I heard someone said that, at the end EV will cost you almost the same as gasoline vehicle, if you have to change the expensive battery every so often. Can someone please give me more info on this? Thank you so much.
You know what you’ll never have to do to an electric vehicle?
Replace a stolen catalytic converter.
A gas car costs twice as much as a gas car after like 100k miles or so… you end up paying for some random ass shit that broke every couple months. Alternator here, transmission there, radiator, head gasket, O2 sensors, rusted out muffler, injectors… it’s not like your gas motor just keeps on trucking forever and doesn’t nickel and dime the fuck out of you as it ages. An EV is mainly just gonna lose some capacity as it gets elderly, and isn’t likely to have random little repairs as often.
If you ain’t super well off, you roll your shit til the wheels fall off, and with an EV, that’s just going to mean that the Tesla that goes 300 miles on a charge today, in ten years, is gonna be a Tesla that goes 150 miles on a charge, and there’s going to be people that will rock that old ass battery pack for as long as itll keep rocking, and a lot of those packs aren’t actually going to get replaced at the age everyone is claiming they will be.
Battery pack might be the whole ass cost of the car, but poo-pooing EVs over it is disingenuous if you ask me.
that’s just going to mean that the Tesla that goes 300 miles on a charge today, in ten years, is gonna be a Tesla that goes 150 miles on a charge, and there’s going to be people that will rock that old ass battery pack for as long as itll keep rocking
That 150 mile battery pack is still hugely useful with zero refurbishment as a stationary utility power battery. A Tesla model 3 Long Range (330 mile version) is 75kwh. A brand new Tesla Powerwall is 13.5kwh. So that old 150 mile battery is equal to the capacity of 5 and half brand new Tesla Powerwalls.
There’s already a solar power generating company using old Nissan Leaf batteries to store excess generated electricity, then putting that electricity back on the grid at peak times to earn money.
The main counter to that is that EVs are very difficult to repair on your own, so when something breaks, you’re going to be taking it to a specialist shop. While you’re right in saying that ICE components break, let’s not act like electric motors are indestructible pieces of machinery
I have never in my life repaired a car on my own, so that means nothing to me.
Bought an electric car in early 2020. Costs me a few bucks a months to keep charged, tops. I have spent literally 0 dollars on maintenance for it. There are just plain fewer moving parts. It’s a battery, an electric motor, and that’s about it.
So that’s 3.5 years (so far) of paying practically nothing to operate a smooth-driving, quiet vehicle that still gets almost 300 miles per charge and operates primarily off the wind power I buy from my utility company.
I expect to drive this one until it can’t hold a charge anymore, and then I’ll get another one.
How is an EV harder to repair on your own than an ICE? I think you’re wildly underestimating the shade tree tinkerers of the world.
Sure, an EV contains a bunch of proprietary software and configuration, but so do ICE vehicles, and people have been hacking that shit for decades. They’ll swap out the whole ass controller if that’s what it takes :)
They’ll swap out the whole ass controller if that’s what it takes :)
And we all know the ass controller is the most important part.
I’ve had an EV as my only vehicle for about 5 years. The biggest cost of maintenance was replacing my tires. Then replacing one of the new tires after I ran over something and put a big hole in one of them.
The regular maintenance on it has been effectively zero. I don’t have any fluids to change (other than windshield wiper fluid) or other regular maintenance tasks other than tire related things. My parents have had an EV for something like 8 or 9 years and their experience has been similar.
Do electric cars not have brake fluid? Should that not be being changed soon in it if you’ve had it 5 years.
I think they do, but you barely use your brakes due to regenerative braking. So you don’t have to change it very often, if ever
Ah completely forgot about regenerative braking! I thought the main reason it needed changed was due to age and water absorbance rather than usage though, but again if regenerative brakes are used heavily then the regular brakes losing a little efficiency is a lot less of a deal.
Not accounting for rust and weather impact, EV brakes systems last much longer due to regenerative braking from the motors being used before the brake system is engaged.
How often do you change tyrea? Also once a year? I always imagined that due the weight thetyres usage must be higher. Right now i work in a neighborhood with a lot of teslas and i saw that almost all their front tyres are absolutely gone.
If you live in a cold country it’s twice a year to put winter tyres and then the summer ones.
Which you don’t buy every time obviously, but still the change and storage fee is going to be about hundred Euros/dollars each time.
The “it’ll cost you a bazillion dollars to replace your battery” thing is stupid. Most batteries will last as long as the car.
“They found that in a community of 15,000 electric cars only 1.5 percent of batteries have been replaced if you exclude massive recalls […] The team also points out that most battery replacements happen when the car is still covered by a warranty.”
I’m not sure looking at the stats like that is really all that useful.
There are two situations where the battery replacement happens:
- The user forks over the money to replace it personally.
- They manage to convince the manufacturer to cover the cost.
It’s definitely not a given that everyone who wants to replace their battery can and does. This post is about longevity, so presumably most of the time in that situation the person will have to cover the cost of replacement themselves.
I want to be clear, I’m not arguing against EVs. I’m just saying this article doesn’t really have enough information to draw a conclusion.
They manage to convince the manufacturer to cover the cost.
Battery warranties are pretty cut-and-dry, there’s little convincing needed.
If the capacity is below the threshold, it gets replaced
This assumes that it’s within the warranty period (or recall period assuming there is a recall). After that the customer absolutely will be on their own for the repairs assuming they don’t have an aftermarket warranty which a fair number of people don’t bother with.
The Nissan Leaf seems to be the only one worth being concerned about. Don’t quote me on this but I remember reading the old ones (like 2011ish to around 2016-17) had poor airflow to cool the battery so they lost capacity quicker
The mach E has a recall for battery replacement I believe. Also, the Ford Focus electric came out in 2011 and definitely has an open recall for battery replacement, and some of those cars are out of the warranty period. The Chevy Volt was exploding and was recalled. If the problem with the battery happens outside the recall the owner is responsible for replacement assuming they can afford it.
I have an electric car from 2011. The battery has had no maintenance, and hasn’t been replaced.
So far the car has had 2-3 new 12V batteries, at least one new set of tires, windscreen wipers replaced once, and the air conditioner filter replaced a few times. I’m not aware of any other maintenance done to the car.
I suspect the car could have driven up to 150km (95mi) when new, and is now down to 80km (50mi) range. It gets driven no more than 10km in a day, so I suspect it will still be useful to me for another 10 years.
It has saved me a huge amount in fuel, and has barely cost me anything to run.
You should really change your wipers more. The blades crack and become ineffective with age even if unused. Maybe not every year but every couple years!
Silicone wiper blades last many years and don’t crack. They’re about twice the cost of traditional but worth it in the long run.
My current set is from 2018.
I’m fairly certain my car doesn’t have a coolant system, but thanks for the reminder. I often forget these sorts of things.
Out of curiosity what kind of vehicle? Cause most EV’s and Hybrids have a cooling system for the batteries.
