Tesla Model S passes 3 million km

A 2013 Tesla Model S owned by German driver Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg has passed 3 million kilometres, EVwire reports.

He marked the milestone by making a photo of the car’s 3,000,000km odometer card his profile picture on X. That distance is about 75 trips around the Earth.

Von Gemmingen-Hornberg bought the Model S used in August 2014, according to his Tesla customer story. It passed 1 million km in November 2019 and 2 million km in Morocco in spring 2024, so the latest million took roughly two and a half years.

The car has had plenty of mechanical help along the way. By the time he took it to EV Clinic, an independent EV repair shop in Croatia, in 2023 at about 1.8 million km, its rear drive unit had been replaced 13 times, many of them under Tesla’s warranty.

EV Clinic rebuilt that unit with a graphite seal to stop the coolant leaks it blames for the earlier failures. The shop reported 455,000km on the rebuilt motor in December 2024, and when it changed the oil at 560,000km last year it found the oil clean and no bearing wear.

The battery has fared better. The original pack was replaced at 290,000km, and the next two lasted about 670,000km and 550,000km. The latest pack he has reported went in at 1,758,033km in 2023, and was the first he paid for himself, at about €20,000. In August 2024 he said it still gave 350km of range on a 90% charge.

Von Gemmingen-Hornberg’s Tesla ownership goes back to 2009 and an early Roadster, VIN 083, one of the first delivered in Europe.