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Cake day: August 15th, 2024

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  • I have long thought that if it is a truck/SUV it is for use in situations where you don’t care about dents and paint scratches and thus those are not factors in the value. Dealers and car rental places would quickly figure out that they cannot legally look for such things, but customers will find a reason to buy a different one and so they would stop leasing or renting trucks/SUVs. They may still lease/rent truck/SUV shaped objects, but they will count as light cars for MPG purposes and so cost a lot more.


  • You also don’t discharge below some amount that I forget. Plus you want some buffer in case you have an emergency (if you go in the ditch a mile from home on that coldest day you better have enough power to keep the heater running until the rescue arrives)

    40 miles is what I said, which might give you the typical commute - but it doesn’t leave room for anything else. Lunch errands, after work bowling league, emergencies and so on happen often enough that you really want some buffer and so the 100 mile claimed range is realistically marginal despite only needing less than 40 on the typical day.




  • Tesla is still a rare niche. If they were more common (and had more in common with other cars) the third parties would start marking parts for things like shocks and brakes that wear out. You have to take BMWs to dealers most of the time as well as it is hard to find replacement parts elsewhere.

    The big auto makers have enough volume that anything they do will get third parties making parts for service. The part may not start out as a commodity but it will become one if it needs replacement often. Thought many parts are not made in house and the company that makes them often sells at a slight loss to the OEM because replacement parts will be so profitable (an accounting loss - they invest so much in jigs and automation that sales just to the OEM won’t pay for them, if you ignore those setup costs they still make money)



  • 100mi is not plenty. Generally range is speced as best case. By the time you take off some because you are charging to 80% every day, and not running to empty, then take off more because you have to drive on the coldest winter day and your 100 miles is realistically only 40-50 or usable range. That will barely get you to work and back and doesn’t allow for running any lunch errands.

    I ride my ebike to work, but my commute is a lot shorter than average and if my trip was much longer it wouldn’t be reasonable ebike range (I hate driving so I’d bike anyway, but at that point I’m a fanatic and it is no longer something I’d expect everyone to do). I still keep a ICE truck around for trips that are longer than I’d ride my bike (no transit where I live), it is rarely used but still a needed backup


  • The brakes on my wife’s ICE minivan have more than 100k mile, while that isn’t life of the car it is close enough. Transmission oil may or may not be sealed but that is a manufacturs choice - many people never change their transmission oil and get by with it. There is nothing about a ICE vs EV that makes a difference there (the torque of an EV puts the advantage to the ICE in this case!) Spark plugs, transmission oil, and coolant are generally speced for 100k mile change intervals - by then the car is owned by someone who isn’t using the dealer for the work and so no difference to the dealer. Catalytic converter is generally a life of the car item (unless stolen - a real problem but EV parts can be stole too) - when it wears out the car has enough miles on it that the owner will just put tape over the check engine light (or if there are inspections find a way to cheat)

    Yes there is a difference in maintenance costs. However as an owner of an ICE I can confidently state most of the maintenance costs are for parts that are common to both.

    I’m planning on buying an EV, but so far they don’t sell an EV minivan (the Pacifica hybrid gets pathetic range on battery so I won’t count it) in the US. Charge at home would save me a lot of money. However it is the charge at home responsible for the savings, not the maintenance costs.