379,000 Miles on the Original Battery. Tesla's Health Test Had an Answer.

Drive Protected is continuing their Tesla resurrection series on a high-mileage Model 3 they picked up about two weeks before filming this episode. The odometer reads 610,433 km, which works out to 379,350 miles. The goal for this video: run Tesla's built-in battery health test and find out exactly how much capacity is left in what is, according to Tesla, still the original pack.

It did not start smoothly. The 12-volt battery was dead when they arrived at the car, meaning the key card did nothing and the door would not unlock. Attempting to access the manual hood release through the tow hook cover resulted in that cover breaking on contact. A partially open door gave them a workaround: reaching through a gap in the window seal to hit the interior release. From there, they could access the 12-volt battery compartment under the hood.

Once inside and the car powered up, the health test initially would not run. The service menu showed a gray dot next to "no battery or thermal alerts active" rather than green, and the start button was greyed out. A previous coolant fault that they had not known about when they bought the car was blocking the process. Tesla service cleared it, and the test was ready to go.

The battery health test works by fully discharging the pack to zero, then charging it back to 100%, and measuring the actual usable capacity at both ends. The car runs the heating system and other loads to drain itself down. It takes about 10 hours to complete. They started it at roughly 11% charge and left it overnight.

The next morning, with a fresh layer of snow on the car, the result was on screen: 70% battery health remaining. The display also showed 89% as the battery's current "full," meaning Tesla's system had recalibrated the 100% endpoint to reflect what the pack can actually hold. That 89% is the new ceiling. The 70% health figure represents how much of the original factory capacity remains compared to when the car was brand new.

The team describes the result as wild and impressive. The car has 379,000 miles on it and still has more than two-thirds of its original battery capacity. The Tesla resurrection series continues, with more content planned for this specific car.