[beAbU]

It's actually madness that they don't spec a maintenance plan. My 2019 Kona EV comes with a maintenance plan, but everything is "inspect" and then maybe a "replace" on some of the fluids every 100k km or so.

In essence there is zero maintenance, but Hyundai makes it clear that annual inspection of everything is still important, and they will absolutely void your warranty if you skip such a "service" (inspection).

[torginus]

This might have some political aspect, as the service and dealership networks have pushed back on the manufacturer on having 'zero-maintenance' vehicles.

Which begs the question of what are you actually saving on with an EV - the expensive part of servicing a car is what you pay for labor and facilities - I'd argue more often than not, the actual parts and consumables are less than half the price you end up paying.

[tzs]

I think that they main thing is supposed to be that even though you will still have to go in for regular inspections and maintenance for various things that ICE owners also have to (tire rotations, fluids, air filter, HVAC, windshield wipers, etc) which should cost about the same, the ICE will also need maintenance on the transmission, clutch, and the engine itself. Those will add costs to the routine maintenance and if they ever need repairs can be expensive.

The EV does have the battery, and if they only lasted the length of the warranty (typically somewhere in the 100-150k mile range or 8 years, whichever comes first) then the cost of a battery replacement would swamp the savings from not having maintenance for things like clutches, transmissions, and engines.

But the data seems to be showing the EV batteries should last much longer, possibly longer than the rest of the car.

Personally though I think the mail attraction of EVs is not the possible savings on maintenance. It is the savings in energy cost per mile.

An EV would cost me about $0.025/mile when charged at home. Gas here is around $3.75/gallon so if I were driving one of the most efficient gas powered cars on the market, a Prius non-PHEV model, it would cost $0.067/mile. If I were driving a Honda Civic on the highway it would $0.094/mile, and in the city $0.117/mile. The Civic in the city is about what a Honda CR-V would be on the highway, and a CR-V in the city would be around $0.134/mile. A Ford F-150 on the highway is about 16% more than a CR-V in the city, and an F-150 in the city would be around $0.221/mile.

[Retric]

Even just 2 oil changes a year which doesn’t apply to EV’s already gets you to the cost of a reasonable inspection.

These days ICE cars can last ~100k miles with only a few minor maintenance items, but then you start hitting bigger ticket items like belts which again EV’s don’t have.