[motoford]

Nobody said an electric car is maintenance free. The problem here is that it can total itself in a relatively short time just from not being used.

Your statements about seized engine and deformed tires are not valid in the timeframe we are talking about here. It's unlikely even for the battery to go, and if it does that's a trip to the store and $100, not a $40k service plus getting an UNTOWABLE vehicle to California.

Oh, and those abandoned university cars are normally beaters that barely made it to the campus after many years of neglect, not a brand new premium vehicle.

[drone]

I find it seriously hard to believe that there's not a manual drivetrain disconnect. I do find it easy to believe that a tow-truck driver didn't know it had one, as I've seen them drag automatic vehicles rather than pull the transmission disconnect. I also don't find it hard to believe that most people don't know that these things exist.

[motoford]

You might be right, although I have seen the way some of the simpler electric cars connect power to wheel and I could see there not being a way, but hopefully the Tesla is more refined.

It's interesting that they did not refute this untowable claim in their rebuttal.