Highland Tesla Model 3 Performance LG battery vs. Panasonic battery comparison.

There has been a lot of discussion about what the differences are between the Model 3 Performance cars made in the US versus the cars that are made in China for the rest of the world. While I don’t have access to a made in China vehicle I do have a lot of data for those cars that I have collected. This video will attempt to highlight the differences between those two cars.

In the United States our cars are made exclusively in Fremont California for distribution in the US and Puerto Rico. My understanding is that China produces all of the cars for the rest of the world including Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

The Fremont cars use a Panasonic battery that is sourced in the United States so it qualifies for the full $7,500 US Federal tax credit. The battery has an 82.1 kwh total capacity according to my Teslogic device that reads the data over Canbus. Even when brand new the Teslogic app indicates the car has 3% of battery degradation. This is because the battery has a buffer below 0% and the Teslogic app automatically counts the buffer as degradation. It is important to subtract about 3% from the degradation value to get your actual degradation with the Panasonic battery.

I have seen some data for the Made in China cars with the LG battery and they start with 78.8 kwh for the full pack when new. The usable capacity is typically around 77.9 kwh with a 3.50 kwh energy buffer below zero.

The most important difference between the Panasonic battery in the US and the LG battery used in the rest of the world is the max discharge value. This is a hard limit on how much power the battery can produce at any given time. This value is variable based on the battery temperature and State of Charge.

For the US Panasonic battery you can see as much as 461 KW or 627 Metric HP for the max discharge value. However, for the LG battery in the rest of the world the most I have seen with a nearly optimized battery is 406 KW or 552 metric HP. That is a 55 KW or 75 HP difference. That affects acceleration tremendously.

For the LG batteries outside of the US the quickest ¼ mile time we have seen on Dragy so far is an 11.22 @ 120.70 mph. That sounds quick and it definitely is quicker than the previous LG cars but you really have to dig into the details to see exactly what is happening.

The 60 ft time is 1.75 seconds which is actually quite good. Previous generation cars had 60 ft times of closer to 1.82 when fully stock. I had to take 205 lbs out of my 2022 Model 3 Performance to match the LG car’s 1.75 second 60 ft time. There was even one 2024 LG car that did a 1.73 60 ft time. That almost matches the 1.71 60 ft time I got with my 2024 Panasonic car.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 60 ft times of the car’s with the LG battery. They will equal or beat even the new Panasonic battery cars to the 60 foot distance. In fact the LG cars can actually keep up with the Panasonic cars till almost 40 mph as this graphic shows.

It is AFTER 40 mph where the real difference shows. After 40 mph power reaches the peak. The fact that the LG battery has a limit that is 75 HP or more lower than the Panasonic battery is what really slows the LG cars down.

If you look at the 40-50 and 50-60 mph times for the LG battery on the left and Panasonic battery on the right you will see how much of a difference there really is. I am gaining almost 1 tenth of a second every 10 mph with the Panasonic battery over the LG battery. That occurs from 40 mph all the way through 130 mph. In some cases the Panasonic battery cars will gain almost half a second on the LG cars in only 10 mph of acceleration.

Above 40 mph the LG battery just isn’t remotely close to keeping up with the Panasonic battery. It is like they are two completely different cars above 40 mph.

For people in a lot of countries the LG battery cars are fine. They do 0-40 mph in the same time as the US cars and speed limits in most countries limit you from accelerating much beyond 60-70 mph. However, in countries like Germany or on tracks the LG battery will severely limit the acceleration potential of the car.

I don’t want it to sound like the LG battery cars are not good. They are good for most people’s needs. However, I do want to emphasize that if you see these incredible ¼ mile and 60-130 mph times people are getting with the US version of the car don’t expect the cars with the LG battery to come anywhere close to those numbers above 40 mph. They just simply can’t and most likely never will because that max discharge value is a hard limit on how much power the battery can actually produce.