Dealers profit more from gas vehicle maintenance than from new-car sales or EV service.
Showroom staff may downplay EVs’ lower maintenance because it reduces dealership profits.
Consumer Reports analysis shows EV owners spend about half as much on maintenance and repairs over the life of the vehicle as gas-car owners
AAA’s Your Driving Costs numbers back it up. In 2023, they pegged average maintenance for new EVs at about 8.12 cents per mile, the lowest of any vehicle category they track
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne lab found the same pattern: battery-electric cars run about 40% cheaper per mile to maintain than gas cars.
This is another reason why the dealership model needs to keep dying. They do not have your best interests in mind.
No one selling you any consumer good has your best interest in mind, only their own.
And you think buying direct from the manufacturer would be different?
An EV manufacturer wouldn’t try to dissuade you from buying an EV, that’s for sure.
Not deliberately, anyway…
I do think that part of why vehicle complexity is spiraling and repairability is dropping off is because manufacturers don’t care about longevity and especially not anyone who buys used cars and has to deal with fixing them after the warrant expires.
I just don’t also need a slimy middleman involved in that shitty process.
Don’t buy a shitty Tesla and they can be repaired just fine.
Tesla has a full range of service utilities integrated right in the car (for free) while Hyundai charges you if you want to swap your brake pads.
Can confirm. 20k miles on my EV. I have replaced the cabin air filter and washer fluid. I should do my fluids sometime, but they’re taking way less beating than in an ICE. Brakes are hardly being used.
Brake fluid ages if you use them or not. It ages because it absorbs moisture out of the air.
Yep. It’s not quite due based age, and my other car tested fine for 4 years before I told them to just do it. The crud builds up, water sinks. Brakes should be cleaned/lubed periodically too.
Water gets absorbed by the fluid. To check for sure you have to measure the moisture content. Leave it long enough and algae starts to grow.
Thanks, I’m quite familiar.
I’ve had my EV for 5 years. I take it in once a year for an update. My brakes are at 80%. They wanted to do a brake line flush but I’ll do it myself because I’m not paying 275 dollars for them to do something I can do myself while I am changing to my winter tires anyways.
There is just so many things that aren’t in EVs to fix compared to the amount of wear and tear parts of ICE cars.
Since you mentioned you have winter tires: Where do you store your other set of tires? Also, are you doing it yourself? Are you doing the balancing and alignment and all that shit they charge for when you get new tires?
Asking as someone who is winter-tire-curious
The studded tires themselves were balanced when i bought them and got them installed on rims. I check the tires for inconsistent wear and label them so I know where the were and rotate them accordingly. (The winter tires are unidirectional so I rotate them front to back but not side to side.) The non studded tires I have are also classed as all season but have a mountain symbol so are safe for winter driving as well but I want the studded for any winter highway driving and occasional skihill driving.
If I notice any odd pulling, bad wear patterns or steering issues then I would go in for an actual alignment.
Sorry I didn’t answer in order of how you asked but I store my EV tires in my garage as well as our truck tires. I change both vehicles tires myself, I have a floor jack and an air compressor with air tools as well as a torque wrench for final tightening. I bought the tires on rims with TPS sensors installed and balancing was included in the cost.
60k+ km on my ev, windscreen wiper fluid is the only thing I’ve had to do. Need to replace my tyres soon.
Bruh, not your first tyre change I hope.
Might be if they have summer + winter sets
It is and they were checked 2k km ago in a yearly inspection.
It’s really just 1 set of tires for 60K km? Or do you swap summer/winter? If the former, I’m impressed, I thought higher torque and weight would mean higher wear, even if EV tires are obviously designed accordingly.
No summer and winter tyres. Just one set. It really depends on how you drive as well.
*in America
Sales people don’t give a shit what they sell. They would sell you their own grandma if they could make a buck.
If they don’t have EVs to sell, they will try and talk you into buying something they do sell, tho.
Well of course they would. If you are looking for an EV why would you visit a company that doesn’t sell them?
Could be a used car dealership and you don’t know they don’t have any EVs until you show up and ask.
