PES:
Gruber has discovered that while Roadsters with their original 200-mile-range battery packs are still healthy, cars fitted with the upgraded 400-mile-range pack that Tesla began offering in 2016 are the ones starting to fail.
The very first Tesla Roadsters were sold back in 2008 and are now 15 years old. Gruber cites the automaker's original Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, as claiming the expected lifespan of those original first-generation multi-cell battery packs was 10 years. However, Straubel himself, who owns one of the earliest Roadsters, remarked publicly last year he's surprised to report his car is still going strong, and he has revised his estimate of the original pack's lifespan up to 15 years. Gruber's own data supports this, with the company reporting that most of the Roadsters it services with the original 200-mile-range battery pack are still healthy with no signs of slowing down.
In 2016, Tesla began offering Roadster owners a larger, upgraded battery pack. The upgraded packs cost an eye-watering $32,000 but were claimed to double the Roadster's range to 400 miles and extend their lifespan. These packs were fitted with upgraded 3.2 amp-hour 18650 cells compared to the 2.2 amp-hour cells used in the original packs. Despite the promise of a longer lifespan, these upgraded packs are the ones now failing.
Gruber began investigating the upgraded packs when it received two separate Roadsters for service, both with the upgraded battery packs, that were exhibiting identical symptoms its techs had never seen before. After a lengthy and technical investigation, Gruber concluded a "cell quality issue" was the root cause of the packs' failure "Gruber has discovered that while Roadsters with their original 200-mile-range battery packs are still healthy, cars fitted with the upgraded 400-mile-range pack that Tesla began offering in 2016 are the ones starting to fail.
The very first Tesla Roadsters were sold back in 2008 and are now 15 years old. Gruber cites the automaker's original Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, as claiming the expected lifespan of those original first-generation multi-cell battery packs was 10 years. However, Straubel himself, who owns one of the earliest Roadsters, remarked publicly last year he's surprised to report his car is still going strong, and he has revised his estimate of the original pack's lifespan up to 15 years. Gruber's own data supports this, with the company reporting that most of the Roadsters it services with the original 200-mile-range battery pack are still healthy with no signs of slowing down.