Hansjörg Gemmingen, the owner of what is thought to be the most-driven Tesla electric car on the planet, will on Thursday (Australia time) break through another remarkable milestone – the one million mile mark.
But, having one through three batteries and eight motors, he says he is not happy with a decrease in motor longevity and is considering changing to a Lucid Air in the near future.
Gemmingen has travelled extensively throughout Europe since taking ownership of the demo Tesla Model S P85 in 2014, and says he has driven all but 20,000km himself to show the world that driving an electric car is feasible every climate zone.
And clearly, also not just for short trips.
Having passed a first historic milestone in late 2019 crossing the one million kilometre mark, Gemmingen has now driven more than 200,000km annually on average for the past two and a half years.
On May 27, he posted a photo of his vehicle’s mileage sitting at 990,000 miles (1,593,250km).
🤷🏻♀️ pic.twitter.com/4tBCycfL3Z
— Hansjörg von Gemmingen – Hornberg (@gem8mingen) May 27, 2022
He tells The Driven he has travelled through Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, England, Ireland and China.
On June 15, 2022 (Europe time), he expects to pass the one million mile mark, and to have it officially recognised by the prestigious Guinness Book of Records.
All this on three batteries replaced under warranty, the last of which has done 400,000km.
Originally fitted with an 85kWh battery, his Model S was onto its second battery and fourth motor when he passed the million kilometre mark in 2019.
The latest battery – a 63.1kWh unit installed at the 1,202,000km mark, had a driving range of 340km when it was fitted. Gemmingen says it wasn’t a new battery, and that after 400,000km it still has 310km range left on it.
As for charging charging costs, he tells The Driven: “My supercharging is free but with the last battery I’ve needed only 4,999 kWh DC for free.” The rest, he says has been done on AC destination charging.
This has added up to 78,000kWh on AC chargers, including at home, charged partly from his solar panels for a cost of less than 25 cents per kWh.
Genau hier😎wenn COVID soweit durch ist bald wieder👍 https://t.co/DZJ5VB91d2 pic.twitter.com/iHp6Sjo5tu
— Hansjörg von Gemmingen – Hornberg (@gem8mingen) April 2, 2022
“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.”
There is, however, a problem. While the longevity of the batteries in his Model S has been remarkable, he says he is now onto his eighth motor.
While the first motor lasted 778,000km, he says the last four lasted only 200,000km each.
While he’d like to continue on to the two million kilometre mark within the next two years, he says he is at an impasse.
He says he has reached out to Tesla but to no avail, and so is thinking of switching to competing EV brand Lucid before going on to make a bid for more electric motoring records.
“If I keep going like this, no problem …. I’m toying with the idea of ordering a Lucid Air with a range of over 800 km and setting more records.”
Earlier servicing and maintenance costs are detailed in our 2019 article.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.