What Regular Maintenance Does an EV Require?
Electric vehicles don’t require a lot of maintenance, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely maintenance free. Each manufacturer has their own EV maintenance schedule that you’ll need to follow to avoid voiding your warranty, and there are also a handful of other things that you should consider having checked or checking yourself from time to time. Some common maintenance items in EVs include:
rotating the tires, replacing the wiper blades, filling the wiper fluid, flushing the brake fluid, replacing the passenger compartment air filter, and flushing the battery thermal management coolant.
Aside from the thermal management coolant, these maintenance items all apply to gasoline vehicles as well, and even thermal management coolant has a gasoline vehicle counterpart in engine coolant. However, the engine coolant in gasoline vehicles typically needs to be flushed more often than an EV’s battery thermal management coolant. The regular maintenance items that you need to keep up with when owning an EV are all fairly low cost, only need to be done sparingly, or both.
Are EVs More Expensive to Maintain Than Gas Vehicles?
EVs are not more expensive to maintain than gas vehicles because gas vehicles have many more systems that require regular attention. In addition to everything mentioned in the previous section, gasoline-powered vehicles also require:
regular oil and oil filter changes,engine air filter replacement,transmission fluid flushing,spark plug replacement,coolant and accessory belt replacement, and more.
To see the stark difference between maintaining an EV and maintaining a gasoline vehicle, you only need to look at the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule for two vehicles from the same manufacturer. For example, the Chevy Bolt EV and gasoline-powered Chevy Impala. In the first 45,000 miles for the Impala, the manufacturer recommends:
six tire rotations,six oil changes,two passenger compartment air filter replacements,one engine air filter replacement, anda transmission service for the gas-powered vehicle.
The Impala’s recommended services add up to over $1,000. For the EV at 45,000 miles, the manufacturer recommends:
six tire rotations andtwo passenger compartment air filter replacements.
The Bolt’s recommended services add up to less than $500. Going beyond the basics recommended by the manufacturer, there are about 18 different regular maintenance items that you need to keep track of with the average gasoline-powered vehicle, ranging from regular oil changes and checking the PCV valve to replacing the timing belt every 60-100,000 miles. EV owners only need to worry about six of those items.
Are EVs More Expensive to Repair Than Gas Vehicles?
Beyond maintenance, EVs and gasoline-powered vehicles are fairly similar in terms of the cost associated with performing repairs. EVs have fewer moving parts, especially when comparing a gas engine to an EV motor, so there are fewer things to break down. For example, EV owners don’t need to worry about gaskets leaking and needing to be replaced, or internal engine components wearing out. EV motors are expensive to replace, but they are usually designed to outlast the vehicle itself. Systems like the suspension and steering linkage tend to wear out, break, and require repairs at a similar rate between EVs and gasoline-powered vehicles, because they aren’t that different. Repair costs are also similar. Other systems, like exhaust and emissions controls, are only present in gasoline-powered vehicles, and bring additional repair costs that EV owners don’t need to worry about. Brakes tend to require servicing more often in gasoline-powered vehicles due to the effects of regenerative braking in EVs, but regenerative brakes are more complicated and have more components that can fail and need to be repaired.
What About Batteries and Electronics?
EVs do have some very expensive components, like battery packs and various electronic controls. Despite continued research and advances that have lowered overall costs, EV battery packs are still more expensive than just about any single component you will find in a gas vehicle aside from the engine itself. In fact, replacing the battery packs in an EV can cost as much as replacing the engine in a gas vehicle. However, unlike gasoline-powered vehicles, where a failed engine means you can no longer use the vehicle, EV batteries tend to wear out slowly and exhibit a reduced capacity and range. Most manufacturers also offer a significant warranty on the battery packs of around eight years and 100,000 miles. If the batteries fail within that period, or even wear down to the point of retaining less than 70 percent of their capacity, replacement is typically covered. Replacing batteries and other electronics outside that window can represent a significant expense, but any gas vehicle that reaches that age and mileage will have its own expensive, non-maintenance repairs to contend with as well. *^2 Not all ICE vehicles have timing belts. It’s especially important to replace the timing belt as preventive maintenance in ICE vehicles with interference engines, but all vehicles that use timing belts need to have them replaced eventually or they will break.
