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this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2024
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Because they are relatively new in the automotive world. I can take my '08 CRV to just about any auto parts store in America and get just about any part I need (or take it to about any third party repair shop with the same results). Good luck doing that with most EVs especially Teslas. Tesla is the most egregious example as they are anti right to repair and have seemed to take a page out of Apple's book as far as locking down their supply chain for parts.
Hopefully this will get better with time as third party shops have time to acclimate themselves and their technicians to EV architecture, and EV-specific parts become more available. Though the latter I feel is highly dependent on manufacturers not trying to turn EVs into phones in terms of repairability/serviceability.
In the meantime, as an average Joe without a lot of money, I really like the idea of keeping my relatively low cost older ICE vehicles because if shit hits the fan, if I can't fix it relatively cheaply, there will likely be multiple shops that can without it costing me an arm and a leg and/or taking weeks or months to wait on the manufacturer to supply the parts needed.
There really aren't that many components to these things, and few of them are moving parts. There's no water pump, alternator, starter, or A/C compressor on an accessory belt (there is an A/C compressor, of course, but it's powered more like a home unit). No oil changes to worry about. No pollution/exhaust system. There is a coolant system for the battery, and a transmission, but neither of them have nearly as much wear as an internal combustion engine with its, well, internal combustion. The transmission is a bunch of fixed gears that don't need to shift. Brake pads hardly get used since the car primarily uses regenerative braking.
Yeah, Tesla kinda sucks when things do go wrong. I definitely avoided them. But if a car is less likely to break down, I'd be ok with a little trade-off in availability for what little would actually break.
Looking at the tires on my Tesla, eventually replacing those looks scary
I think this argument is kind of a misconception. Just because an EV drivetrain has fewer moving parts than an ICE doesn't necessarily mean it's more reliable. There is a decent AP article from November 2023 that touches on this and suggests that EVs are actually far more unreliable than traditional ICE vehicles. I would link it but I can't figure out how to remove all the tracking junk from the URL.
Regardless I really like the idea of one day owning an EV so I hope most of these issues will be worked out as the technology matures.
Edit (source): https://web.archive.org/web/20231207233608/https://apnews.com/article/electric-vehicles-consumer-reports-gasoline-vehicles-charging-eed9c3b8d86c1f7708b7c6e2d4dbf55e
I think the reliability numbers are skewed because there are a lot of corners being cut. For example, Tesla sells the most EVs, but they had played fast and loose with quality control to keep their numbers pumped up. Then there are cheaper auto manufacturers entering the market because the barrier to entry is lower with EVs and their quality control is all over the place. Given the same quality control as the larger automakers, EVs should be more reliable. Dealerships have fought against selling EVs because they miss out on lucrative service visits.
Aside from battery and the electric motor itself, mechanical parts are easy to come by from other sources than Tesla. Parts related to e.g. suspension, brakes and steering are all easily bought without involving Tesla at all, and can be changed by any mechanic.