The big news today was the announcement of the Tesla Infinite Mile Warranty . Those of us with the 85 kWh Model will now have an 8 year, infinite mile warranty on both the battery pack and drive unit. Not only did Tesla do this for cars they’ll be making in the future, but they made it retroactive to all 85 kWh cars they’ve built up until now. Yep, I and all Model S 85 kWh owners just received a warranty upgrade without even asking for one.
Original Tesla Warranty
Owners will find their warranty information within the “Quick Start, Roadside Assistance, Safety, and Warranty” document under the “My Tesla” portal. These documents don’t seem to get updated very often so the original warranty information can still be located there.
The original Tesla warranty was comprised of the following:
- Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty
- Supplemental Restraint System Limited Warranty
- Battery Limited Warranty
The Model S drive unit would have fallen into the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty which provides coverage under normal use for a period of 4 years or 50,000 miles (80,000 km), whichever comes first. For me that would have been less than 2 years of driving.
New Tesla Infinite Mile Warranty
While we haven’t seen the official warranty yet with all of the legal terms, it’s likely to be a comprehensive warranty named “Battery and Drive Unit Limited Warranty” and cover the following:
- 60 kWh – 125,000 miles (200,000 km)
- 85 kWh – unlimited miles/km
I’ve previously heard comments that the drive unit should be able to do about 500,000 miles, but a number of very high profile drive unit failures have people concerned. Elon has said in the past that a good number of “drive unit failures” were not actually failures but overly conservative service people doing their jobs to do the best for the customers. In many cases a simple $0.50 strap would have done the trick.
Elon’s answer to all the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) surrounding drive units and how long they’ll last? The Tesla Infinite Mile Warranty. This is brilliant.
