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Comment by threeseed | Hacker News Reader

The fact that the battery had to be replaced 3 times in 3 years seems very odd.

An average owner would likely never have it replaced.

This is just a guess from reading the article, but the A/C that was running non stop for years runs off of the 12V battery instead of being belt driven. There are many issues that occur when people take affordable passenger cars, (e.g. Camry) and drive them as taxis, that stem from not being used as designed.

The 12V battery is the tiny one that doesn't cost much, similar to the one that every ICE car has. Teslas do need a marine grade 12V battery, which costs a bit extra.

The article states that the A/C compressor runs off of the high voltage battery, not the 12V.

I'm curious what is running off of the 12v to cause such wear, but considering the miles traveled having to replace it 3 times isn't actual that crazy.

Not odd. Tesla’s are notorious for being hard on the 12V battery due to all of the non-traction loads in the vehicle. We replaced ours with deep cycle 12V lithium packs to prevent early mortality.

Tesla replaced mine with a deep cycle marine battery. Which aren't that much more expensive than a conventional ICE 12V battery. This is apparently now standard equipment.

This is great to hear.

I only noticed one. Can you note the mileages when it was replaced two other times? I agree with you that most owners wouldn't have been able to get that warranteed at the 300k mile mark.

Unfortunately, the battery warranty is one of Tesla's weakest points.

The other battery replacement occurred at 158k miles. I'm guessing the third replacement that comment is referring to was actually the line item for refunding the 355k mile battery replacement, which (as I understand) isn't a third replacement.

So, two battery replacements in 400k miles.

The ones at 158k and 355k were the 12v battery. Those are annoying, but probably not exceptionally high for 400k miles.

It looks like 317,037 was the only high voltage battery replacement. That wouldn't be too bad, IMO.

Note that they’re talking about the 12v battery, not the battery pack. The 12v battery is like an accessory battery.

Yes. It’s the same size battery that every ICE car has.

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