It's hard to believe there's a Tesla Model S out there with over 1.21 million miles on its odometer, but indeed there is. And here it is.
The car, a 2014 Model S P85, has racked up 1.2 million miles so far, which works out to approximately 131,000 miles per year.
Could you imagine driving that much? And doing so in an electric car, which naysayers often state can't go the distance. Well, we think this car proves EVs can be driven a significant amount of miles per year and the charging infrastructure, at least in some parts of the world, can support high-mileage drives.
Back in 2019, Elon Musk congratulated Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg, the owner of this particular Model S, which at the time had 1 million kilometers -- 621,371 miles -- on its odometer. That seemed like a solid accomplishment but flash forward to today and the mileage has basically doubled.
The video embedded above is one of the first to feature Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg. Up until now, much of the info about Gemmingen-Hornberg's Model S was limited to tweets. As Watt Energy, the uploader of the video explains:
"His car has 1.9 million km / or 1.18 million miles on the odometer at the time of filming and Hansjorg aims for more. There is little precise information about him online, mostly based on some older tweets or on assumptions of how he manages to put so many miles on his car. I went to Germany to meet Hansjörg directly and to find out the complete story firsthand from him!"
There's a lot more to the story though. Gemmingen-Hornberg previously owned a Tesla Roadster. He managed to rack up 400,000 miles on it, despite the lacking infrastructure at the time. He decided to buy the Model S shortly after it came out because it was roomier and more comfortable. However, he didn't buy a new Model S, but a used 2014 model with 18,641 miles.
Some early Tesla Model S EVs were known to have issues with their rear motors. This particular Tesla suffered from this. The rear motor was replaced 13 times, so if we include the original it came with, that's 14 motors over the course of 1.2 million miles.
Most of the replacement motors were refurbished units and the problem there is Tesla didn't know the real issue so it didn't know how to properly fix the motors. Some of these replacement motors failed very quickly. Some were covered under warranty, while others were not.
In regards to the vehicle's battery pack, it fared better than the motor. However, this Model S is currently on its fourth battery pack. Four batteries at 1.2 million miles means the average pack lasted some 300,000 and counting.
Gemmingen-Hornberg noted he does take it easy on his Model S. He does not drive the car for long distances without giving it and himself a break. He said he only covers about 62 miles at a time before pausing for a while.
In regard to depleting and charging the battery, the Model S owner said he aims to recharge it when it drops down to 20%. He doesn't fully deplete the battery and also doesn't top it off.
The other aspects of the car, like the exterior and interior, have held up well. Unfortunately, he doesn't go into detail about other wear items like brakes, tires and so on.
Gemmingen-Hornberg is retired and likes to see the world by car. The Model S has been driven to Africa, Morocco, Sweden, Austria and China. It seems that's only the beginning though. He wants to continue driving the car and let go of his Lucid Air reservation so the Model S can rack up even more miles.
