Well-known Croatian repair shop EV Clinic has expressed “serious concerns” about LG’s NCM811 battery packs used in Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
While Panasonic batteries are expected to reach the end of their life after traveling 400,000 kilometers, Chinese LG batteries appear to be able to provide only a little more than 250,000 kilometers.
EV Clinic points out that the significant increase in internal resistance of LG battery cells is the main problem. Even upon delivery, this resistance is at a level that is considered defective in Panasonic cells.
According to the workshop report, the internal resistance of Panasonic cells is typically 10 milliohms, while new cells from LG’s Nanjing factory reach 28 milliohms or more.
The workshop explains that damaged batteries often need to be completely replaced, as LG battery packs cannot be repaired by replacing some cells in more than 90% of the cases that arrive at the center.
This is because several cells are affected by very high resistance values, causing the fault to spread due to cascading effects, so the only solution is to replace the entire package with a Panasonic one.
EV Clinic estimates the losses resulting from testing the repairability of damaged LG batteries at more than $20,000 per month.
Therefore, the workshop describes the Chinese NCM811 cells as “disastrous,” and has also begun charging fees for the process of testing the validity of the battery pack for possible repair.
