I don't know enough about all the parts of the car, but generally speaking, many people have argued that an electric car is much simpler than a mechanical car. (Something to do with the complexity of the engine, gear, drive train etc).
If I recall, one study indicated that maintenance costs on an ev are a fraction of the current costs for that reason.
Electric cars don't have non-zero maintenance aside from the battery, but -- due to the lack of an internal-combustion engine, simplified drive train, and absence of emission-control equipment -- maintenance costs should be considerably lower.
Well, I think the idea is that while it would be difficult to work on an EV motor yourself, it's also much less necessary, as electric motors are much simpler, with far fewer moving parts. I don't know if we have enough data yet to evaluate, but EV's should be much lower maintenance in that regard.
Outside of the powertrain, seems like the rest of the car should be similar though, like tires and brakes, right?
Also, while it's simpler, it's not really much cheaper (which is the big driver of a lot of automotive decisions). Motors and power electronics are far more expensive than the mechanical components which you are removing (and this is not easy to change, though there is more headroom for economies of scale on the EV motors ATM).
Electric cars are only marginally simpler than traditional cars. The body, interior, suspension, and infotainment system are all the same. Only the drive train changes. Building efficient battery packs, electric motors, and transmissions still requires a lot of precision machining and assembly work.
In general fully electric vehicles are much simpler mechanically and need vastly less servicing. The bit of scheduled maintenance that they do need to be handled by anybody.
The electric drivetrain is simpler, but electric cars tend to require more parts in order to replace the heat and rotational power you get "for free" with a combustion engine.
Electric cars need to have separate motors to drive the AC compressor instead of a simple belt.
Electric cars need resistive and/or reverse cycle heating instead of using engine heat.
Electric cars (if they care about battery longevity) need elaborate heating/cooling systems for the battery.
Yeah, but electric cars have so many fewer moving parts that they just don’t need much maintenance at all. As someone who has an EV now, I’m never going back because EVs are just so much better overall.
On the subject of electric cars, I would argue that the _components_ in an electric vehicle are far simpler than those in an internal combustion engine.
From the wheels, working inwards -
1. Brakes are used less because of regenerative braking, so less wear and tear.
2. Brake vacuum is provided by an electric pump, cheap part to replace. If you use an iBooster you eliminate master and slave cylinders - much less complex.
3. You don't need a gearbox of any kind because you don't have to keep the engine RPM in an optimal torque band - it's all constant torque.
4. Therefore no clutch required. Even if you want to keep a gearbox, you don't need one because an electric motor has so little rotating mass that you can clutches shift.
5. The motor is vastly simpler. No combustion, no timing issues, no fuel delivery issues, vastly less wear and tear, less fluids.
6. Vastly less heat generated means simple, easy to repair coolant system.
7. No gas tank, no fuel lines to block or corrode.
8. Battery is a single unit, if you've got a good BMS, cells are protected so you can replace bad cells.
9. Controlling all of these things need not use zillions of wires which are impossible to trace. Either these components work just fine in failover mode (i.e just give them power and they work) or are simple to control with CANBUS. Canbus is scary because it is unfamiliar. It's generally an eminently hackable system, and you just need to route 2 wires from the CANBUS spine to the component. It's actually waaaay simpler than, say, Ethernet.
All in all, I would argue that an electric motor is a vastly better technology to base a _simple, repairable personal transport solution_ on top of. It's just that no EV producer has identified 'repairability' as a market need.
There's far less going on in a normal EV drivetrain, which kinda supports the lower maintenance cost.
Fewer fluids required, just your differential and some coolant for the motors really.
Given the specialization of parts, it's far more likely that any performed maintenance is going to be more of a swap for known-good parts and sending them off to the home-office for reconditioning.
Maintenance, planned and breakage, is a huge differentiator in favor of EVs- there are simply less moving parts and the EV ones are usually simpler and more reliable.
Sure the engine needs less maintenance (at least that's the claim), but there's more to the car than that. Besides the specific example was for realigning headlights and I'm not sure why the maintenance of something like that should be different for an electric car.
I know next to nothing about electric cars, but I've heard they have a drastically smaller amount of moving parts. I'm curious if that would make them any easier to work on.
Granted an electric motor is simpler and more durable than an internal combustion engine. The rest of the car, though, is still a car. It has a transmission, suspension, brakes, etc. all of which will need maintenance and repair like an ordinary car. And it remains to be seen how the battery packs will hold up over time, warranty notwithstanding.
An electric drive train is mechanically a lot simpler than a combustion engine based one. But you still need a battery management and charging control system to keep the battery alive. I think that this is the other half of the battle for efficient electric cars (besides battery chemistry and manufacturing).
Motors in electric cars are a commodity and the drive train is far simpler. These parts will either last the life of a car or at least be cheap/simple to replace.
The wear and tear to the interior of the vehicle over 1 million miles is a greater concern, but even that could be addressed via modularity.
Electric cars leverage heavily regenerative braking, which substantially reduces wear and tear on the friction brake system. So the brake pads and fluid will require a lot less maintenance.
I've made this point before and people are always skeptical. Consider how many fewer moving parts an electric car has. It's like the difference between solid state electronics and vacuum tube electronics.
On the flip side electric vehicles tend to require lower maintenance.
Electric motors are an even simpler technology with the only real complications arising in the battery tech, which likely wouldn’t be repairable on site anyways and would require replacements.
Hopefully the district has proper warranties and battery replacement timelines with their contractor.
If I recall, one study indicated that maintenance costs on an ev are a fraction of the current costs for that reason.
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