And idea like this is why EVs will still have poor depreciated values even if the battery holds up. Yes it is common for people to ignore all the non-powertrain maintenance items on cars before EVs, but at least in ICE half of them regularly dripped oil down its body and lines and still semi-regularly had somebody kicking the tires and shit when the oil was changed to try and sell you a repair before it fails.
Body, wheels, and suspension components all require maintenance. Just because those components have a less predictable maintenance schedule doesn't mean they don't crap out if problems aren't identified and taken care of. And unless you are driving a short range smart car, EVs weight more than most ICEs, which accelerates the wear and shortens the lifespan of many components.
Don't get me wrong, EVs should be more reliable than ICE still, but in my experiences motor and engine problems are rarely the death knell of a vehicle, body damage and rust are. There are always enough people crashing or junking their cars so that even less reliable motors can be easily had on the used market for cheap, if you don't just swap to something better to start with, but once you get significant body rust 95% of mechanics won't/can't deal with it and repairing metal body shell is a level of skill and tooling that most DIYs aren't going to even attempt.
I don’t understand this criticism. I have owned an EV for five years now. The app and the vehicle display clearly let you know when you are due for scheduled maintenance.
Due to how online the whole platform is, it’s so much better than my older ICE car that has a cryptic wrench light on the dash.
Did I mention that the intervals are also so much cheaper? Tires are the one standout but pretty much every thing else is a dream
There are multiple people in this thread talking about about how their EV requires zero maintenance despite owning them for years, which is just the admitting they are setting up a ticking timebomb of maintenance tasks that are being neglected. And then years down the line they will wonder why their model car has depreciated so poorly despite their battery being in good condition. And they will likely blame ignorance of EVs, rather than considering it is the average owners negligence of maintenance tasks on that car.
What ticking time bombs? Please be specific. I'm an EV owner who has done no maintenance in 26k miles. I want to know which system, if I don't do maintenance, will create some hidden wear which will progress silently until too late.
Shocks, springs, tie rods, steering systems, motor mounts and any other rubber parts, cooling systems, braking system, wheel and possibly motor bearings.
Nothing special for being a car, but an ICE and transmission weren't the only things on cars that move and wear.
There's no maintenance to shocks, springs, tie rods, motor mounts, or wheel bearings. Every one of those announces their failure with clicks or clunks or bouncy ride. I'm not sure when chassis lubrication went away as a maintenance activity but I'm guessing around the '80s. I can remember using a grease gun on my parents' cars but none I owned. EVs obviously eliminate all the engine internals, so no spark plug replacements, no ignition modules, no accessory belt, no timing chain or belt, no engine air filter, no oil filter, no manifolds, catalytic converters or mufflers.
Brakes need to be inspected but my last ICE vehicle went about 90k miles between needing pads. My EV has sealed drums in back (a choice VW made to reduce friction when brakes aren't in use and I think trying to slow corrosion of the components) and conventional large discs in front. If we have issues with the front brakes it will be due to corrosion as I don't expect to put enough wear on them to ever wear through the pads. In normal driving the brakes are only applied at full stops.
I don't expect EVs to have motor mounts like an ICE vehicle, as the motor is a few orders of magnitude smoother (commutation ripple vs cylinder firings) and shouldn't need fluid-filled rubber isolation mounts.
If I think of what I've had to replace on my cars over the years, half-shafts and CV joints and wheel bearings might now be the least reliable mechanical things on the car, plus the oddball failures, like a clock spring in the steering wheel or a window motor.
So I still have to keep tires inflated, rotated and balanced, keep good wipers installed, change the cabin air filter occasionally, and listen to the rest.
My source for my opinion is having done the vast majority of the maintenance and repair of our cars over roughly 4 decades and more than a million miles.
Start up claude with "claude agents" instead of "claude"
This way you can start and manage multiple sessions from the terminal easily. Can jump into individual session, or peek into them to see progress, will get alerted when a session needs your attention, etc.
Day 1 - 7: Significant gains
Days 8 - 100: Huge drawdown
Days 100+: Who knows - it's already priced so high that in any sane market they would have to execute flawlessly but it's an Elon company and hype alone will keep it afloat regardless of fundamentals.
Bought FSD with my Model 3 back in 2018 here in the states. FSD still not delivered and no realistic timeline. Tesla is hoping we upgrade or sell car, but luckily we don't drive much and plan to keep it as long as it keeps running, so they'll have to make us whole eventually.
How does it work if the contract hasn't been fulfilled by Tesla? Wouldn't that nullify the entire contract and Tesla would have to return the full price paid and presumably collect the car.
Don't American cars have some of the lowest levels of reliability?
I'm not super educated on all the happenings in the car industry globally, but I've seen a few videos of Chinese EVs that put anything Ford, GM or other US brands have put out to absolute shame.
The purpose of the US auto industry is primarily a jobs program and secondarily a way to ensure the existence of supply chains for national security. The fact that it produces cars is tertiary at best and explains the quality of vehicles it produces.
I think American car companies are orthogonal to the question. The larger point is that _Japanese and German_ cars for the American market are largely themselves American by many important metrics.
There was suggested battery fluid maintenance when I first got the car every 3 years or so, but they removed that recommendation.
It's one of the reasons I just can't go back to a regular gas car.
reply