Have you ever fixed an older combustion engine vehicle? You watch a youtube video and a few hours later, you can, in most cases, at least get the car to a state so you can drive it to a mechanic. On modern combustion engine vehicles this is still possible, although a bit more difficult.
Uhhh, EVs? No way you’re fixing anything in there.
On an EV, if anything happens to the motor or battery that they need work, you’ve done something so extraordinarily bad that you’ve somehow physically damaged them. Under normal use, they shouldn’t need maintenance due to the much much less strain put on the motor without the constant explosions and multitude of fluids running through it. It’s literally just a motor and a few electronics hooked up to a battery. There’s nothing that special about it, and it’s been proven to be a pretty reliable setup. Beyond that, they are a normal vehicle with normal replacement parts. Brakes, shocks, suspension bushings…all the same as every other vehicle out there.
What sucks is those components are wrapped together with silicon valley (wannabe) software that’s so rushed and poorly planned (except the monetization!) that minor sensor failures take down the whole system. At least it looks pretty.
A few decades of standards and convergence I hope will result in some extremely reliable cars and lots of aftermarket parts.
I’ve been an Automotive Technician for a couple decades now and I can safely say combustion engines have way more parts that fail and if you can use a youtube video to diagnose your ICE (very rarely is this possible) then you’re smart enough to do the same with an EV.
There is way less parts on an EV and they are way easier to fix.
Most EV components you’d need to replace are the same as in an ICE. There’s way less that needs to be done on an EV. The expensive bit has an 8 year warranty on most EVs including Tesla.
You can change brakes, suspension, lights, pretty much everything without software locks. Only drive train is locked, which rarely fails and it does so progressively.
You can change brakes, suspension, lights, pretty much everything without software locks. Only drive train is locked, which rarely fails and it does so progressively.
Also you can enter service mode now and tell it to reflash the whole car. Need a new steering rack or camera for example? Swap the part, hit reflash and the car flashes the correct vin, coding and software into the part and offers calibration afterwards.
Also built in scantool to read fault codes and do basic diag. More advanced diag needs Tesla Toolbox. Costs $165 for a day of access/$500 per month, but is possible with an ethernet cable and doesn’t need a $1800 SAE J2534 box.
Have you ever fixed an older combustion engine vehicle? You watch a youtube video and a few hours later, you can, in most cases, at least get the car to a state so you can drive it to a mechanic. On modern combustion engine vehicles this is still possible, although a bit more difficult.
Uhhh, EVs? No way you’re fixing anything in there.
On an EV, if anything happens to the motor or battery that they need work, you’ve done something so extraordinarily bad that you’ve somehow physically damaged them. Under normal use, they shouldn’t need maintenance due to the much much less strain put on the motor without the constant explosions and multitude of fluids running through it. It’s literally just a motor and a few electronics hooked up to a battery. There’s nothing that special about it, and it’s been proven to be a pretty reliable setup. Beyond that, they are a normal vehicle with normal replacement parts. Brakes, shocks, suspension bushings…all the same as every other vehicle out there.
You’re worried about literally nothing…
What sucks is those components are wrapped together with silicon valley (wannabe) software that’s so rushed and poorly planned (except the monetization!) that minor sensor failures take down the whole system. At least it looks pretty.
A few decades of standards and convergence I hope will result in some extremely reliable cars and lots of aftermarket parts.
I’ve been an Automotive Technician for a couple decades now and I can safely say combustion engines have way more parts that fail and if you can use a youtube video to diagnose your ICE (very rarely is this possible) then you’re smart enough to do the same with an EV.
There is way less parts on an EV and they are way easier to fix.
Most EV components you’d need to replace are the same as in an ICE. There’s way less that needs to be done on an EV. The expensive bit has an 8 year warranty on most EVs including Tesla.
Tesla cars can only be serviced by Tesla mechanics with Tesla parts, and they have software locks.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/tesla-hit-with-right-repair-antitrust-class-actions-2023-03-15/
Bigger parts sure, but I wouldn’t trust a village mechanic with an engine job either.
You can change brakes, suspension, lights, pretty much everything without software locks. Only drive train is locked, which rarely fails and it does so progressively.
Also you can enter service mode now and tell it to reflash the whole car. Need a new steering rack or camera for example? Swap the part, hit reflash and the car flashes the correct vin, coding and software into the part and offers calibration afterwards.
Also built in scantool to read fault codes and do basic diag. More advanced diag needs Tesla Toolbox. Costs $165 for a day of access/$500 per month, but is possible with an ethernet cable and doesn’t need a $1800 SAE J2534 box.
Cool, TIL!
Also, in many cases it’s easier to get electricity than gas in remote locations. Saves a lot of annoying refueling trips.