[rjmunro]

Repair != Maintenance.

EVs do have much lower maintenance costs - they basically don't need maintenance.

However, if they are damaged, they have much higher repair costs, and in Hertz' case I can see how this could dominate - I expect rental cars get frequent minor damage as they are driven a lot by people who don't know the cars well and don't care about them much.

It doesn't have to be this bad - car companies could design for repairability, but it's not a selling point and it is a way for them to claw back profits.

[emmender1]

"car companies could design for repairability, but it's not a selling point and it is a way for them to claw back profits"

agree 100%, there is little incentive for the car-maker+dealer ecosystem to enable this.

[bryanlarsen]

Tesla has incentive to lower repair costs because they also sell insurance.

[rjmunro]

No, it does not matter if fixing a Tesla is expensive, as long as their insurance doesn't cost more than third party insurance. Quite the opposite - more expensive repairs probably means more margin for the insurers. They are going to get the money back from premiums anyway.

Actually all car companies have incentive to lower repair costs because people look at the cost of insurance when they buy a car, but I don't think it's a big consideration for most people when they are deciding what car to buy. It's normally a negligible cost compared to the repayments for the car.