EVwire brief: Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg's legendary road warrior 2013 Tesla Model S has now covered 3 million kilometers (1.86 million miles), enough to circle the Earth about 75 times.
The veteran owner marked the milestone in the subtle way he usually does, by making a photo of the car's 3,000,000-km odometer card his new profile picture on X. The card carries the car's P90 badge and VIN.
EVwire’s Jaan congratulated him on X:
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Most of the car's recent kilometers have come on a motor rebuilt by EV Clinic, an independent EV repair shop in Croatia. When von Gemmingen-Hornberg brought the car in at about 1.8 million km (1.12 million miles) in 2023, its rear drive unit had already 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 455,000 km (282,724 miles) on the rebuilt motor in December 2024, and at an oil change at 560,000 km (347,968 miles) last year it found clean oil and no bearing wear.
The battery has held up better than the early motors did. The original pack was replaced at 290,000 km (180,198 miles), and the next two lasted about 670,000 km and 550,000 km (416,319 and 341,754 miles).
The latest pack he has reported went in at 1,758,033 km (1,092,394 miles) in 2023, and it was the first one he paid for himself, at about €20,000 (about $22,800). In August 2024, he said on X that it still delivered 350 km (217 miles) of range at a 90% charge.
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Context:
Von Gemmingen-Hornberg's Tesla ownership goes back to 2009 and an early Roadster, VIN 083, which was among the first units delivered in Europe. He bought the Model S used in August 2014, according to his Tesla customer story, and crossed 1 million km in November 2019, a milestone Elon Musk later congratulated him on.
The miles have kept coming faster since then. He passed 1 million miles in 2022 and 2 million km (1.24 million miles) in Morocco in the spring of 2024. That puts the latest 1 million km at roughly two and a half years.
Source: Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg on X, EV Clinic
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