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As someone driving EVs for more than 10 years; maintenance is far less. The articles claiming maintenance is more expensive on EVs are lying. What has happened

As someone driving EVs for more than 10 years; maintenance is far less. The articles claiming maintenance is more expensive on EVs are lying. What has happened is there has been a non-scientific survey by Consumer Reports showing people self reporting more problems with EVs. But most of that can be chalked up to going through a period with A) brand new companies like Rivian and Lucid launching their first vehicles and B) EVs from legacy auto companies being brand new models; typically brand new models have more issues than the same model a few years later. But note that those problems are warranty issues, as in no cost to the owner.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago
In the hypothetical case that an EV's battery needs to be replaced, yes that will be a very expensive repair / maintenance cost. But that's not common, no more common than an engine rebuild / replacement; one source I found [0] says about 13% of EVs from before 2015 have had / needed a battery replacement, and 30% of cars from 2011. I can't find any reliable figures on car engine replacements, other than that on average, one is needed after 200.000 miles - but if maintained well, car engines can last much longer. [0] https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/how-long-do-ev-batteries-last https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/how-long-do-ev-batter...
- greenthrow 2y ago
  1) Batteries very rarely need to actually be replaced. It is inevitable that transmissions and ICE engines will need very expensive large services and always need regulae maintenance that adds up over time. 2) ICE engines absolutely do not and will not last longer than batteries and electric motors. ICE engines ans transmissions just have way, way more moving parts and are being put through far more stress. If you want something that will last for half a million miles or more, buy an EV.
  - rascul 2y ago
    > If you want something that will last for half a million miles or more, buy an EV. My gasoline powered truck is over 400,000 miles on the original engine. Diesel trucks often go much more. Miles isn't really a good measurement for engines, we should really be comparing hours, but that isn't necessarily available for all engines.
- mapt 2y ago
  A typical driver makes 14500 miles per year. If manufacturing learning rates hold, then by the time that driver runs through 200,000 miles, a new battery pack of the same size will cost less than 25% what it cost new.
- jmclnx 2y ago
  >In the hypothetical case that an EV's battery needs to be replaced, yes that will be a very expensive repair Interesting, I would have never seen this as an issue. 100+ hears ago, "Gas" stations would just replace battery pack and charge the ones taken out for the next customer. It was a rather easy job using some kind of crane. I would have thought the new EVs would have easy access to the batteries. I do remember seeing somewhere there was/is a push to make battery replacement standard and easier. And have one standard battery pack across all models.
rascul 2y ago
What are these ICE vehicles that require so much maintenance? I have three from 10 to 25 years old and the amount of maintenance they require is negligible, at best.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

In the hypothetical case that an EV's battery needs to be replaced, yes that will be a very expensive repair / maintenance cost. But that's not common, no more common than an engine rebuild / replacement; one source I found [0] says about 13% of EVs from before 2015 have had / needed a battery replacement, and 30% of cars from 2011. I can't find any reliable figures on car engine replacements, other than that on average, one is needed after 200.000 miles - but if maintained well, car engines can last much longer. [0] https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/how-long-do-ev-batteries-last https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/how-long-do-ev-batter...

greenthrow 2y ago
1) Batteries very rarely need to actually be replaced. It is inevitable that transmissions and ICE engines will need very expensive large services and always need regulae maintenance that adds up over time. 2) ICE engines absolutely do not and will not last longer than batteries and electric motors. ICE engines ans transmissions just have way, way more moving parts and are being put through far more stress. If you want something that will last for half a million miles or more, buy an EV.
- rascul 2y ago
  > If you want something that will last for half a million miles or more, buy an EV. My gasoline powered truck is over 400,000 miles on the original engine. Diesel trucks often go much more. Miles isn't really a good measurement for engines, we should really be comparing hours, but that isn't necessarily available for all engines.
mapt 2y ago
A typical driver makes 14500 miles per year. If manufacturing learning rates hold, then by the time that driver runs through 200,000 miles, a new battery pack of the same size will cost less than 25% what it cost new.
jmclnx 2y ago
>In the hypothetical case that an EV's battery needs to be replaced, yes that will be a very expensive repair Interesting, I would have never seen this as an issue. 100+ hears ago, "Gas" stations would just replace battery pack and charge the ones taken out for the next customer. It was a rather easy job using some kind of crane. I would have thought the new EVs would have easy access to the batteries. I do remember seeing somewhere there was/is a push to make battery replacement standard and easier. And have one standard battery pack across all models.

rascul 2y ago

What are these ICE vehicles that require so much maintenance? I have three from 10 to 25 years old and the amount of maintenance they require is negligible, at best.