had only been creating cars for a few years when the vehicles were built.

Tesla has undoubtedly learned and improved their products since these early vehicles. We'd expect newer batteries to last even longer.

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Tesla’s Approach to Autonomy: 7x Safer and 7x Cheaper than Waymo

Bloomberg

In the race to deploy autonomous vehicles, there have been two schools of thought. One is led by sensor fusion, which means the more sensors and the more types, the better. The other is Tesla’s school of thought — vision.

So far, even Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, has described Tesla as the leader in the autonomy sector.

Google CEO on who is the leader in self-driving space: "I think obviously @Tesla is a leader in the space. It looks to me like Tesla and Waymo are the top two." pic.twitter.com/T0hlSICm8V

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 15, 2024

A new analysis from Bloomberg (paywall) offers a similar perspective, focusing on the numbers and real-world safety metrics. Tesla’s strategy isn’t just viable - it is far outpacing its competitors.

A Tale of Crash Rates

The most striking numbers from Bloomberg’s analysis are safety-related. According to their comparison, FSD reports approximately 0.15 crashes per million miles driven. In contrast, Waymo reported approximately 1.16 crashes per million miles.

That means that a Tesla using FSD is seven times less likely to be involved in a crash than a Waymo vehicle, even with its bevy of sensors. This is in line with Tesla’s latest vehicle safety report, which notes that a Tesla using FSD is 10 times less likely to be involved in an accident than a driver in any other vehicle.

Crash rates compared

Bloomberg

When it comes down to it, sensor fusion, while it can be fantastic, it simply provides too much data to process and analyze. While LiDAR, radar and cameras all have their unique advantages, cameras end up being the most versatile. Our roads and world were created around vision and audio, so a LiDAR-only vehicle can’t navigate our roadways since it would be unable to see signs or any other object that lacks depth. For LiDAR to be useful, it needs to be coupled with vision.

Vision works well because it applies to all situations, and it’s a system that continues to improve thanks to advancements in image processing and AI. While measurements with vision still lag behind LiDAR, they’ve reached a point where they’d “good enough,” and the millimeter-level accuracy of LiDAR isn’t needed.

When radar and vision disagree, which one do you believe? Vision has much more precision, so better to double down on vision than do sensor fusion.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2021

Vehicle Cost

Besides the difficulty of using sensor fusion, Bloomberg also points out that Tesla’s advantage is in the fundamental cost of the hardware. The Model Y costs just 1/7th of the total cost of a Waymo vehicle.

This enormous cost difference is a direct result of how Tesla and Waymo are approaching autonomy. Waymo’s vehicles are high-end, third-party electric cars, like the now-discontinued Jaguar I-Pace, which are then retrofitted with an expensive, custom-built suite of sensors. This sensor suite includes multiple LIDAR units, radars, and cameras.

Tesla’s ability to scale autonomous driving faster than its rivals gives it an edge in the self-driving race, says Bloomberg Intelligence's Steve Man https://t.co/B1x5Jhx6Lf pic.twitter.com/XYPCblWmXn

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) June 16, 2025

Tesla, meanwhile, includes all the hardware for autonomy as standard equipment on each of their vehicles, with a relatively inexpensive suite of cameras and its own in-house designed FSD computer. Using affordable hardware means it’s easy to produce and field more vehicles, resulting in more data.

On top of that, building more vehicles at a lower price creates a larger and larger economic difference as time goes on, as Tesla’s Robotaxis become profitable far quicker than Waymo’s.

3 Billion Miles… and Counting

The biggest advantage that Tesla has over any other entrant into the autonomy ring is simply just data. Tesla’s fleet has gathered over 3 billion miles of driving data globally, whereas Waymo’s fleet is just a minuscule 22 million miles. 

Putting that into perspective, for every mile driven by a Waymo vehicle, a Tesla has driven over 135. Tesla’s advantage is also the fact that its data is global. It includes vehicles operating in a range of environments, from deserts to the Arctic, from cities to extremely rural areas, and is capable of achieving generalized autonomy.

Waymo’s data is extremely focused on urban and suburban areas and is effectively unusable for generalized vehicle autonomy. A larger, more capable fleet is the key to providing an effective robotaxi service, after all.

Scaling Manufacturing

Finally, Waymo doesn't produce vehicles. Tesla produces Robotaxis from scratch - every vehicle off the line has the ability to run Unsupervised FSD, and eventually join the Robotaxi fleet. Waymo needs to partner with other companies that have a good platform, and they must adapt their technology to that platform.

Waymo’s fleet is expected to be 2,500 vehicles by the end of 2025, while Bloomberg expects Tesla’s functional fleet to hit 35,000 by the same time. That’s not even counting the millions of AI4-powered vehicles that could also join the fleet by late 2026.

