Proponents of electric vehicles have been saying for years that since EVs have less moving parts, that they are more reliable than their gas powered counterparts. So somebody decided to see if that theory is actually true or not. The results were quite interesting. Electric vehicles actually turned out to be much more problematic than gas powered cars. And Tesla was so bad, it dragged down the score for electric vehicles in general.
It seems that the law of unintended consequences kicks in. Yes, EVs have less moving parts, but they also have much more complex software. If your car won't start in the morning, it's irrelevant if it's due to a mechanical or software failure. The hassle is just as perplexing.
Here's a bit of what they found:
In reality, a recent study in the United Kingdom by consumer website Which? says that electric vehicles are actually less reliable than their petrol-powered (that’s “gasoline” in British) competitors. In fact, according to the respondents, EVs are almost twice as likely to develop a serious fault — 31 per cent for electrics, versus just 19 per cent for petrol power — as conventional cars.
Not only that, the typical repair takes longer for cars powered by batteries — five days versus three — than for those swinging pistons. Worse yet, the other supposed superiority of EVs — that they can be more easily and quickly repaired with over-the-air updates — seems to take a hit in the survey of 48,034 car owners (2,184 of which owned pure electrics).
According to the survey, the number one glitch needing attention in EVs was software-related. Married with the fact that, as I said, EVs were also off the road for a survey-topping average of 5.1 days every year, it’d seem there’s little evidence yet of a tangible benefit to OTA updates and repairs. --Driving 04/01/2022
Not only that, but Tesla's break down in ways that are completely unheard of with most simple gas powered cars. I remember seeing two you men outside of a Walgreens drug store all distraught because they were locked out of a Tesla Model 3. The were just in the parking lot holding their bags as one of them furiously tapped away at his iPhone. In all of my years driving, I've never had the lock mechanism of any of my cars fail.
But it's not always funny. I had posted about a man a few weeks ago who died because his Tesla all of a sudden stopped working in the middle of a highway. He was hit by another car traveling at a high speed. The famous Rob Schneider had the same thing happen to him a few months ago. His wife was literally afraid to drive the family Tesla because it would stop working unexpectedly. If your phone reboots it's no big deal, but if your car all of a sudden stops in the middle of the road, you could end up six feet under.
Here's a bit of what they found:
In reality, a recent study in the United Kingdom by consumer website Which? says that electric vehicles are actually less reliable than their petrol-powered (that’s “gasoline” in British) competitors. In fact, according to the respondents, EVs are almost twice as likely to develop a serious fault — 31 per cent for electrics, versus just 19 per cent for petrol power — as conventional cars.
Not only that, the typical repair takes longer for cars powered by batteries — five days versus three — than for those swinging pistons. Worse yet, the other supposed superiority of EVs — that they can be more easily and quickly repaired with over-the-air updates — seems to take a hit in the survey of 48,034 car owners (2,184 of which owned pure electrics).
According to the survey, the number one glitch needing attention in EVs was software-related. Married with the fact that, as I said, EVs were also off the road for a survey-topping average of 5.1 days every year, it’d seem there’s little evidence yet of a tangible benefit to OTA updates and repairs. --Driving 04/01/2022
Not only that, but Tesla's break down in ways that are completely unheard of with most simple gas powered cars. I remember seeing two you men outside of a Walgreens drug store all distraught because they were locked out of a Tesla Model 3. The were just in the parking lot holding their bags as one of them furiously tapped away at his iPhone. In all of my years driving, I've never had the lock mechanism of any of my cars fail.
But it's not always funny. I had posted about a man a few weeks ago who died because his Tesla all of a sudden stopped working in the middle of a highway. He was hit by another car traveling at a high speed. The famous Rob Schneider had the same thing happen to him a few months ago. His wife was literally afraid to drive the family Tesla because it would stop working unexpectedly. If your phone reboots it's no big deal, but if your car all of a sudden stops in the middle of the road, you could end up six feet under.
Here's one more quote from the article:
Perhaps more surprising is that Tesla, the face of EVs and the manufacturer with the most experience building electrics, is the least reliable of the lot. According to the Which? survey, a whopping 39 per cent of Teslas up to four years old had at least one fault, and one in 20 had had a serious no-start situation or a breakdown serious enough that it had to be taken off the road.
On the other hand, owners of Kia’s e-Niro reported their cars to be the most reliable of electrics, with just six per cent of owners reporting a fault of any kind; and just one in a hundred saying their vehicle failed to start or broke down. That said, e-Niro owners who did report a serious breakdown had to wait an average of eight-and-a-half days for a repair, almost three times as long as the three-and-a-half days required to get a Tesla back on the road. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that while the Kia was the most reliable compact SUV in the segment — triumphing over its gas, diesel, and hybrid competitors — Teslas were the least reliable of all electrics. --Driving 04/01/2022
Perhaps more surprising is that Tesla, the face of EVs and the manufacturer with the most experience building electrics, is the least reliable of the lot. According to the Which? survey, a whopping 39 per cent of Teslas up to four years old had at least one fault, and one in 20 had had a serious no-start situation or a breakdown serious enough that it had to be taken off the road.
On the other hand, owners of Kia’s e-Niro reported their cars to be the most reliable of electrics, with just six per cent of owners reporting a fault of any kind; and just one in a hundred saying their vehicle failed to start or broke down. That said, e-Niro owners who did report a serious breakdown had to wait an average of eight-and-a-half days for a repair, almost three times as long as the three-and-a-half days required to get a Tesla back on the road. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that while the Kia was the most reliable compact SUV in the segment — triumphing over its gas, diesel, and hybrid competitors — Teslas were the least reliable of all electrics. --Driving 04/01/2022
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