Tesla LG Batteries Under Fire for High Failure Rates

Repair Specialists Sound the Alarm on LG NCM811 Packs

A well-known electric vehicle repair expert in Europe has issued a warning about Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles equipped with China-made LG batteries, claiming they have found “extremely poor” failure rates and significantly shorter lifespans compared with Panasonic packs.

For years, Tesla’s shift toward Chinese battery suppliers has been viewed largely positively, with CATL’s LFP packs proving to be exceptionally durable.

However, Tesla also sources nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries from LG Energy Solution’s Nanjing plant for Long Range and Performance variants sold in parts of Europe and Asia.

Now, EV Clinic—a Croatia-based independent research and repair organization known for in-depth battery diagnostics—has issued a sharp warning specifically about these LG NCM811 battery packs.

Panasonic vs. LG: A Clear Gap in Battery Lifespan

The company reports that their repair-center data shows a clear quality gap between Tesla’s two major high-energy-density battery types: the U.S.-made Panasonic NCA pack and the China-made LG NCM pack.

“We have serious concerns about the LG NCM811 battery packs (produced by LGES Nanjing) used in Tesla Model 3/Y. Compared with the U.S.-made Panasonic NCA packs, these LG batteries have an extremely high failure rate and a noticeably shorter lifespan.”

According to the shop, while Panasonic packs are often repairable and can last up to 250,000 miles before failure, LG’s equivalent packs tend to reach the end of their usable life at around 150,000 miles.

Why LG Packs Are Failing: High Resistance and Widespread Degradation

Even more troubling is the nature of the failures. EV Clinic reports that in over 90% of the LG battery cases they handle, cell-level repairs are “impossible.”

The issue appears to be widespread degradation across the entire module rather than a single-cell failure dragging down the pack. The shop found that LG cells typically exhibit very high internal resistance.

“A failed Panasonic cell measures around 28 mΩ of resistance—roughly the same as a new LG cell. In a 46-cell module, it’s common to find 15 cells over 100 mΩ AC resistance, with the remaining 30 cells above 50 mΩ.”

Repairability Crisis: “90% of LG Cases Are Impossible to Fix”

The lab shared an example from an actual Tesla battery module:

Due to the uniform and severe degradation, replacing only the faulty module is described as “operationally unsustainable,” since the remaining weakened cells are likely to trigger sequential failures shortly afterward.

This situation has become so difficult that the shop has announced a new “feasibility fee” to assess whether these specific LG packs can even be repaired. They noted that they lose “over €20,000 per month” attempting to repair packs that are already beyond recovery.

“At the moment, we are conducting ongoing experimental tests with real customers experiencing LG battery failures. We continue to suffer more than €20,000 in monthly operational losses while studying whether the China-made LG NCM811 system can be sustainably repaired. What we can say with certainty is this: the defects in these batteries—put politely—are catastrophic. Panasonic packs usually fail due to a single bad cell after 250,000 km, and they are repairable. LG packs, on the other hand, show widespread multi-cell failures.”