Buying used 4S - battery

[DanB]

Hi. Looking at buying a used 4S with 44k miles on the clock. Not cheap at around £70k but full service history of course. Is it a bad idea to buy from an independent? High mileage for a 70 plate. Worried about whether the battery may have been treated by the previous owner. Reading this forum, it appears important to have cared for the battery! Any thoughts?

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[ben1]

My view on it is the following:

Worst case:
Many studies have proven that you can surely do at the very least 1000 cycles with a Li-ion car battery. That is about 300000 to 400000 km with the Taycan before going below 80% of the capacity. This is the bottom for the big majority. This is when doing a lot of fast charging.

Best case:
Many studies have proven that you do loose 10% of the capacity anyway. Over time. It goes fast the first year (typically 5%) and slows down. But you will end up very surely at maximum 90% after a few years. Even if you are very careful.
I lost 9% after 18 months with only doing 6 fast charging sessions. This is normal. It will go to 10% loss for sure.

So to that means that the range between the best and the worst case is 80% to 90% of the original capacity.

If you do not plan to drive more than 300000 km and you are happy with 80% of the advertised range, I would not care too much about the quality of the battery.
The expected risk/cost for severe problems is not higher than what you can expect from an ICE car.

 

[DanB]

Thanks! And a related question on real driving experience and my reason for asking about the battery. I need to occasionally do a 200 mile trip. Which I like to do in one shot. The model I am looking as is the performance plus so extended range. I know lots of things like the weather etc can impact on range but is it 99% the case that I could do this trip comfortably without recharging. It’s mostly motorway at 70mph. Any thoughts?

 

[Porsche-Guru]

Thanks! And a related question on real driving experience and my reason for asking about the battery. I need to occasionally do a 200 mile trip. Which I like to do in one shot. The model I am looking as is the performance plus so extended range. I know lots of things like the weather etc can impact on range but is it 99% the case that I could do this trip comfortably without recharging. It’s mostly motorway at 70mph. Any thoughts?

A base Taycan or 4S (with the PB+) will do a 200 mile trip without any issues... even a 44,000 mile car. Modern day batteries work a lot better than many people give them credit for.

In comparison, not a lot of people ask about how much HP an ICE engine has lost over time. Very few people care about this. As written above, some battery loss is expected.

There was an article somewhere (on this forum) that had a lot of detail about battery life... with always DC charging it, only AC charging it, etc.. and the differences between best case and worst case scenarios were only about 4% or something.

Taking very good care (obsessive) of the battery may (possibly) yield some nominally better capacity... but using it as one's circumstances (charging on AC when possible and DC charging when needed) will not necessarily yield you a very bad battery life.

If you are not going to keep and run the car to ground and do 300,000 mileage ... then do not let the battery capacity be your key decision maker...

 

[ben1]

Thanks! And a related question on real driving experience and my reason for asking about the battery. I need to occasionally do a 200 mile trip. Which I like to do in one shot. The model I am looking as is the performance plus so extended range. I know lots of things like the weather etc can impact on range but is it 99% the case that I could do this trip comfortably without recharging. It’s mostly motorway at 70mph. Any thoughts?

My experience:
200 miles with the standard battery in summer is no problem at all.
In winter it can be sharp if you drive fast or use the heating a lot.

With the big battery it shouldn't be a problem in all cases. You have about 15% extra range compared to the standard battery.
If you have the big battery it should be fine. Also in winter.

 

[DanB]

Thanks. First jump into the EV world and a little nervous about buying from an independent hence all the questions. It’s got the Porsche warranty till November 2023 so I guess I will just buy an extended warranty to be safe!

 

[gusone]

Thanks. First jump into the EV world and a little nervous about buying from an independent hence all the questions. It’s got the Porsche warranty till November 2023 so I guess I will just buy an extended warranty to be safe!

Ask the owner how they charged it. Was it a home charger? Or like me a supercharger every time as no home charger. It's also a lease so I don't care if I trash the battery. Not my car. Also I have found 200 miles off the bat a stretch in the very cold.

 

[andb]

I'm in the same boat picking up a 2021 Turbo with 45k miles in around 3 weeks for 95k euro with new tires and windshield.

Dealer told me the battery was at 89% SoH at the last inspection around 30k miles. Car hasn't arrived at them to know the current value.

In my findings a very low mileage Taycan does not mean its battery is like new because degradation happens while time passes anyway.

Check the battery health and charge history for more peace of mind.

 

[DanB]

Thanks. Will ask for some details from the independent dealer. You mentioned 200 miles a stretch in cold. Is that with the enhanced battery.

 

[ciaranob]

Site with SoH and my SoC history here:

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/baseline-for-hv-battery-soh-performance.12815/#post-190348

If you scroll down at least the first page you’ll see links to a lot of studies on SoH for higher mileage cars etc.

 

[O2TheL]

You mentioned 200 miles a stretch in cold. Is that with the enhanced battery.

Yes with PB+. Possible, but a stretch.

 

[DanB]

Ok. I’ve been looking on the Porsche used car listing on their website. Very 4S has a different range for the same spec. Weird. Spoke to one of the dealers who said would be lucky to get 230 miles real world even with the enhanced battery.

 

[O2TheL]

In winter, yes.
In summer I get 260 or more easily with 80 mph+ motorway driving with that same spec car

 

[DanB]

Ok. Thanks!

 

[mystermykee]

In winter, yes.
In summer I get 260 or more easily with 80 mph+ motorway driving with that same spec car

Do you actually drive all 260 miles or is that just an estimate based on how many miles you're getting per kWh?

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