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by VBprogrammer 24 days ago
That's easy to say when you aren't the one considering adding a huge liability to the companies bottom line.

There are also some elements of EV ownership where they require some TLC, like not overcharging them when doing mostly local journeys, not using rapid charging more than necessary etc. If manufacturers were carrying the can it would be easy to let these things go out of the window.

2 comments

Saying, "Oh, you just have to baby it and it'll probably be fine!" is probably not the best way to counter claims that EV batteries are unreliable.

Also, consumers currently are the ones taking on liability in adopting new technologies. That's one reason why EV adoption has been a gradual thing. Offer certainty to consumers and they'll look at what they have to gain instead of focusing on what they might lose.

> That's easy to say when you aren't the one considering adding a huge liability to the companies bottom line.

Obliging companies to make repairable products? Removing their right to lock everyone into disposability and overconsumption? And even worse - trimming a sliver of their profits? Damn right, buddy: we can't be having that.

Those are completely orthogonal to accepting all of the risk, from the point of view of a CEO, of battery failures for cars you sold 10 years ago.

But yes, making things repairable is really important. And, I certainly have concerns that the danger of high voltage batteries will soon be used to introduce so much regulatory burden that it becomes impossible for individuals and small companies to repair them.