• This Tesla Model Y has a little under 100,000 miles on the clock.
• Despite the relatively low mileage, the battery pack has a higher-than-average degradation.

Electric vehicle batteries are pretty robust these days, with multiple studies showing that the high-voltage packs powering modern EVs will last way longer than originally thought. That said, every once in a while, outliers will stick their head out.

That’s exactly the case with the 2022 Tesla Model Y Long Range presented by prolific YouTube EV tester Bjorn Nyland in the video below. Despite being just three years old and having fewer than 100,000 miles (155,000 kilometers) on the clock, the electric crossover’s battery has a higher-than-average degradation.

Usually, Tesla EVs with the same age and mileage have somewhere between 5% and 7% battery degradation. This particular Model Y, however, has a calculated degradation of 11.5%.

The reason for this excessive degradation isn’t clear. Some studies say fast charging accelerates degradation, while others say there’s no clear indication that this will happen. This car had roughly a third of charging done at DC stalls and two-thirds from AC sources. So even if fast charging does have negative side effects, it likely wouldn’t be a major factor here.

Nyland charged the car to 100% and then traveled on the highway at roughly 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour). He stopped when the car still had 2% in the battery, having traveled 171 miles (276 km) at an ambient temperature of roughly 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius).

Besides offering fewer driving miles compared to when it was new, the LG-made battery pack in this Model Y apparently has trouble accepting a full 250 kilowatts when fast charging. During Nyland’s testing, the car barely went over 200 kW, even though the battery was preconditioned and two separate chargers capable of delivering over 500 amps were used, including a V4 Tesla Supercharger. This means charging stops will be more frequent and more time-consuming.

All EV batteries degrade over time, but it’s worth noting that the degradation rate is usually more pronounced in the first years. After that, the curve flattens out. There are countless EVs out there that still have over 85% capacity left after ten years and hundreds of thousands of miles, so as a rule of thumb, most EV owners should not see degradation as a major pain point. That said, there are outliers, and this particular Model Y seems to be one of them.