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.

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

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!

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

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 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.

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

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 😂😂😂😂

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

$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.

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.

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.

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

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.🎉

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

Really smart honest guy, good luck my man.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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".

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! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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.

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%.

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

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.

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

I considered buying a Tesla a few months ago for my ride-share driving. When I realized that within one year, I’d put more than one hundred miles on it and then lose the warranty on the battery and soon after couldn’t drive it on the Lyft platform, I decided to wait until solid state batteries become available to make the transition to an EV. And when I do, I’ll only drive the EV for comfort and black rides in order to minimize the number of miles I put on it.

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

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.

I watch another guy on KZfaq 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.

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

*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!

He should try LFP module 3 and see how that goes

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

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.

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.

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 🙏

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

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??

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.

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

I’m a construction worker and use lithium ion batteries in my tools all the time I know this is not a comparison to your car but what you’re saying about your car is exactly what happens in your tool batteries it’ll work about half of what it usually is and then you’ll go to charge it again and it’s over with it’s how those batteries work

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

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.

He said he drove 128000 miles in 1 year. that means he's driving 10000 miles a month 😅. That's 20k worth of gas savings.

I’m in the uk and my company have a Tesla 3, it’s a great car and the tech is awesome, the fuel saving is huge but I think like most products made in this modern world they have a 10 year life span! It’s a throw away world folks.

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.

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!

So we ordered a model Y performance and I was going to use it sometimes for a rideshare but after watching this video, but I’m gonna start doing is putting money aside to save so when it comes time that I need a new battery I’ll have the money and I’ll tell him go ahead and do itthank you so much !

Need to see the same study but only charging to the recommended 20-80% range. This result is what i would expect with supercharging twice a day to 90+%

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!

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

Regardless whether you agree to help him or not he is a very decent person, I like him!

He was right it’s like night and day! Toyota Camry go 300,000 miles . 😂

This bro is so positive even when something like this happen to him. If everyone use to think like that this World will be a better place, I enjoyed it stay positive 🇹🇹

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.

One of the universities did a study and they said if you keep the charge and discharge between 40 to 80%, the battery will last very long.

Unless I didn't catch it, I don't think you said the year model this Tesla 3 was. Or the battery type it has. For instance, mine has the newer battery, that you can charge to 100%. I don't know if that would protect it more with superchargers. Do you know anything about that?

It's almost like there is no free lunch. What you don't pay for gas, you need to set aside for the battery replacement. Thomas Sowell once said "there are no solutions, only trade-offs."

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

He also said the replace battery and the premium cost of the car was more than he would save from buying gas, but what they didn't say was the 9k for the replace battery will definitely cost more than the gas because it won't last long.

Why did I hear exactly the opposite experience from another taxi driver? In California we have 100.000 of these cars and they work like a dream…

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.

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

Great experiment - very educational. If I'm going to be an Uber driver, I'd buy a Camry. Sure, I'll spend more on gas now, but long-term life of the car will outlast the Tesla battery and how much I'll pay for a replacement. The tech is so new still. I don't live in Cali so I'll stick with ICE for as long as I can till the tech gets much, much better and hopefully costs go down.

This guy in red tesla back, nice.

I hope Dobson goes and buys a nice camry with his go fund me - he won't regret it.

Truly enjoyed the video and the back and forth of you 2 was great. Good humour, respect and knowledge.

I was one week away from getting that car for ride share!!! I’ll go hybrid! Awesome content

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

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

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

My model 3 has 400k miles and has degraded 18% this guys just didn’t take care of the car and supercharging doesn’t damage the car either. Charging over 90% 6-12 times a week is what caused this

I learnt my lesson about the lifespan of these batteries with my expensive battery powered lawn mower. My personal experience changed my mind about considering purchasing an EV. My other big concern is data privacy with these modern cars.

Getting a Tesla was the best financial decision of my life. Had 3 at this point and have absolutely loved every single one.

Whoever advised this man to by a battery car and use it as a taxi clearly has never compared battery with internal combustion engines

Excellent advice. He sure is sound. He would make a great mechanic! Tesla should hire him!