Patrick, I am curious to…
Patrick, I am curious to know more about how you typically drove the Model Y you traded in because, if your battery had degraded as much as you described, it should have potentially been replaced/repaired via warranty. Tesla’s battery warranty for the Model Y states: “ 8 years or 120,000 miles, whichever comes first, with minimum 70% retention of Battery capacity over the warranty period.” If yours only had a realistic range of 200 miles max on a charge that would have meant it had lost over 30% of its capacity (37.5% loss). Did you report it to Tesla and have them evaluate whether the battery had prematurely failed?
Otherwise, the 320 mile range when it was new was of course an estimate too, and represents how far the car could be expected to go on a full charge under very specific circumstances, circumstances that would objectively represent a rare, ideal driving pattern to be honest. The range estimate when it was new of 320 miles, in other words, was based on driving half or more of those miles at speeds one would drive on city streets or suburban neighborhoods, not the freeway. If your regular use of the vehicle was to drive above 55 miles per hour for long distances, that may explain why your usable range wasn’t meeting your expectations. It sounds like the car displayed an estimate of 280 miles on a full charge after 3 years of use, and if the car’s range estimates were accurate (not that they were), then you might think it had only lost 12.5% of its capacity (still high for a Tesla battery to loose in 3 years - mine Model 3 has only lost about 10% in nearly 6 years, for comparison). But as you described, you were not getting the distance the car estimated you could and that’s why I asked about how you drove it. I find that if I am going on a long highway trip, I won’t get the 287 miles my fully charged Model 3 says I will (though I may get reasonably close to it if I happen to be driving on rural highways that have a max of 55 MPH and I don’t need to use the HVAC). I know it is impossible now, but I wonder if yours could still have gotten 280 miles if, for example, someone were driving it at least 50% on city streets and the remainder at 55MPH or slower, in other words.