• spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    We have been wanting an EV (something other than a Swasticar) for our next vehicle and think we could deal with the extended charging times required during a long drive or trip, but we ended up ruling it out.

    For us the big problem is the difficulty getting parts and service. Service for the models we looked at is only available at dealers (and only some dealers), and parts are regularly not in dealer stock.

    We really don’t want to risk taking a cross-county trip and having the car break down 200 miles from the nearest mechanic. With the additional real possibility of having to wait weeks (or months) for a part, an EV is not an appealing choice for us, at least not yet.

    • jerakor@startrek.website
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      22 days ago

      My biggest problem with my EV is that I was stupid to get the service pack as it never has any service needs. Breaks last twice as long. No oil changes. No critical fluids other than wiper fluid. The easiest to fail part is the 12v battery which is standard for any car. If something hard to replace fails it is going to be a sensor and I’ve had that happen on a gas car before and no one had it in stock because no one stocks random sensors.

      • bountygiver [any]@lemmy.ml
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        22 days ago

        The service pack better include tires replacement, and then it would make sense for people who drive a lot on roads that destroy tires.

    • Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz
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      22 days ago

      You guys don’t have insurance? If my car breaks down away from home, I can get a rental brought to me so I can continue my trip while my car gets fixed.

    • CedricWhaley@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 days ago

      How often are you taking cross country trips on the spur of the moment? Take the advantages of owning an EV and then just rent something for the trip.

      • spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        Often enough and the trips can be for a few weeks. Checked car rental rates recently and a small SUV had a nearly $2K base rate.

        • AMoistGrandpa@lemmy.ca
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          22 days ago

          Sounds like a plug in hybrid would be right up your alley. Many of the benefits of an electric vehicle (regen braking and the ability to charge at home, foremost) while still being able to fill up instantly using gas. Unfortunately you lose out on the basically-no-maintenance-required part of a pure EV, but frequent road trips are basically the ideal use case for a PHEV.

    • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I think the reason they don’t have spare parts is because the motors are less complicated and, in theory, will need fewer replacement parts. An ICE motor is like 10,000+ moving parts, an electric motor is like 300 moving parts. They’re an order of magnitude less complicated.

      • Nindelofocho@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        But there are still several ways the software or high voltage system can fault leaving people stranded and that usually isint a roadside fix or even a nearest auto part store run (yet)

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        22 days ago

        LOL. Tesla parts shortages are because they break so frequently. You can’t drive a car without working door handles.

    • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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      22 days ago

      The only time i seen a new EV breakdown is due to…that 12v battery. It usually happened around 2 or 3 years down. Other than that i still haven’t seens any EV breakdown yet.

      Also for the part availability, logically newly released car tend to not having part laying around because logically no one will expect a new car to break down and waste a storage space for it, so no matter what car you buy it will be the same. But if a new car(released only 2 to 3 years) have parts widely available, then logically speaking, is that car still reliable?

      • meco03211@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        EVs can break down. It tends to be less frequent but more expensive. I just had a bigger repair on mine. I’ll be crunching the numbers one of these days to see what the average cost of repairs has been.

        • psx_crab@lemmy.zip
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          22 days ago

          No argument on that, just that it be strange to worry about replacement part for an EV that isn’t 5 or more years old. You will make as less sense if apply that to ICEV too, no new vehicle are expected to breakdown. Whatever module that might break on an ICEV will break on an EV too, but that’s not enough to dismiss the point that EV is much more reliable solely because there’s significantly less part required to run it.

          You won’t find any readily available part for a newly launched EV the same way you won’t find any readily available part for a newly launched ICEV.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      22 days ago

      For context, parts are as available as they need to be. IOW, parts are in stock when they are frequently needed. If a part is rarely needed, it won’t be in stock locally.

      If you choose a common EV model, like GM, Hyundai, or even Tesla, you are extremely unlikely to suddenly need extensive service. Dealers (with EV mechanics) are common, with multiple in every major city, and a parts network that can have anything shipped overnight.