Menu
A recent study from a company named We Predict is claiming that EV cost less to repair over the first 3 years than a gas powered equivalent. They say that even though first year costs are higher, by year 3 EV service costs totals are 22% below that of gas vehicles. They have this broken out by year in their report and if you are interested in seeing the data I will link it in the description below. I think this data and time range has been specifically selected to give the result everyone was looking for. When you look at the data they provided, it shows that gas is less expensive year one and year two. The first year that EVs take the crown of cheapest repairs, in the third year, the study stops and the conclusion is drawn that “EVs are cheaper to service than gas vehicles”. The first major issue I see with this is that most vehicles are under full factory warranty at this time and repairs other than scheduled maintenance should not cost the owner anything. They also chose a timeframe where maintenance cost for both vehicles types would be relatively negligible. Expensive repairs on vehicles usually start after the manufacturer’s warranty runs out. For most manufacturers this is around 60-100,000 miles and usually around 5 years. Vehicles like the Mustang Mach-E and the Tesla Model 3 have battery warranties of 8 years or 100,000 miles but with a huge catch. They are only guaranteeing that the battery and vehicle performance will not drop below 70% of its original performance. This to me in the nail in the coffin keeping me from purchasing an EV. I am a huge tech nerd and the idea of a rechargeable vehicle is very appealing to me but the fact that manufacturers are basically coming out and telling you to expect a huge drop in performance over the first 8 years. Even if you do not expect to keep the vehicle 8 years this will have a dramatic impact on the resale value of a vehicle because as the vehicle gets older it is just a matter of time before the battery will need to be completely replaced. This is a huge expense for the owner costing upwards of $12,000-$14,000 and not to mention the impact on the environment as we start to throw these batteries made from nasty materials into our landfills. It looks as though charging capabilities with new 15 minute speed chargers are starting to address one of my other major objections, I hope that the improvements of solid start batteries will fix the issue of massive battery degradation. My eyes are on Toyota to lead the way with solid state battery production and implementation but only time will tell.
German microchip supplier Bosch announced that it will be spending $467M to expand their production capabilities in 2022. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the Bosch board of management said in a statement “Demand for chips is continuing to grow at breakneck speed,” and “In light of current developments, we are systematically expanding our semiconductor production so we can provide our customers with the best possible support.” Executives at Bosch are still claiming that the semiconductor shortage is likely to continue through 2022.
Stellantis, formerly FCA, states it will invest over $34B through 2025 to electrify their vehicle lineup. It looks like their plan as of now is to develop four different Electric platforms that will have a lot of flexibility when it comes to part sharing. They are hoping this will help them create scale economies that will help them bring down prices in the future. Each of the four platforms is claimed to be able to support 2 million units produced per year.
GM looks to be leaning on dealerships to help with an EV charging network. On Tuesday GM said it will work with dealerships to create a network of 40,000 electric vehicle chargers over the next four years. They plan to distribute up to 10 chargers to each store and have the dealerships do the legwork of finding suitable locations to place them in their communities. This is part of GMs $750M commitment to EV charging infrastructure through 2025.
Recent Articles
