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Article: While demand for electric vehicles has surged in last two years, new data from Consumer Reports finding that EVs are among the least reliable cars in

Article: While demand for electric vehicles has surged in last two years, new data from Consumer Reports finding that EVs are among the least reliable cars in the auto industry. Pras Subramanian here with the details and Pras, clearly something that the auto industry doesn't necessarily want to hear. PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah, you know, I was a little surprised to hear that. Because EVs, generally speaking, are simpler or easy to operate than a regular gas powered car. But I'm not surprised to hear about Tesla's issues with reliability here. So they found that owners of the Consumer Reports survey that they surveyed a bunch of their users and on all different models and all different makes of the cars. And they found that for Tesla in particular, issues with body hardware, steering suspension, paint and trim, and climate systems on the models were of most concern. Rick and I tested the Model 3 a few years back and we found a lot of issues with fit and finish and parts on the inside of the car. Still, Tesla still rose four spots to 19th overall, which isn't that great, but at least it did climb with the rankings. For non-Tesla EVs, there was issues with charging and batteries and also the motors. So that doesn't sound good, so that's kind of a little black market there for EVs. Overall, pickup trucks were bad overall in terms of the gas powered cars. Looking at the overall picture, we just saw that list up there, Toyota and Lexus retain the top spot. They've been there for a while now, very reliable cars. BMW, number three. I was really surprised to see that. Kind of speaks to what they're doing with the brand and improving reliability and that better kind of first interaction with the car, followed by Mazda and Honda. So seven of the top 10 brands here were actually Asian companies. So this rounds out the top 5 here with Mazda and Honda at that 4 and 5. - Interesting. All right, most reliable EVs also compiled. Who came out on top? Anything surprised you here? PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Most reliable EVs? - Hybrids. PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: Yeah. Yeah, so it turns out hybrids are actually very, very reliable. Talking about plug-in hybrids, think the Priuses of the world, things like that. So Consumer Reports put together 3 of their top hybrids here. The Lexus NX came out a few years ago in the premium luxury segment here. Very nice car, attractive car, good mileage there. The Ford Maverick. Now we actually had this truck. It is a small compact utility pickup truck. Unibody construction, 38 MPG with hybrid. Yeah. - 38 miles per gallon. PRAS SUBRAMANIAN: With the hybrid, yeah. It's actually a smooth car, really good fit and finish. And lastly, the Toyota Corolla. You can't go wrong here, not surprising from Toyota. They make the Prius, as you mentioned. This car gets 48 MPG. - Boy, that is some astounding numbers. Reliability is what those cars are all about. Pras Subramanian, our senior autos reporter. Good to see you, sir. Thank you. Report: https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/2022/11/hybrids-sedans-have-fewest-problems-in-consumer-reports-2022-annual-auto-reliability-survey/ https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/20...

api 4y ago
I'm a little skeptical given the massive disruption that EVs represent to the entire... well... oil is practically the basis for the entire world order. It's like the spice in Dune. Multiple powerful and large nations have economies with double-digit dependencies on oil and the use of the dollar for most oil trading is the single largest factor underpinning the US dollar's global reserve currency status. I'm also a little skeptical because we own two and have had zero problems, but of course small sample sizes and all that. (2013 Nissan Leaf and 2022 Nissan Leaf though, and Nissan tends to build indestructible tanks. I've owned ICE Nissans too. Had one survive a front wheel collision with a curb at 50mph with <$1000 in damage.) That being said I wouldn't be terribly surprised to learn that an entirely new drive train technology has teething issues. It's a pretty major departure from ICE drive trains. Manufacturing a complex item like a car at scale is extremely challenging. It also looks like Tesla's famous build quality issues are sinking the category to some extent. Tesla's drive train seems solid but the rest of the car... it's like the most technologically advanced drive train platform with a 1990s Kia on top.
- timtom39 4y ago
  It isn't just Tesla. It is across the board there are big issues but this is not new. The big auto companies have always had this issue with new tech. For example, when they switched to aluminum block engines they had all sorts of horrible issues. Gas to EV is an even bigger jump. I suspect EV build quality will be poor for sometime. I just hope the public keeps embracing EV while they get things sorted.
  - api 4y ago
    I wonder if the Nissan Leaf is fairly reliable because it was one of the first mass market EVs ever so they have been building them for almost 10 years. Our 2013 is fine but we bought it used so we'd already passed the descent part of the bath tub failure curve on it. I do dimly recall issues with early Leaf cars, mostly with the battery. The other factor might be that it's basically a Nissan Versa with an EV drive train. The majority of the car is not different from their other cars, which I consider a feature because almost everything but the EV drive train uses standard parts and can be fixed by any mechanic. It basically just has a battery where the gas tank is and a motor that pretends to be an engine to the other hardware in the vehicle. (I read somewhere that this is almost literally true if you dip into its CANbus traffic.) It's also a little bit hackable: https://github.com/dalathegreat/leaf_can_bus_messages https://github.com/dalathegreat/leaf_can_bus_messages I haven't done anything but I have a friend who's really into car hacking. Have chatted with him about maybe doing a side business upgrading these from CHADEMO to CCS. There are projects for doing that on GitHub with parts lists and code.

api 4y ago

I'm a little skeptical given the massive disruption that EVs represent to the entire... well... oil is practically the basis for the entire world order. It's like the spice in Dune. Multiple powerful and large nations have economies with double-digit dependencies on oil and the use of the dollar for most oil trading is the single largest factor underpinning the US dollar's global reserve currency status. I'm also a little skeptical because we own two and have had zero problems, but of course small sample sizes and all that. (2013 Nissan Leaf and 2022 Nissan Leaf though, and Nissan tends to build indestructible tanks. I've owned ICE Nissans too. Had one survive a front wheel collision with a curb at 50mph with <$1000 in damage.) That being said I wouldn't be terribly surprised to learn that an entirely new drive train technology has teething issues. It's a pretty major departure from ICE drive trains. Manufacturing a complex item like a car at scale is extremely challenging. It also looks like Tesla's famous build quality issues are sinking the category to some extent. Tesla's drive train seems solid but the rest of the car... it's like the most technologically advanced drive train platform with a 1990s Kia on top.

timtom39 4y ago
It isn't just Tesla. It is across the board there are big issues but this is not new. The big auto companies have always had this issue with new tech. For example, when they switched to aluminum block engines they had all sorts of horrible issues. Gas to EV is an even bigger jump. I suspect EV build quality will be poor for sometime. I just hope the public keeps embracing EV while they get things sorted.
- api 4y ago
  I wonder if the Nissan Leaf is fairly reliable because it was one of the first mass market EVs ever so they have been building them for almost 10 years. Our 2013 is fine but we bought it used so we'd already passed the descent part of the bath tub failure curve on it. I do dimly recall issues with early Leaf cars, mostly with the battery. The other factor might be that it's basically a Nissan Versa with an EV drive train. The majority of the car is not different from their other cars, which I consider a feature because almost everything but the EV drive train uses standard parts and can be fixed by any mechanic. It basically just has a battery where the gas tank is and a motor that pretends to be an engine to the other hardware in the vehicle. (I read somewhere that this is almost literally true if you dip into its CANbus traffic.) It's also a little bit hackable: https://github.com/dalathegreat/leaf_can_bus_messages https://github.com/dalathegreat/leaf_can_bus_messages I haven't done anything but I have a friend who's really into car hacking. Have chatted with him about maybe doing a side business upgrading these from CHADEMO to CCS. There are projects for doing that on GitHub with parts lists and code.