So, part of the reason why EVs have struggled to gain a market is specifically because the dealers can't make as much money on the maintenance side. All the stu

So, part of the reason why EVs have struggled to gain a market is specifically because the dealers can't make as much money on the maintenance side. All the stuff about "range anxiety" and "charging infrastructure" was a sideshow. You already have a garage that can deliver 120VAC at 15A to your car and that is enough charging infrastructure for everything but road trips. Dealers wanted to sell cars with Sony timers[0] in them, and internal combustion means a lot of metal parts and tiny explosions that can go wear out and go wrong. EVs do not have those kinds of problems. Tesla doesn't have dealers, but they've been the vanguard of bringing Apple-style "serialized for your safety[1]" parts to the automotive market. Almost every part is paired or calibrated to the ECU and the car won't start or won't run well without their proprietary software and signing key involved. And since Musk embarrassed the rest of the car industry into making EVs, they're copying everything about Tesla, including the bad bits[2]. As a result, repair-hostile design is ubiquitous in EVs. Actually, I've heard it might be back-contaminating ICE cars, too - you might just never buy a new vehicle ever again at this rate. [0] Japanese urban legend / slang term for "thing in an electronic device designed to break when the warranty ends" [1] against unauthorized repair shops [2] Most established firms tend to be vertically disintegrated channel traders - i.e. they buy other people's components, put it together, and sell it on as a finished product. Any major product change is a process of herding cats, dogs, and guinea pigs all to the same spot and hoping they don't harm each other in the process. This results in an extremely conservative design discipline. For example: - GM tried selling electric vehicles in the 90s and shitcanned them because dealers weren't going to sell them. - PC vendors weren't going to bother selling laptops with SSDs in them until people started switching to Apple because "it's so fast because it boots in like 5 seconds." Of course, once a Tesla or an Apple changes market expectations, then it's easy to copy them, because they've already de-risked the project.