What they don't tell you about electric cars

[M4cruiser]

J__Wood said:

VeeReihenmotor6 said:

With regard to the costs listed the same can be said for many modern ICE cars...just some examples:

- Many have DSG style gearboxes that could easily cost you £1500-3000
- Turbos could cost you a £1000
- Manual cars with Dual Mass flywheels could cost £1250-1500

Don't forget 'consumable' cam belts ~ £1400 for a genuine belt plus the obligatory new cover, sump, belts, water pump and a day's labour etc.
Transit 2.0 engines with wet belts...

I agree with the above ICE examples.
My thinking is that most informed purchasers already know about these things. It takes a little Googling but is easily found. However, the hidden extra costs of an EV are more difficult to find. You will easily find articles about the absence of cambelts, gearboxes, turbos etc.

[M4cruiser]

TheDeuce said:

freakybacon said:

Renault Zoe having a few problems here.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/mar/12/rena...

That's just normal isn't it? Sometimes a used car has an out of warranty failure that kills it. It happened to be when I bought a used honda accord and the auto box failed.

I've owned seven used cars and it's the only such example though, so not really a 'problem', just a fact of life. Be lucky...

Edited by TheDeuce on Wednesday 13th March 10:36

It will take time for the relative volumes of faults like this to be established. Yes, petrol cars have problems too, but the ability to apply a workaround is more easily understood. On my old petrol car the "charging socket" failed, i.e. the petrol filler pipe rusted through and failed the MoT. The garage were able to source a similar replacement (even though it wasn't the official part). In fact any metal pipe could have been fabricated into the right shape. That same garage won't work on HV systems.

[M4cruiser]

tamore said:

M4cruiser said:

It will take time for the relative volumes of faults like this to be established. Yes, petrol cars have problems too, but the ability to apply a workaround is more easily understood. On my old petrol car the "charging socket" failed, i.e. the petrol filler pipe rusted through and failed the MoT. The garage were able to source a similar replacement (even though it wasn't the official part). In fact any metal pipe could have been fabricated into the right shape. That same garage won't work on HV systems.

won't or currently don't?

Ok, fair point. We need to get to a state where more of the independent garages are able to fix these things. Similar concepts have happened before. I.e. when engine management went all electronic, it took a while for the average garage to catch up and be able to work on them. Same for DSG gearboxes. But the leap to EVs is on a new level. It wil take a big change for the local grease-monkeys to catch up. I think there will be much more acceptance of EVs when your average local garage can fix them. This will address much of the anti-EV stuff currently around.
Just to be clear, I'm not anti-EV. We do have one in the family fleet. But I'm also clear that the true cost of ownership is not being fairly represented in many quarters.