In the summer of 2023, we purchased a Tesla Model Y Long Range. This is our third Tesla and our fifth EV. For context, we've owned a Model X, Model 3, and now a Model Y. Now that we'd had the Y for a year, let's see how it's gone. How's it working out? What issues has it had? How's the range... We'll cover all this and more.
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Our Model Y after a Shower with its Winter Tires |
Why Long Range
We opted for the long-range, all-wheel drive variant with the free paint color, midnight silver metallic. The long range allows us to keep the battery at a medium state of charge most days. With a fuller charge, the LR variant allows us to drive from our Portland suburb home to the Mount Hood ski areas or the Oregon coast and back without stopping to charge. Roadside charging while on a trek is not too bad, but nothing is as convenient as charging up in your own garage while you sleep. If you can afford it, the extra range is a luxury all on its own.
Accessories
Trip Stats
During this first year of ownership, we put almost 9,000 miles on the odometer.
Our road trips included a 170 mile round trip to Astoria, Oregon; several 180 mile round trips to Corvallis, Oregon; 150 mile round trip to Cannon Beach, and several 160 miles round trips to Mount Hood ski areas.
On one of our road trips we made it home with a 5% charge left in the battery. The trip planner was accurate and we arrived with a state-of-charge just as it predicted. There was no anxiety because there were multiple places we could have stopped if the energy meter was dipping too low.
We generally stop every hundred miles or so to refresh our caffeinated beverages and stretch our legs. Our longest single leg was 2 hours 3 min, it was 89 miles and used 20.51 kWh. That's 230 Wh/Mile or 91% efficiency.
In November of 2023 we drove in 33°F and in July of 2024 (last month) we drove in 112°F with the cabin at a comfortable temp in both cases.
Our highest elevation was 4,648 feet on Mount Hood and our lowest elevation was just 4 feet above sea level in Astoria.
Firmware and FSD
During this year, we received 16 firmware updates including several FSD updates, culminating in firmware v2024.21.5. The updates are fun; they add games, new features, and bug fixes to the vehicle. The new UI with a large view of the vehicle when parked was a nice improvement.
We
transferred full self-driving (FSD) from our 2018 Model 3 to our Model
Y. Our Model Y was among the first to have FSD HW4. When we took
delivery, the FSD software didn't support HW4 yet. However, one of our
first firmware updates enabled FSD.
Many of the 16 firmware updates came along with FSD updates too. We started with FSD v11.3.6, then multiple v11.4 builds, then we jumped to v12.3 flavors and now we're on v12.5.1.1. FSD is getting good enough that I can see, with continued iteration (and, initially at least, remote human support), how it will be possible to have eyes-off, hands-off driving and/or Robotaxis by our predicted timeline of
August 2027.
Charging
During this 1 year of ownership, we've charged our Model Y 200 times. All but 2 of these charges were at home in our garage. The first of the not-at-home charges was at my in-laws house to test our old mobile charger on their RV outlet (NEMA 14-50) with our new vehicle to see if they were compatible. We had a couple of glitches, but eventually got it to work. If you're considering buying a used mobile connectors, you'll want to
read this.
The second of our not-at-home charging sessions was at the (then) newly opened V4 Supercharger installation in Wilsonville, OR. There are 8 V4 stalls there and I wanted to, one, confirm that Supercharging worked on our vehicle, and two, see how fast the V4 stations were. This was the first V4 location in my region. Apparently, I was not the only one that wanted to try out the new V4, there was a line of cars. It would have been easy to continue south and charge up in Woodburn, OR instead, but we were 3rd in the queue and the line moved quickly. We stayed and soon, we were charging. The charging session was 39 minutes and we charged from 31% to 80% SoC. Looking at it in MPH of range added, we averaged 250 MPH and had a max of 403 MPH.
V3 and V4 Superchargers can charge at a rate 250kW. We topped out at 99kW and averaged 66kW. I was expecting a V4 station to charge faster than this, but it was a warm day and, as I said, there was a line of cars, so the system was not getting a chance to cool off between sessions. Or maybe they were still waiting for permits to go over 100kW. I may try another session now that the novelty of this location has faded.
Battery Degradation
Okay, saving the best for last, here's the reason you came here, the battery degradation data. Soon after purchasing our Y we signed up for
TeslaFi to track our vehicle statistics. One of the things it tracks is the range degradation / battery health. Generally, the first 2 or 3 years are the worst degradation for Li-ion batteries, after that the degradation slows.
As you can see in the graph above, we've had a small amount (1.9%) of degradation. That's good news since the first year is expected to be the worst. This is a rate of 0.22% per thousand miles traveled. For comparison, in the first year of ownership of our 2016 Model X, it had a battery degradation of 2.7%.
If you have a newish EV, share your battery degradation. I'd like to see how it compares.
Referrals
If you're interested in a Model Y, you can use my referral code and we'll both get perks
(https://ts.la/patrick7819).
If you want to know what your Tesla's highest elevation was, you can use my
TeslaFi referral to get all kinds of cool stats. If you use a referral, you get an extra month free and so do I.