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Automotive has a very strong track record of 3rd party parts being available shortly after genuine parts become hard to obtain or not-affordable. As long as th

by bradfa 4y ago

Automotive has a very strong track record of 3rd party parts being available shortly after genuine parts become hard to obtain or not-affordable. As long as there's enough of a given vehicle on the road to justify the cost, surely a 3rd party will create battery replacements for many EVs. There's plenty of Leaf battery replacement services and parts as far as I can tell. The original Leaf is quite old now in EV-years.

ToniCipriani 4y ago
> Automotive has a very strong track record of 3rd party parts being available shortly after genuine parts become hard to obtain or not-affordable With the exception that the car doesn't throw error codes and disable the power windows if I use a third-party brake pad.
bluescrn 4y ago
With the move to EVs (and perhaps even before, to some extent), cars seem to be changing, in the same way that 'computers' evolved/regressed from fairly open, upgradeable, repairable PCs to smartphones and tables with locked-down OSs, no upgrade options, and minimal repairability. We've accepted a world of throwaway phones/tablets (with a life of maybe 2-5 years). We can't afford to accept that with EVs.
- bradfa 4y ago
  You can still very easily buy a PC which has an "open" architecture in the sense that you can plug various CPUs, PCIe cards, memory, disks, etc into it. It's in a very similar form factor to the old "open" PCs, it sits on/under your desk in a sheet metal box. That hasn't gone away, we just now also have these new things which are tiny very portable computers which are locked down and very closed. I expect EVs which sell well will have robust 3rd party parts available for the kinds of parts that >95% of owners will ever need to replace, just like today. The EV industry is still extremely young, there will be much money to be made with 3rd party parts and repairs on EVs even if the automakers don't want it to be. I firmly believe that the market will find a way for the popular models.
  - vorpalhex 4y ago
    > we just now also have these new things which are tiny very portable computers which are locked down and very closed ...and that need replacing every couple years not because they don't work but because we have been disallowed from replacing parts, thus generating e-waste made up of rare earths and toxic metals and at great cost to people.
_joel 4y ago
Does that inclue John Deere tractors?
- bradfa 4y ago
  The John Deere tractors that get the right to repair people riled up are the big expensive computer controlled ones. It's an extremely niche market but definitely an important one as farming is extremely important to the global economy. For the consumer level tractors which are manufactured in a volume which is more similar to automobiles, there appears to be plenty of parts in the market to fix them. Even the consumer level tractor parts with John Deere labels on them seem to just be rebranded cheap commodity parts much of the time.
webmobdev 4y ago
Strong consumers laws have a lot to do with it. In India, an entrepreneur started an all-brand service center, and some of the auto-mobile manufacturers ganged up against him and refused to supply him parts. He took them to court and won.

by bradfa 4y ago

ToniCipriani 4y ago

> Automotive has a very strong track record of 3rd party parts being available shortly after genuine parts become hard to obtain or not-affordable With the exception that the car doesn't throw error codes and disable the power windows if I use a third-party brake pad.

bluescrn 4y ago

With the move to EVs (and perhaps even before, to some extent), cars seem to be changing, in the same way that 'computers' evolved/regressed from fairly open, upgradeable, repairable PCs to smartphones and tables with locked-down OSs, no upgrade options, and minimal repairability. We've accepted a world of throwaway phones/tablets (with a life of maybe 2-5 years). We can't afford to accept that with EVs.

bradfa 4y ago
You can still very easily buy a PC which has an "open" architecture in the sense that you can plug various CPUs, PCIe cards, memory, disks, etc into it. It's in a very similar form factor to the old "open" PCs, it sits on/under your desk in a sheet metal box. That hasn't gone away, we just now also have these new things which are tiny very portable computers which are locked down and very closed. I expect EVs which sell well will have robust 3rd party parts available for the kinds of parts that >95% of owners will ever need to replace, just like today. The EV industry is still extremely young, there will be much money to be made with 3rd party parts and repairs on EVs even if the automakers don't want it to be. I firmly believe that the market will find a way for the popular models.
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  > we just now also have these new things which are tiny very portable computers which are locked down and very closed ...and that need replacing every couple years not because they don't work but because we have been disallowed from replacing parts, thus generating e-waste made up of rare earths and toxic metals and at great cost to people.

_joel 4y ago

Does that inclue John Deere tractors?

bradfa 4y ago
The John Deere tractors that get the right to repair people riled up are the big expensive computer controlled ones. It's an extremely niche market but definitely an important one as farming is extremely important to the global economy. For the consumer level tractors which are manufactured in a volume which is more similar to automobiles, there appears to be plenty of parts in the market to fix them. Even the consumer level tractor parts with John Deere labels on them seem to just be rebranded cheap commodity parts much of the time.

webmobdev 4y ago

Strong consumers laws have a lot to do with it. In India, an entrepreneur started an all-brand service center, and some of the auto-mobile manufacturers ganged up against him and refused to supply him parts. He took them to court and won.