10 ms·

It was funny to see some colleagues that moved from here to Germany to work on automotive industry, and almost overnight started to defend "stopgap" alternative

• gambiting 7y ago
  Why would a regular customer care about mechanical simplicity at all? For 99% of people the car is a magical black box where you put fuel in and drive it. From time to time you need take it to a car doctor to replace something that might as well be a quantum fusion exchanger diffuser for X amount of dollars just so they can drive again. The last two values you say are of no importance to you are of biggest importance to everyone else - the car can have literally whatever under the bonnet, the cost to own and operate are the only two things that matter to anyone. There are certain idealists around for whom the car not burning fuel is a thing worth paying more for, but most people only ever look at the cost of ownership and nothing else.
  • Ygg2 7y ago
    That's something that IMO should change as well. Too many things means too much wasted material.
  • CydeWeys 7y ago
    The customer will certainly notice low maintenance costs.
    • 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y ago
      And replacement costs. How many people have had this discussion with a mechanic? “The engine will cost $4000 to repair or replace. The car is only worth about $3000 so it’s better just to get a new car” Engine replacements in cars are crap because all of the other bits and pieces are still wearing out. Meanwhile a new batter makes an electric car like new.
      • WillPostForFood 7y ago
        A well maintained engine will last longer than a battery pack, and cost less to replace (or rebuild).
        • xbmcuser 7y ago
          Battery prices are still falling 10-15% a year. So needing to replace the battery 5-8 years from now won't cost as much as needing to replace an ice engine. And the way Tesla batteries are lasting so far I think you could probably get a good price for the old battery as well. So the cost people keep talking about battery replacement wont be as much over time
          • WillPostForFood 7y ago
            You can rebuild a 4 cylinder engine for under a $1000 dollars. Maybe half that in an area where labor is cheap. In 5 years, replacing a battery pack will still be 5x or 10x that.
            • NullPrefix 7y ago
              What kind of warranty could you expect for that $1000 engine rebuild job?
              • WillPostForFood 7y ago
                30 days? 90 days? Enough to show that it works, and will be good for another 200k mules.
                • NullPrefix 7y ago
                  200k miles in 90 days sounds a lot.
        • SEJeff 7y ago
          But the overall maintenance is going to cost much more on a well maintained engine. Oil changes, fan belts, flywheels, spark plugs, alternators, starters, etc don't exist in an EV. These are all components I have paid to have replaced in an ICE I've owned. Additionally, if your EV has regenerative braking (such as all Tesla vehicles), it is kind of like an ICE standard "engine braking" resulting in recharging the battery. This results in a much longer lifetime for brakes and brake pads. My Model 3 requires scheduled maintenance every 2 years and they recommend a tire rotation every 6,000 miles or so. Good luck finding that little maintenance in a traditional ICE vehicle. This is not the case for all EVs, but for Tesla, the battery is made up of thousands of individual cells which are grouped into individual "packs". The entire battery doesn't just go bad because the entire battery is thousands of small batteries. Tesla now will replace an individual pack that might go bad, making it cost less.
  • buboard 7y ago
    i think simplicity is a good selling point, but the dependence on the power grid and charging utilities is an even bigger, negative point. i think it's underestimated how big of an issue charging will be.