What Went Wrong? Uber Driver's 120,000 mile Tesla Experiment! 

Nov 27. Any updates on Dobson’s GoFundMe?

I have a friend who uses his 2021 Model 3 for Uber here in Australia. He’s done 250k already, with minimal degradation, only around 10%. However I’ll add that he rarely Supercharges, maybe only 20% of the time or less. I really believe that Supercharging is hard on batteries.

Tesla will have to figure it out. This guy is essentially testing out the robo-taxi model.

Anyone wanna bet his old Camry is still running like a champ!

A hybrid like a prius would probably make much more sense in this situation.

Man, what a wonderful guy. So honorable and righteous taking a hit like that...Not blaming other for his decision. mad respect to Kim and this man!

His comparison of the battery to an engine is actually really good. The only problem is that a used engine for a 2019 camry costs less than 3 grand and will last much longer than an ev battery

A Camry engine will give you 300K to 400K miles if you take care of the engine. Could be even more. A friend of mine has a 2014 Ford Focus with 300K and it still runs like new. Whenever the Camry does need a new engine you are looking at about $3,000 - $4,000 with labor.

This man is so fair-minded, he could be a diplomat. Great guy

This guy is so honorable. Most people would fully blame Tesla and maybe even righteously go Karen on them. But Dobson takes responsibility and is more than understanding of the whole situation.

This guy is a first class human, what a great attitude!

Its always admirable to hear a man take responsibility for his actions. But I find it interesting how people in general are so much more forgiving of Tesla for such issues that costs people so much money in repair bills. If a Toyota were to fail prematurely like this, I don't think people would take it as kindly.

A buddy of mine had a Tesla. At about 100K his mileage declined dramatically as well. He sold it and will not go back to EV anytime soon.

Imagine buying a petrol or diesel car and you can only use 80% of the fuel tank, and the fuel tank gets smaller each time you fill up 😂😂😂😂

The Camry is so much more well defined, better built, more reliable, and has higher resell.

I learnt about batteries when I built an electric bike. Rapidly I discovered that cells go bad, in their string. There might be two dead cells but the rest are ok. If the pack isn’t able to swap the cells (for matched cells) then the whole lot is junked. This sudden death is exactly what happened for me. Two dying cells but the rest are ok. They need to be designed to be re-made vs just recycled.

I was an Uber driver for a little over 5 years. I had a VW Jetta for the first 2 years getting an average of 25 MPG. I then bought a Toyota Prius (hybrid) and my MPG went up to 50 and my Uber income almost doubled. I never considered a total EV because in Uber you never know where you are going until the rider gets in the car. I would be so stressed out as to how much battery power I had left and you can't charge the battery with a rider in the car. I think a hybrid gas/EV is the best choice for any ride-share driver. My Prius was amazing but it got too old to qualify for Uber. In Connecticut, no ride-share vehicle can be over 12 years old. That's a state law.

Cab companies use the Prius for a reason. They can put 270k miles on it easily.

His attitude is super positive and reasonable, considering everything this guy went through. Also, 120k miles in a year isn't uncommon to taxi drivers and Tesla will have to deal with this in proper manner if they're serious with operating a Robo Taxi Fleet.

When bro realized he should have bought an old school Toyota Camry...😂😂😂

Tesla should give this man a new battery and thank him for the test results.

Kim, kudos to you for being such a kind person. We sure need people like you in our society---especially now.

Crazy how there’s older cars with high miles still running

This is one of the most helpful videos I've watched on the internet in months. Thanks!

I’m a rideshare driver and passively shopping right now for a new vehicle. And I’m test driving the Tesla model Y next week. Thank you for this video. And that guy is awesome! He def handled that situation with Grace.

This guy is a class act all the way. Despite what has happened to him and his vehicle, he has a positive and optimistic spin on all of it. Kudos my friend you are a class act.🎉

$9k for a new battery doesn't sound too bad. A friend of mine just had his diesel engine on his F-250 fail at 130k miles and got quoted over $20k for replacement.

Dude’s a warrior. Instead of crying and making himself a victim, he sees the positive of his situation and moves on.

Dobson is such a reasonable person. He's very well spoken. He makes good points and doesn't play the victim. Tesla would do well listening to and working with him.

I believe it was all the supercharging that killed the battery. Look at Bjorn Nyland's older videos in which he was using a Model X in a business hauling stuff around Norway. He supercharged a lot and ended up with at least one battery replacement relatively early in the life of the vehicle (but at least one was under the original warranty). The heat from supercharging just kills the battery.