Overall, Tesla is a clear winner in the Robotaxi race - and it isn’t just because of one element. They’re winning through data, cost, and scalability, and the gap will only continue to grow.

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Tesla’s Six-Seat Model Y Confirmed in Software, May Feature Captain's Chairs, Aisle and Longer Wheelbase

Not a Tesla App

For several months, we’ve been hearing rumors that Tesla is developing a new variant of the Model Y, one equipped with six seats rather than the five or seven we’re accustomed to seeing. Many people have been holding out for exactly such a variant, one that’s big enough to hold larger families without being as tight on legroom as the seven-seat variant.

Now, thanks to confirmation from Tesla hacker @greentheonly, we now have the strongest evidence yet that Tesla is making a six-seat variant, likely in a unique configuration, as he found in the latest batch of vehicle firmware. 

Green found references to the six-seater Model Y in the 2025.20 update, validating the rumors we’ve heard. Given that the references are showing up in production software, Tesla may now be actively testing the vehicle. The next place to watch will be code in the Tesla app, which should hopefully provide us with some previews of the seat layout. 

Captain’s Chairs

So, what would a six-seat Model Y actually look like? Well, the configuration all but guarantees a 2x2x2 seat layout. That configuration would replace the traditional second-row bench seat with two more spacious captain’s chairs, which will have an aisle between them. That’s a big bump in comfort for second-row passengers, who would have seats more similar to the ones up front. Tesla didn’t include armrests on the six-seat Model X, so it’s likely the Model Y won’t have them either.

For the Model X, the seven-seat configuration is a $3,500 bump in price, while the six-seater costs an additional $6,500, so expect the Model Y to have a similar price structure.

We can also expect Tesla to add some convenience features into this package, similar to the power-reclining seats introduced in the new Model Y, which can automatically fold and unfold with the tap of a button. In a six-seat Model Y, the middle seats would likely be able to automatically move forward and backward, while the rear two seats would be the folding ones.

Front seats learned some manners

If rear row needs more space to fold flat, front seats in new Model Y will automatically adjust pic.twitter.com/O8ik9QuPwA

— Tesla (@Tesla) February 4, 2025

However, most importantly, this 2x2x2 layout creates a center aisle. This provides easier access to the third row, eliminating the need to fold down the center bench seat to get in and out of the vehicle. That’s a big improvement for families who use the third-row regularly.

Confirming Rumors

This firmware update actually confirms rumors we heard back in December 2024. China’s Latepost and Reuters had already indicated that a six-seat variant was in the works back then, but many agreed that the variant would be an exclusive option for the Chinese market. That particular market prefers having spacious second-row seating, and the six-seater just makes sense there, given the offerings of other manufacturers.

Now, with Green’s assessment that a global release is more likely helps to confirm those reports, while also providing some hope for customers in North America and Europe who have been holding out.

Utility vs Comfort

The plot thickens when we look at the fact that Tesla just teased another recent development - the Model Y seven-seat variant. Some customers in North America and Europe received emails teasing the return of the seven-seat Model Y.

But why would Tesla release both? Likely for similar reasons that they have a six-seat and seven-seat Model X. The answer is that some will value the utility of the seven-seat option, while others will value the comfort and premium feeling of the six-seat option.

By offering both, Tesla gives its customers a bit more customization and preference, especially those who often have to look outside the brand for larger family vehicles.

Longer Wheelbase

While the firmware finding confirms the seating configuration, there have also been some rumors from Chinese bloggers about the possibility of a longer wheelbase, known as version E80. If this proves to be true, the six-seater would be more than just a new interior layout; it would be a fundamentally larger vehicle. Recent rumors suggest the vehicle may have a wheelbase that’s 5.9” longer than the regular Model Y, which would significantly increase the legroom available in the third row. While the third row may have ample legroom in this longer wheelbase, it would likely still be limited for smaller individuals due to the available headroom.

The Tesla Model X is Tesla’s only current offering for larger families, but it costs significantly more than the Model Y. A six or seven-seater Model Y could help open up a whole new category for Tesla.

Price

We expect that Tesla will likely price the seven-seat variant for an additional $2,000 USD ($3,000 CAD), and the six-seat variant for an additional $4,000 USD ($5,000 CAD) in the North American market, based on the pricing of the old seven-seat variant and the Model X’s six-seat premium configuration.

Below is a video of the seven-seater Model Y:

What Next?

The addition of the six-seat Model Y to Tesla’s public software that’s being delivered to vehicles today practically confirms that Tesla is looking to release a six-seat version of the Model Y. While the longer wheelbase remains speculative, we could expect Tesla to unveil a six-seat variant in the coming months. Alongside the seven-seat variant, customers shopping for a larger vehicle will have some additional choices soon.

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