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by ufhghfggf 1694 days ago
Tesla's opposition to Right to Repair has chilled the brand to many frugal car buyers who drive their daily beater 20+ years and 300,000+ miles. Being able to buy an affordable electric crate motor will open up the world of electric to those who like to keep their technology for the long haul.
2 comments

It seems to be a trend in electric vehicles. I just bought an electric scooter which came with literature warning that my warranty would be voided if I so much as undid a single bolt. It's rather jarring, coming from the world of cycling, where stripping your vehicle down to atoms and reassembling it is considered normal maintenance.

Incidentally, the same literature claimed my warranty would also be voided if I failed to maintain the scooter properly. I'm not sure where to go from there...

You're free to ignore such warnings.

And in many cases the warnings are there because the law comes down hard on manufacturers that enable bypassing the (mandatory) governor systems which limit the speed (and sometimes the torque) at which the vehicles can operate.

Yeah, but warnings like that confuse owners about what their rights are. I'm starting to think there should be a penalty for businesses who assert rights beyond what they actually have.
Sure, I'm free to void the warranty and no one will arrest me. Seems unfair though.
You're free to ignore those warning stickers because the onus is on the manufacturer to prove that you opening the device caused the issue. Warranty stickers are a scare tactic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty...

Only ~5% of the world's population is subject to that law. The company I bought the scooter from is in the remaining 95%.
It matters less where the company is than where you are. I mean, sure, a company in China can refuse to honor the warranty, but they risk losing the ability to sell their goods in the US.
Electric bikes are refreshingly serviceable, I've learned a lot about bike maintenance and repair by using a Tern GSD as our "daily driver"
Mmmm, how much of the electric side is actually serviceable? I think you're confusing e-bikes with regular bikes. The electric side is probably entirely off limits to people and what you're experiencing is the vestigial aspects of the regular bike underneath.
Yes good point, it's really bikes that I love
As someone who own's a Tern GSD and a Tern Vektron too, I've found the unserviceable Bosch electric drivetrain to not be refreshingly serviceable at all.

This may have changed in year since I last had to look and might vary by region, but in US Bosch have been incredibly strict about parts and software tools for the motors - only approved dealers can order a brand new replacement motor, for example. You cannot order one as private individual easily (much like a Tesla...). That's unheard of for bike parts generally speaking.

For sure, all of the parts that are shared with traditional non e-bikes (group sets, brakes, wheels, etc etc) are still easily privately serviceable by end user. The Bosch electric drivetrain, not so much.

Good points all around, I have luckily not had to deal with the electric drivetrain
That's because it's a normal bike other than the motor itself.
Just make sure you don't short out those batteries.
Pretty sure voiding warranty for opening isn’t legal.
If only that were globally true.
Solved by Tesla building EVs to million-mile specs. Between lasting 3-4x longer with few repairs, and gas savings over long usage, TCO is far less than ICE.

Running numbers, I'm seeing a "Tri+FSD" Cybertruck paying for itself at 410,000 miles just in gas savings, then amounting to a free second vehicle over the next >400,000 miles. That should make the frugal overcome "right to repair" issues.