I’m only 13 minutes in right now as of this comment. Before the start and during the pandemic I started Uber in my M3 LR. My vehicle had around 3k miles when I started and when I completely stopped I was around 50k I believe. At the time I lived in an apartment so supercharging was all I had. I was charging twice a day as well. I purchased the vehicle in Dec 2019 and supercharged almost daily until I moved into a home and had the Tesla wall charger installed, this was in July 2021. Forward to 3 weeks ago, October 2023 I had racked up just under 115,000 miles. I’ve been all over the U.S. in my car and have done countless roadtrips after Uber and moving to my new home so I still supercharged a few times a month when on the road. I loved my M3 LR and had no big issues with it. Battery range went from 315 to 287 max and because I was coming up on the 120k warranty loss, I traded it in for a 2023 Model Y. I have no intentions of doing Uber again but roadtripping will definitely be a thing. I think this guy got mix of unlucky and over doing the battery cycles in such a short period.

Really smart honest guy, good luck my man.

The intense heat from supercharging mostly occurs in the bottom half of the charge curve when (depending on the model) it's accepting 200-250 kWh. The last 25% is ramped all the way down to 25kWh.

I feel bad for him but unfortunately a lot of people made this mistake.

I have been an Uber driver for over 9 years and an EV driver for over 4 years. I currently own a 2023 Bolt EUV for Uber, my wife has a 2022 model 3 long range ai just sold my 2021 MYP for a brand new 2023 Model S long range. This is my 3rd Bolt EV/EUV as I average 5000 miles per month here in Southern California and make between 90 and 100000 per year. I change my Bolt every 2 years and 120000 miles as a business expense. If you make 180000 in 2 years and replace a car worth 30000, that means you made 150000 in profit. You didn't mention that if you drove your camry 100000 miles in 1 year, how much that would of cost you in gas, oil changes, brake pads, transmission maintenance, etc. You are still ahead for 9000 dollars. Ask your accountant if that 9000 is a write-off? If you make a good income with your corporate account, get a long range model y for comfort and use the older model 3 for the rest of your rides. I think for most ride share drivers, a 30000 dollar Bolt that gives you 300 miles on a full charge is perfect. Hope this is helpful. Part of doing business my friend. Kim is very right about continuously supercharging your vehicle, leading to faster degradation. A long range also gives you 8 years 120000 miles warranty on the battery and with the S and X it's 8 years and 150000 miles warranty.

A quick look at how lithium ion batteries degrade after a number of cycles, the curve in the graphs goes down very slowly at first. But then when it hits a certain number of cycles it goes down fast. Like an incubation period when everything seems to be going smoothly until the disease breaks out and everything goes downhill fast. So the degradation is not linear.

In a lot of places supercharging is more expensive than a tank of gas.😂

Now I get Tesla's business plan. Save $16K in fuel over 100K miles. So you can buy a new $16K dollar battery. Excellent thinking Elon.

Dobson is an absolute prince of a man. It would be interesting to see the numbers on a highbrid Camry in the exact same situation.

My 24 year old Volvo has 331,000 miles and it's fuel tank is still the same size....

A mechanic I know recently got a 94 Toyota corolla for $300 and put a $250 junkyard motor in it and has had no problems with it. It's got over 300k miles with the original A/T. Will the barrier for entry ever be this simple for EV's?

He should try LFP module 3 and see how that goes

My neighbour has 310.000km (192.000 miles) on his 2019 Model 3 but he's always charging at home with the occasional supercharge on long trips. Range is still fine, so I guess slow charging really is the "secret".

Something I’m surprised wasn’t brought up more in the video is supercharging vs regular charging or home charging. Supercharging is very hard on the battery. Regular charging doesn’t heat the battery as much and it doesn’t cause as much wear. The same goes for charging past about 80%.

My 2014 S is @ 300.000+ miles. One battery repair/regeneration ($4500 @260.000) and one motor rebuilt ($1300 preventive service). Still on 90%+ range. Aren't there any independent Tesla repair shops in your area??

The most reasonable man I’ve heard on the subject ever. What ever he does in life he will be a great success. Very eloquent and very articulate in his assessment of the situation.

Wow, a refurbished battery with 60% capacity for $9000 and only one year warranty.

How can fast charging at a Tesla supercharger be that much cheaper than gas, sure at home at 12c / kWh but Tesla charger 30c right?

What about his tires? Don’t they only last around 30k miles? How many sets did he purchase?

Appreciate this honesty. This is what we all need. Both of you are completely admirable.

