> They want to protect that recurring service bay revenue. Oil changes, plugs, belts, etc.
In the past decade we've had one new ICE car and two new EV cars.
The ICE car has been in the dealer once for a couple hours to replace rear hatch support struts (nothing to do with the engine, so could happen to any EV that has a hatch).
The EV cars have spent many weeks in the dealer for repairs and waiting for parts. Also issues unrelated to the engine, this was for door lock problems and window regulator problems.
In theory the EV motor is simpler than the ICE engine. But in practice, the ICE engines are bulletproof and almost never have problems. In 36 years of owning cars, I've never had a car in a shop (or dealer) for engine issues. It's always electrical system, electronics, seats, windows, shocks, etc. Components that both ICE and EV cars share.
I am not saying this isn't true, but EV's have a set of maintenance requirements too - there are still a lot of mechanical parts - tires, suspensions, doors, etc. Not to mention electronic maintenance but I guess dealerships would have to re-train, re-certify, and re-tool technicians for that
Edit: I think I relied to the wrong comment on this sub-thread, but this still contributes, I think.
My spouse and I recently purchased an extremely difficult to find plug-in hybrid EV. We had placed a hold on a specific vehicle destined for delivery to the dealership a few months later. We paid a deposit and signed a receipt that made reference to that vehicle and was given the final price sheet for that specific vehicle at deposit time.
Two days before we were scheduled to pick it up (more than two months after we put the deposit down) the sales guy called and said that the dealership had instituted a new policy on the first of the month that no sales of that specific model and trim level would be authorized by the deal desk without an interior and exterior water resistant coating, and that the lowest price he could offer was an additional $2,500.
As you can imagine that did not stand up to scrutiny and we walked out of there with the vehicle at the total price recorded in the initial paperwork. They signed on the dotted line and never said a word about any new policies until we were ready to pick it up. They did this in a U.S. state where that practice is not legal.
You bet we told Toyota about that when they sent the survey.
If they weren’t making enough to meet their needs then they should have known that when they were negotiating.
Just for reference, I've had a Honda Fit for 13 years, and the only maintainance I've had done over what you no doubt had to do on your TM3 (tires, wiper blades) has been oil changes. The car has 164k miles on it.
I'm not saying the EV's are not theoretically more durable and (much) less maintainance-intensive. I am saying that the best of the best ICE vehicles are not as different as your observation about your own TM3 tries to suggest.
You're supposed to do more maintenance than that on your Honda Fit, such as spark plugs every 30k. Granted, it isn't much compared to other ICE cars, but you're downplaying the difference. Your car also has parts that frequently break on all ICE cars, such as a water pump, which simply don't exist on BEV cars.
> Your car also has parts that frequently break on all ICE cars,
Well, theoretically yes. The point is that saying "my TM3 has 25k miles and zero maintainance" is worse than anecdata. It's no better than saying "My Fit has had almost zero maintainance at 164k miles". Far better to list the parts and systems not found in an EV, possibly along with likely maintanance schedules.
The spark plugs on the Fit are likely failing right now, btw.
I’ve only had my Y for four months now, but I’ve had this very unexpected feeling towards the car (and any EV). I can only describe it as an amalgamation of clean, elegant, and freeing.
While driving there is no engine noise, no unpredictable or delayed acceleration, no need to visit a gas station and have gas drip down the side of the car, and the knowledge that the drivetrain is simple and reliable and isn’t saturated with petroleum products.
I’ve owned some very nice BMWs before the Y, and while I greatly miss the suspension performance I can’t imagine going back to ICE.
Exactly. Tires, wipers, and I’m guessing alignment are the only things the average Tesla owner will ever need to worry about from what I’ve read before I took the leap.
The best description of my experience switching to an EV is that it’s been like going from a VCR straight to streaming. It’s fast, convenient, modern, and doesn’t really degrade.
How far back did you look? It wasn't that long ago that Telsa had problems with the drive units failing early, there've been a number of recalls for assembly problems, overly verbose logging and eMMC failures, touchscreen failures, etc.
In the past decade we've had one new ICE car and two new EV cars.
The ICE car has been in the dealer once for a couple hours to replace rear hatch support struts (nothing to do with the engine, so could happen to any EV that has a hatch).
The EV cars have spent many weeks in the dealer for repairs and waiting for parts. Also issues unrelated to the engine, this was for door lock problems and window regulator problems.
In theory the EV motor is simpler than the ICE engine. But in practice, the ICE engines are bulletproof and almost never have problems. In 36 years of owning cars, I've never had a car in a shop (or dealer) for engine issues. It's always electrical system, electronics, seats, windows, shocks, etc. Components that both ICE and EV cars share.