What will wear items be in electric cars once common?
- Thread starter Silver
- Start date
You, are a small percentage of the typical market. Most vehicles are designed, to my understanding, 15-20 years and 200-250k miles. So Most vehicles on the market "would not work for you".
Regarding to EV, to get 300k miles out of a car designed for 250k miles, you probably have some major work done or major maintenance that cost some money: oil change, timing belt, radiator, emission control, ignition, distributor cap / coil pack / coil over plug, spark plugs, valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, maybe you don't care here and there but at least some stuff that end up costing about $3k over 300k miles including oil change I believe. I'm only listing the engine specific parts that is unique to ICE, the EV specific part, if designed right, would probably be the battery. I am assuming the battery coolant system to be identical to gas engine or better as they run at lower temperature and pressure, and I am assuming the radiator is going to be forever as it also run at lower temperature and pressure, so far I haven't heard of power electronics cooling radiator die so this may not be a good assumption.
So, let's say you have an EV that is the same price in 2035 as the gas car, let's say we don't know if gas is cheaper or if electricity is cheaper so we ignore that for now (my guess is electricity will be cheaper if you charge at home, but same cost if you charge at office or on highway "truck stop" as gas), the maintenance cost wise let's say gas is 3k and the battery is 10k, you lose $7k over 150k miles vs the gas alternative in "maintenance cost". I'll be honest I have no idea how much it will cost but I assume it will be 10k max, but it could also be 5k at best if some Chinese miracle happens.
Yes 7k is a lot of money, but the range of cost difference in maintenance between the best in ICE (Corolla) vs the worst (Some fancy European brand that charges you $1k to replace engine oil wicking up the ECU harness and destroyed the ECU, European engineering ya know). So does that means all the fancy European brands will be bankrupt? Probably not. I suspect EV will likely be better than some ICE maintenance and worse than some ICE maintenance, and I suspect they will all correlate to the brand and company than the type of technologies they use.
Still, I think if anything Prius Prime will be the sliding scale that gradually go from ICE to EV depends on the reliability and cost of the time. I am not a person who believe in either or.
Do you see most trucks and SUVs wear out their tires and wheel bearing, suspensions, etc than cars?Whether they're common or not, does it even matter for this question?
This. High torque and weight will inevitably wear tires faster. Similar with
wheel bearings and suspension parts. Let's remember wheels of most EVs
are rather tall, so tires aren't cheap to replace.
.
Personally I see the "you get what you pay for" and "some companies just try to cut corner to save a few bucks" instead.
Do you see any EVs designed with similar traditional and robust
truck 'technology' as NA style pick-up trucks and SUVs? I don't.
.
Do you see a V8 Lexus have higher suspension failure rate than a 4 cylinder Corolla? Do you see more of them having pot hole related suspension damages? So far the biggest problem we see in suspension is the build quality and price point they are build to. A luxury car from reliable brands (say Lexus) will likely have better robustness than say ..... Daewoo of the same size and same weight.
I have yet to heard wide spread complain about Nissan Leaf suspension problem or Tesla's either. Sport cars can also have a lot of suspension load so I'm sure if they cut corner (with the same suspension design but for a way heavier car like EV), they will be all over the internet by now.
People have been doing street racing on cars with lowering all the time, the physics is known and people have to trade comfort and cost away to get stiffness / durability. Same will go for EV if they want to design a durable car. Same goes for buying durable EV: buy a reputable brand and model.
Last edited:
You must have had a Mercedes. On the E320 oil wicking to the ecu was exactly the problem the MB dealer said. Three thousands later they said pick up the car it’s ready. Get home the next day the car fails again. I decided to try something, put in a new voltage regulator, $100, it’s in the alternator. No more problems. They showed me the oil wicking , as if they might think I need to see it to believe it.
Tires and the two batteries on an EV will be the main cost items I think. People forget about the usually pricey 12volt.
I'm wise enough to stay away from Mercedes, and Tesla. But if some durable brand and model like Corolla and Civics go EV I might consider it. I think removing a gas engine isn't going to make it worse than a Prius in reliability department.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
https://insideevs.com/news/447593/tesla-suspension-issues-owners-true-stories/
Actually, issues with Tesla's suspension have received press coverage many times. It's an interesting topic.
I bet if Tesla makes gas car they too will have the same problem.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yep, agreed.
My frame of reference is my econobox Hyundai Accent, the engine and transmission is extremely solid, most repairs done to the vehicle have been brakes and suspension parts (the suspension repairs probably wouldn't have been needed if it weren't driven on the horrendous roads of Massachusetts, and brake parts would last longer without salt). Outside of that I've had a water pump replaced and the belt.
In terms of cost, an EV battery replacement is about the same as an engine replacement or more, that's the issue for me. A lack of oil changes, belt changes, water pump replacements, and spark plug changes will never make up for the cost difference when compared to a well designed ICE power train that will outlast the vehicle itself. EVs are also not something your average Joe can just work on, I like being able to easily fix my car whenever it breaks.
EVs are certainly the future but it will be a long time before they're able to fully replace gasoline cars for lots of reasons, and I wouldn't buy one yet.
My E-Golf would like to have a chat.
. It's basically a regular Golf just without an ICE, exhaust, fuel tank and whatever other bits specific to the gasser or diesels. About as simple as it comes - outside of the powertrain (EV and battery) the only other major difference is the brake by wire voodoo happening. As for suspension components having a hard time due to increased weight. Based on specs of E-Golf vs 1.8T Golf my car is ~400 lbs more - so yes it is heavier. Not sure if car base curb weights include a full tank of fuel but if they don't the difference is closer to 300 lbs. However the weight distribution is **** near 50/50 vs the typical VW front driver 60/40 so my E-Golf is actually carrying less weight on the front end than the gasser but carrying more on the rear end which is not as critical as those wheels are just along for the ride and not seeing the same forces as the front.
There is also the Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro, Kia Soul.......these are just off the top of my head as far as simple EV's go.
You must've missed the multiple Prius recalls for software fixes to cut the risk of sudden inverter failure, and Toyota's letter offering to cover costs of being stranded by such failures---up to a certain age and mileage.
Similar threads