I do Uber and drive about 150 miles a day 3 days a week so with personal use a total of 500 miles a week. I’ve noticed a slight drop in mileage. I only charge 80% and I only home charge at home.

I watch another guy on RU-vid that drives as an app driver and he saves so much towards a new battery out of his profits as he can only supercharge. He thought ahead knowing he would have to replace it.

Best way to charge to 80 % only. Don't let battery go below 20%

I’m not a ride-share driver. My 2019 Model 3 Long Range has 167,000 miles and I charge batteries to 85% at home 95% of the time, no supercharger. I barely see any degradation and the car drives like new. Maybe that’s the difference? Charging at home! 🤷🏻‍♂️ Great Video guys! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

My guess is that this wouldn't have happened if he had a long range and charged to 80% instead.

The time it took to find a charging station and waiting.... did he calculate the $ loss there ?

it is so pleasing watching these ev range videos, from my 10yo diesel passat with 1100 km range on a full tank.....

I love that he is still "oh it saved me in gas cost" as he is sitting with a dead Tesla he still owed 40k on and is out another 9k for new battery

Perfect timing! I was recently curious how Dobson’s Tesla test, was going. This video answers all the questions I’ve had for years. Has definitely helped with making a decision about a Tesla. Thank you both so much.

Good vid ! best vid on range I've seen.

For best battery life on a Tesla you should keep the battery between 20% to 80%, on maps set you destination as a supercharger if you are going to charge it because that will precondition the battery for charging, and finally try to only supercharger when you absolutely need to because it is easier on the batteries to charge the same amount over a longer time; a way to think about it is run as fast as you can for 1mile vs walking the same distance, one is harder, so harder on you body the other easier and nicer on your body.

Tesla should come out with an extended warranty for commercial use maybe $100.00 bucks a month for total coverage of battery

Batteries usually prefer slower charging and discharging. So drag races and super charging at highest rate/250kv will certainly degrade it way faster.

They should just give this man a new car and thank him for his work as their real worls tester.

Did Tesla service replace the physical battery pack or at least replace individual low performing cells, or did they "refurbish" it in the car via software? How would you even know either way?

Your friend is such a reasonable gentleman, offering valuable information. If I worked at Tesla, I would recommend a company fund for research, and take cases like this a very frequent use of superchargers and miles

Fear of the battery needing replacement is a thing; multiple people have expressed this to me. It would be worthwhile for Tesla to offer a good solution for this, like an optional extended 200,000 mile warranty, or such.

It's hard not to like this guy. Great additide. Very positive. Very personable.

Did you clean your battery filter?

I contributed to the go fund because as a TSLA shareholder I am Tesla. Thanks for being a test case. If the go fund covers the cost please drive the model 3 all the time and keep testing the situation. Pretty sure your hard work will always payoff. Think of the pollution that you are saving us all from. Hard work always pays. We can do it, Ellon doesn’t have to do everything. We got this , keep pushing 🙏

I think he should have used the Uber program and leased a brand new Tesla and I don't think there is a long term commitment. He could just turn that one in after six months or even one month, and get another one. I would love to have Dobson as my driver, he is so good at communicating, wow. Great video and content!

No vehicle is worth wild after 120,000 miles in the 1st year. The fact you drove over 120,000 in a year is super crazy but we cannot bypass this woman is Gorgeous.

Just wondering if you can turn that car in to the insurance as 'totaled"?

LFP pack seems more suitable for this use case than the NCM pack in his 2019 M3. Would be interesting to see if his next car has LFP pack to give it a real world test.

First, I admire Dobson's attitude about this unforeseen $9k expense! I have a 2012 Model S P85 and a 2014 Model S 85, both right around 105k miles. I Supercharge maybe 5% of the time, but I do live in Phoenix, AZ so it is "hot" a large chunk of the year. I usually recharge to 80% at my solar paneled home. My 2014 "Drive Unit Rear" died under warranty, however, it had the side-effect of reducing my max range from 232 to 214. Tesla said I had to "retrain" my battery to get back my range, but after following their recommendations I never did get the range back. My 2012 still gets to about 220 max. I know my Model S battery chemistries are probably different than his Model 3, but I agree with many here it's not the heat and probably not Supercharging, but the number of charge cycles you put the battery through. Eventually we will know the truth, and I'm hoping I don't need a new battery until prices fall as dramatically as Tesla's new car MSRP's have!

I'd be curious to know if this Model 3 was 18650 cells, or LFP cells, or the 4680 cells (?)...

Question, within the battery cost, maintenance, was he able to recover the invested amount on the car? Was he able to make a decent income within that year regardless of all the implications?

