EVERYTHING you need to know about Tesla Maintenance, Service & Costs

Today I'm going to cover everything you want to know about Tesla maintenance, including service, warranty, and costs of ownership. Let’s jump right into it!

Intro

Compared to a typical gas-powered car, Teslas have far fewer moving parts and there are no fluids to leak or belts that can wear out. Making it far less expensive to maintain throughout its lifetime. Let's take a look at the maintenance of a tesla compared to a traditional gas-powered car.

With a gas-powered car, you’ll eventually need maintenance on numerous things like filters, such as your engine air filter, oil filter, and fuel filters. Your Fluids such as transmission and power steering fluids. Your brakes, the 12-volt battery, all the belts and hoses, and things that typically go bad like your spark plugs, fuses, transmission, fuel, and water pumps. And lastly, let's not forget about oil changes, which can be costly depending on the type of car you drive. With a Tesla, you won't have to worry about any of that, let's check out exactly what tesla recommends as far as maintenance on its cars:

TESLA MAINTENANCE

From the information on Tesla's website, the first thing you’ll need to maintain is the cabin air filter, this filter prevents pollen, industrial fallout, road dust, and other particles from entering through the vents. For the Model 3 and Model Y, it's recommended to have this replaced every 2 years, and every 3 years For the Model S and Model X. I've had my Tesla for less than two years but I ended up doing a filter change on my own to upgrade to HEPA filters. if interested, you can check out my video on the HEPA Filter Upgrade for Tesla. If your Tesla is already equipped with a HEPA filter, Tesla recommends replacing it every 3 years.

Next is having a tire rotation and wheel alignment.

Tesla recommends rotating your tires every 6,250 miles or if the tread depth difference is 2/32 in or greater, whichever comes first. Now let's quickly talk about Tires on a Tesla.

A good set of tires on a traditional gas-powered car typically lasts about 3-5 years or about 60,000 miles

However, in a Tesla, the tires will need to be changed sooner at about 2 and a half to 3 years or about 30,000 miles

This is because Teslas are much heavier cars due to their battery packs, this extra weight puts more stress on the tires, wearing them out sooner than a typical gas-powered car, they can also wear out faster depending on your driving habits.

That is a downside, but as a perk of owning a tesla, tire rotation can be done by Tesla's mobile service which means you can have the service done at your house or work hassle free without ever having to be present. Stay tuned because we’ll talk more about mobile service in a bit.

The next thing tesla recommends is a brake fluid test for contamination every 2 years and replacement as needed. But before we move on, here's a little more information on brake maintenance:

In a typical gas-powered car, brake pads should be changed every 15,000 miles, and a full Brake change that includes changing the pads, rotors, and calipers, plus labor costs about $300 - $800 or even over $1,000 on luxury brand cars.

But if you own a tesla, your brakes will last much longer, you will be able to drive over 300,000 miles without a brake change due to regenerative braking, which brakes the car using its electric motors instead of the actual brakes, at the same time regenerating energy back into the battery to increase driving range.

Other than a brake fluid test, The only other thing Tesla recommends is if you live in a cold climate, to clean and lubricate the calipers every 12 months or 12,500 miles.

Lastly, the only other thing you’ll need to maintain is your A/C desiccant bag, which keeps the longevity and efficiency of your air conditioning system. For the Model 3, you’ll need to replace it every 6 years. 4 Years for the Model Y, and 3 Years for the models S and X

And that's it! only 5 simple things to maintain on a Tesla, and as a bonus, you’ll always be reminded when to have each recommended maintenance done through the Tesla App.

COSTS AND COMPARISON

When it comes to costs, with these 5 things, including a car inspection, most Tesla owners pay around $1,490 every 5 years, which is less than $300 per year. Here's what just these 5 things look like compared to some other cars.

WARRANTY

Now with any car, things can break, or stop working as intended. Of course, this is when you’ll most likely have to have the car serviced which is where the Warranty comes in.

Every Tesla comes with a basic limited warranty which covers the Tesla for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first.

On the Model S, The Supplemental Restraint System Limited Warranty covers your vehicle for 5 years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first.

And for All Teslas, The Battery and Drive Unit in your vehicle are covered for 8 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.

Teslas' batteries will last between 300,000 - 500,000 miles. The average life of a gas-powered car is 200,000 miles, with some lasting up to 300,000. I personally don’t see myself driving my Tesla for another 12 years but it's good to know that it can outdo the average gas-powered car. Now if you on the other hand decide to keep driving over 500,000 miles, You can replace your battery for around $13,500 and can expect the labor charge to be around $2,300. So, the total cost of battery replacement may range around $15,800, which depending on the person may be a better option than buying a new car.

RECURRENT EV REPORTS

Recurrent makes it easy to track your battery's health with free monthly battery performance reports to give you confidence when buying and owning electric cars, making EV performance, value, and range over time more transparent.

There are three types of reports provided by Recurrent: EV Owner Insights, Range Scores, and Recurrent Reports.

The EV Owner Insights allows you to compare your daily battery data to that of thousands of similar vehicles. After authenticating just once, you’ll receive a free updated report every month.

Range Scores are created with EV shoppers in mind, they are designed to give you a snapshot of the current expected range compared to what it was when the vehicle was new, giving you confidence when shopping for a used EV.

Recurrent Reports is a paid report offered by Recurrent. These reports are like a CarFax report, but for EVs. It's great to have this offered by dealerships because typically the EVs dashboards estimated range is not accurate. This report can also be good to use when selling your own EV, providing the buyer with data to show your car has a good battery.

Now I do want to mention that The reports are not complete solutions to battery health, as they do not include features that the average car buyer does not have access to, like chemical testing in a lab and onboard devices. The purpose of recurrent reports is to address common questions like:

What is the actual range of an electric car today? How will that change in the summer and winter? and What will that range be 3 years from now?

You can now have these answers and more by signing up for Recurrent and getting your free report with the link in the description.

Recurrent is currently only available in the US at the moment, with more countries on the waitlist.

TESLA MOBILE SERVICE

Another huge advantage of owning a Tesla is that instead of having to take your car to a dealership or mechanic, Teslas service team can come directly to your home or work to fix any issues hassle-free.

If you have an issue you can just open the app and let the team know, they will reply via the chat to see if you’re able to fix the issue on your own or if they can fix a problem over a software update. If not, depending on the issue they will let you know if you can schedule a mobile service appointment or if you’ll need to bring your car to a service center.

I had to use the mobile service myself when one of my right-side cameras stopped working, I simply went on the app, scheduled the appointment and that was it. The service team came to my house, replaced the camera, restarted the car and they were on their way. The entire service took less than 20 minutes and was all under warranty. There is no extra cost for a mobile appointment and the service is available across the US and continues to rapidly expand worldwide.

Now before we wrap up there is just one downside to Tesla servicing I want to mention. With a traditional gas-powered car, if something goes wrong you can take your car to literally any mechanic, getting an appointment within a week or sometimes even the same day. Since Tesla technicians are the only ones who can service a Tesla, making appointments can be difficult and when you do get one, it can take forever to get your car back.

OUTRO

And that's a wrap! pretty cool huh? does this information make you more likely to buy a Tesla? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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