[stouset]

I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a component. But I would be surprised if that’s a primary reason.

There’s just a lot more to go wrong with an ICE vehicle. You need oil and regular oil changes. A radiator, tubing, and antifreeze. An alternator. A carburetor and a catalytic converter. Timing belts. A exhaust system. None of this (as far as I know, IANAM) is needed for an electric vehicle.

A disproportionate amount of what’s under the hood of an ICE has to do with managing the consequences of the “C” component of that acronym (heat, combustion gases, electricity generation, lubrication, carbon deposits).

[neogodless]

You may have misread the parent comment, which talked about HYBRID vehicles being more reliable than ICE-only vehicles. Hybrid vehicles include all of the comments of an ICE vehicle, plus they have electric batteries and motors, and may have a system of transferring power from either system to the wheels. Overall they have higher complexity than either ICE or electric-only vehicles.

[c22]

They have higher complexity, but also more redundancy. Likely neither of the powertrains experiences the same rate of wear and tear as either would experience on ther own.

[hedgehog]

This is not true, at least for the most popular Toyota hybrid drive train. It's probably got fewer moving parts than the ICE counterpart by virtue of dispensing with the automatic transmission. See sibling comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38466406

[zik]

Check this diagram and tell me it's simpler than an engine and transmission.

https://automotorpad.com/toyota/83449-funcionamiento-sistema...

It's essentially an engine, a transmission, another transmission (power split device), a drive motor and a generator.

[hedgehog]

Most of the images there are broken, all I see are some conceptual block diagram type things. Find a teardown of the hybrid unit and compare to a teardown of any automatic, look at the actual internal complexity and moving parts. I was surprised. Here's a video of the P710: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O61WihMRdjM

[stouset]

Apologies I did misread that.

[jansan]

> You need oil and regular oil changes.

Slightly OT, but I recently found that here in Germany there is a service where you can go to just like to a car wash without making an appointment. They will do the oil change for you within ten minutes or so and you do not even have to get out of your car during that time. This makes oil changes so much less annoying.

[sumthinprofound]

This has been common in the US for at least a decade now.

[tshaddox]

Jiffy Lube had 1,000 locations in the U.S. in 1989. According to my experience in the 1990s (limited mostly to the Midwest), quick oil change shops were ubiquitous even in small towns.

[Riseed]

I’ve never seen a shop that will let anyone stay in the vehicle while it was being worked on, even for something so simple as an oil change. Where did you find one?

[solardev]

In the US, this is really common. There a few big chains, like Jiffy Lube and Valvoline, but also a lot of local places. Just look for "drive thru oil change" on Google Maps

[WarOnPrivacy]

Four decades ago where I lived then. I used them here 30yr ago.

[mulmen]

They let you stay in the car? That surprises me. Do they take the keys?

No way I would work on a car with a random member of the public behind the wheel.

[frogpelt]

This is the only way I ever do an oil change.

They sometimes ask me to remove the keys from the ignition.

[alphager]

What's the name of the company?

[jansan]

MacOil (not a joke). They have 17 shops in Germany.

[TheCleric]

Yes, but wouldn't a hybrid be a worst of both worlds? All the problems of an ICE engine AND the potential electric issues?

[303uru]

I don't think so. You're using two low load, low power systems combined. The least reliable ICE systems almost always correlate to the more powerful ones.