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The myth that electric cars require less service needs to die. Maintenance needs in any modern car mostly comes back to value engineering. It's literally someo
by semi-extrinsic 7y ago
The myth that electric cars require less service needs to die.
Maintenance needs in any modern car mostly comes back to value engineering. It's literally someone's job to optimize "how cheaply can we make this part, that it breaks just often enough that people won't complain".
The exact same thing is already happening for electric cars, and you'll need to spend exactly the same amount of time and money on service.
Furthermore, almost none of the service on a modern car is related to the combustion engine itself. It's mainly electronics, linkages, wheel beqrings, shocks, suspension, rust damage, tires etc.
If you think about it, a car that's done 200 000 miles at EOL has only been running for around 200 days continuously. A generator, or the engine on a ship, train, airplane etc. runs more than a full order of magnitude longer.
- sokoloff 7y agoI drive an electric (LEAF) for a little over 5 years and also maintain my wife’s characteristically low maintenance car (Honda CR-V). Despite being very low maintenance, her car is much more maintenance intensive than my car. In five years, I’ve filled the washer fluid several times, changed the wiper blades, and plugged one flat tire. On her car, oil changes alone have taken more time, to say nothing of the brakes, power steering pump, valve adjustment, exhaust gasket change, and a handful of other jobs (all small). In my case, the “myth” very much matches my experience.
- perl4ever 7y agoICE cars these days typically have electric power steering. And BEVs have brakes. I don't think ICE cars necessarily need valve adjustment - doesn't Honda use solid lifters where others use hydraulics?