Pass rate
88.1%
Above average — 3.1 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 69,369 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£103
2021 Tesla Model 3 MOT pass rate
- 2021
- 4 trims combined
- typical 40,301 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
58.4% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2024 97.4% pass
- Avoid 2020 86.8% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 10.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 86.7%
- Typical mileage
- 40k mi
The 2021 Tesla Model 3 MOT pass rate is 88.1% of its MOT tests — 3.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 58.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.0× the national share
Tyres make up 58.4% of everything recorded on the 2021 Tesla Model 3, against 19.8% nationally — 38.6 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 91.2%; this one manages 88.1% — 3.1 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 6% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Tesla Model 3? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Tesla Model 3 first registered in 2021 is combined here — 4 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2021 Tesla Model 3 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 3.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 86.7%. The median 2021 Tesla Model 3 in this dataset had covered 40,301 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.0% of the time, April–September 88.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm", noted on 4.68% of tests.
- 69,369 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.1% overall pass rate, 86.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Tesla Model 3, the average is 87.8% — best year 2024 (97.4%), worst 2020 (86.8%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 69,369
- Typical mileage (median)
- 40,301 mi
- Make and model
- Tesla Model 3
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Model 3 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Tesla Model 3 is most common
Across all Model 3 model years on record (2019–2024): 105,920 Tesla Model 3 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 169,696 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 3,197 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 3,197 | 88.0% |
| 2 | Reading (RG) | 2,504 | 86.7% |
| 3 | London (NW) | 2,473 | 89.6% |
| 4 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 2,452 | 86.0% |
| 5 | Northampton (NN) | 2,287 | 84.6% |
| 6 | Peterborough (PE) | 2,108 | 83.2% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 2,072 | 87.8% |
| 8 | Oxford (OX) | 2,070 | 86.4% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 2,034 | 87.6% |
| 10 | Sheffield (S) | 1,972 | 89.4% |
| 11 | Coventry (CV) | 1,967 | 88.5% |
| 12 | Bristol (BS) | 1,954 | 83.9% |
| 13 | Guildford (GU) | 1,763 | 84.6% |
| 14 | Derby (DE) | 1,737 | 87.4% |
| 15 | Southampton (SO) | 1,725 | 89.5% |
| 16 | Chelmsford (CM) | 1,671 | 85.7% |
| 17 | Glasgow (G) | 1,589 | 86.9% |
| 18 | London (E) | 1,491 | 95.6% |
| 19 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 1,426 | 88.0% |
| 20 | Leeds (LS) | 1,416 | 86.9% |
The twenty areas with the most Tesla Model 3 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Model 3
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 18,095 | 88.0% |
| East of England | 7,644 | 85.3% |
| North West | 6,637 | 88.4% |
| West Midlands | 6,604 | 88.7% |
| London | 6,246 | 92.8% |
| East Midlands | 5,450 | 87.5% |
| Yorkshire | 5,255 | 88.4% |
| South West | 5,151 | 85.6% |
| Scotland | 4,555 | 87.8% |
| North East | 1,981 | 88.8% |
| Wales | 1,724 | 87.6% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2021 Model 3
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2021 Model 3
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the tyre tread 4.7% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
-
Check the windscreen 1.5% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check tyre pressures and valves 1.1% of tests
“tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative”
Set the pressures to the figures on the door pillar, not the tyre wall, and check the valves do not hiss. A leaking valve is a two-minute fix that fails a test.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2021 Model 3 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£103 — and 6% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£103
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 6%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 69,369 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Model 3, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2019 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.8% to 97.4% — a spread of 10.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2019 87.8% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2020 86.8% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2021 88.1%tread depth below requirements of…
- 2022 88.9% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2023 95.1% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2024 97.4% has a cut in excess of the…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2021 Tesla Model 3 with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2021 cars with a similar record
- Land Rover Discovery 88.0%
- Isuzu D-Max 88.2%
- BMW 420D 88.2%
- Land Rover Discovery Spt Rdyn 87.9%
- Ford Mondeo 88.4%
- BMW 330E 87.7%
Closest pass rates among 2021 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2021 Tesla Model 3 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 49,861 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 29,185 | 58.40% | 19.76% | +38.64 |
| Suspension | 7,459 | 14.90% | 20.98% | −6.08 |
| Brakes | 5,448 | 10.90% | 20.89% | −9.99 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,235 | 6.50% | 4.18% | +2.32 |
| Visibility | 2,245 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,007 | 2.00% | 12.21% | −10.21 |
| Road Wheels | 618 | 1.20% | 0.75% | +0.45 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 498 | 1.00% | 1.76% | −0.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 91 | 0.20% | 5.57% | −5.37 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 75 | 0.20% | 5.52% | −5.32 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 4.7% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.5% | £80–200 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.0% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.64% | £18–45 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.61% | £8–22 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.29% | £5–15 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.22% | £30–80 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 21.5% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.3% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.4% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 3.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.6% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 19,770 | 91.9% | 21,488 mi |
| 30-60k | 35,059 | 87.1% | 43,120 mi |
| 60-90k | 11,014 | 85.1% | 71,658 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,493 | 85.6% | 101,495 mi |
| 120k+ | 979 | 88.0% | 147,005 mi |
Source: 69,369 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2021 Model 3 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Tesla Model 3?
88.1% of the 69,369 2021 Tesla Model 3 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 86.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Tesla Model 3?
The three most recorded items are tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.68%), has ply or cords exposed (2.64%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.41%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Tesla Model 3 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.9% of the time, falling to 88.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Tesla Model 3 in this dataset had covered 40,301 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Tesla Model 3 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.