Very nice video. I charge mine to only 80% (with only 4 exceptions) and had mine since 2020. But this guy has put it to the extreme test.

How would you feel if you found out that they didn't actually replace your battery, but set a software switch to re-enable the existing battery and charged you $9000 for that service?

Bailing him out will teach him nothing. Hard lesson, but it has to be learned.

Would love if he could do the same test with one of these LFP Packs. Maybe these could handle it better to be charged so often. Great video though.

Ride share drivers may want to consider a battery savings account...120000mi/$9000 7.5 cents per mile. Still cheaper than ICE considering no brake (or little) maintenance, oil changes, air filters or common ICE repairs eg timing belts, exhaust systems, spark plugs, transmission repairs etc. Good information...thank you.

Regardless he drove 120k miles in one year, it's not uncommon to see 2-3 year old cars with such mileage, so definitively something to take in count when thinking in any electric car

Charging 0-90 or 100% three times a day is WILD

How long it takes to charge ? Because I'm in a rush. Ion have 4 hours. I have 4 minutes. So , what we doing ⁉️

Thank you Kim, such an important topic! Everyone let’s help Dobson! 🙏🏽

I remember these being sold as 24/7 taxis and it cant even handle two charges a day?

I have a 2019 longrange, I have exactly the same problem 😢 I am still on my warranty but communication is going very slow .let hope for the best

Not sure if I missed it discussed but the timing sounds like the battery was damaged when he charged it to 100% shortly before failure.

TESLA COMMUNITY! Let's help Dobson pay for his battery replacement and get him back into a new Tesla. Even a couple dollars adds up. He’s open to sharing more data/insights as he continues driving 10k miles a month. ► gofund.me/83a22ccb

Thank you, Kim Java, for making such interesting and informative videos on Teslas and related topics. I really enjoy watching your videos.

Baterry is a battery, just like smart phone. In the beginning its fine, then every day is weaker and weaker. Rapid charging/discharging will take a toll on most baterries. Gas car don't degrade. You can literally pull out a 1970 era car from a scrapyard, fix it and it will drive long distance. Gas car will never betray you on the road like EV.

Same thing happened to me but I was under warranty still ! I don’t know if I want to keep the car anymore! I’m like it’s 2021 and it’s doing this now.

I've seen a few rideshare RU-vidrs mention that they take some of the money they're saving over using an ICE vehicle and put it into a battery replacement savings.

One item I'd like to surface is that a lot of folks I chat with at a Tesla Supercharger are NOT navigating to the supercharger through the on-board nav system. What happens in this case is that there is no thermal battery preconditioning taking place prior to charging.

I love that the caveat is that if he were to do it again he would only use it for corporate clients concerned about the status symbol it represents. This statement speaks volumes.

Thank you guys!!!!!

*Tesla advisor here!* To be clear, the 3’s HV battery is rated for 100k miles/8 years under normal use. Supercharging to 10-90+% 2x daily every day is not normal use, miles aside. That’s most likely what did it in. We see early model 3’s with 200k+ miles with very little degradation. The difference? Supercharging. Supercharging puts FARRR more stress on an EV’s battery than miles alone. DC fast charging of any kind is very hard on HV batteries. This is to be expected. They can be amazing ride share vehicles but keep in mind that they were never designed specifically for this type of use. If you are using one for this purpose you must factor in a shorter life than if it were to be daily driven a typical commute and charged at home. “Sudden death” as it was referred to occurs for many reasons but most commonly because the HV pack has reached a certain level of degradation that is no longer safe to store high levels of charge. Your pack is most likely still able to hold 60-70% of its capacity, it’s being software limited. Yes this can be sudden. This is on purpose. In many cases, service centers can service the affected modules instead of replacing the entire pack. Still expensive but a lot less than $12-15k for a new pack. This is rare, Even for our legacy cars. What you’re doing for Dobson is amazing. It is fascinating to hear people’s stories, love the videos!! I hope my insight answers some questions, these are the conversations that need to be had!

I have a Tesla with 242,000 Miles and I never had an issue with the battery. I only Charge to 90% and I charge at home most of the time at 30amps. I do have the bigger battery. I use the supercharges from time to time but not normally. I think the smaller battery, charging to 100% and always using the super charger caused this. Tesla does tell you not go over the 90% on the screen and you should only do it for special trips; as stated. I think he learned his lesson and is doing the right thing now. He should invest in a 240V charger home so that he can do most of his charging there; which is also cheaper. I through in $10 to the GoFundme.

Most semi truck OTR drivers log at least 100,000 miles per year. Teams can hit 300,000.