Introducing The World's First Million-Mile Tesla Model S

Hansjorg Gemmingen is on the verge of breaking an important record, but there's a huge catch.

By the time you read this, Gemmingen's Tesla Model S will have broken through the million-mile milestone, making his P85 the most driven Tesla in existence. That's a significant achievement, and one that EV owners all over the globe can celebrate, or can they?

While most of the car completed one million miles, neither its battery, nor electric motor can claim the same. Since acquiring the car in 2014, Gemmingen's car has gone through three batteries and eight motors.

According to The Driven, Gemmingen is disappointed with the lack of electric motor longevity and is considering dumping his Tesla for the new long-distance king, the Lucid Air.

Chalk up another victory for internal combustion, as there are hundreds of examples of million-mile gas-burners out there. The most famous American-based vehicle is Matt Farah's Lexus LS400. While that car required work, it was nowhere near as bad as paying for multiple batteries or electric motors.

Lucky for Gemmingen, the 85 kWh battery was originally guaranteed for eight years and unlimited miles. Unfortunately, the electric motors are only covered for eight years or 125,000 miles. We browsed the web for a while and found vastly different prices for a Model S P85 electric motor. The cheapest we could find were used rear-drive motors selling for between $4,000 to $6,000, depending on mileage.

The first motor lasted 486,250 miles, while the rest only lasted 125,000 miles. In 2020, Tesla promised the world a million-mile battery, but we've yet to see the result.

Gemmingen drove all but 10,000 miles of the million. He has taken the car on extensive trips to various countries, including Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, England, Ireland, and even China.

Because of this, most of the charging was not of the supercharger variety. "I only use destination chargers at hotels to sleep and charge my car overnight too when it is possible," he says. "The battery life is good, but I drive very defensively and carefully."

Gemmingen says he reached out to Tesla with the news but received no response. Because of that and the degradation, he wants to switch to a Lucid Air and its superior driving range so he can set more mileage records.