this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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I would like to actual numbers like how many hundreds of thousands of miles.
And car drivechains should last a long friggin time so these headlines of battery outlasts car are stupid and inaccurate.
ICE drivetrains can last a long time with a lot of maintenance, the battery system does it itself.
The basic structure of electric motors inherently means they will last a long time. ICE motors will not.
Fair, but in its lifetime, the maintenance for my 20-year-old car has cost less than one single battery swap. Last year was a bad one and it cost me £500 between maintenance and repairs. A battery swap for a Tesla is well, well above 10k. A Taycan's batteries cost about £20k to replace and it's nothing to do with being a Porsche; it's just how much the batteries for a long-range EV cost to replace. They are expensive, and scattered across the whole floorplan so replacement is a nightmare.
I agree that the motors are pretty bulletproof, but total cost of ownership is still unfortunately quite comparable if you keep an EV for the long term. It's just a different "payment plan" for the maintenance, where you get hit with one single massive bill after X years. This is worrying because people might choose then to scrap a perfectly good car with a damaged battery - it's the EVs way of programmed obsolescence.
You think $500 is bad? Wait until you have to rebuild the motor and transmission. Ok, put simply a ICE engine and transmission will last ~200k miles each. An electric motor (no transmission necessary) should easily reach 1 million miles. Should be more than that too, I wouldn't be surprised if most decently designed and built ones reach 1.5 million miles. That's 4-5 engine and transmission rebuilds/replacements minimum compared to an electric motor. That's not including major things like timing belts.
And as this article says, batteries are lasting a long time. I was hoping they gave a milage but they didn't. From what I've read they should be going 300k, so better that ICE rebuilds. And batteries are getting better each time.
Speaking of which:
Scattered? Sounds like everything to do with being a Porsche. Good design is the battery is one pack.
Total cost of ownership also includes fuel, which is ~5x of electricity cost. That works out to about $1200 saved per year. Yes I know that ratio can change quite quickly.
I think you're talking disingenuously when you include battery replacements but not including engine rebuilds/replacements, so that's my last message.
I'm not talking disingenuously, I'm all pro-electric. In fact it looks like my next car will be a Taycan, unless something changes unexpectedly.
But counting engine rebuilds as an inevitable matter of life is rather disingenuous too. My other ("hobby") car is a 1977, so that's 47 years now, and still on the original engine and transmission. This is not an uber-reliable statistical anomaly: it's an unreliable piece of shit (a handmade sports car from a small manufacturer) but despite that, the block is still solid and original. Engine rebuilds are not common, unlike batteries which have an ever-degrading chemistry no matter how good they are.
And I strongly disagree on good design being a single point mass of over 700 kg concentrated in one block. The "skateboard" around suspension components and chassis is the most common design for a reason.