I have experience with Chevrolet (Volt) and Tesla (Model 3). Both companies have a mobile app from which I can schedule service. Both companies have been great at the few warranty repairs that we have needed. They offer rental cars while our car is in the shop and the keep us in the loop for the status of the repairs.
Chevrolet has the advantage of far more dealerships from which to choose - some are better than others.
According to my spreadsheet, with gasoline at $3.75 / gallon, your break-even point (not including maintenance savings) with an EV would be electricity at $0.39 / kWh. So, even if you paid $0.26 / kWh, you’d still be saving money on fuel.
In fairness, internal combustion engines were optimized long before Toyota came along and started building them. Toyota is excellent at manufacturing, but they are not innovators.
My previous employer had EV chargers out in front of their main building. At an “all hands” meeting, an employee asked when the company was going to provide free gasoline to be fair.
The president explained that not everyone could use every benefit and that employees were free to get EVs if they wanted free fuel.
And that is what happened. Several people bought EVs and we started having congestion at the charging stations. So, we created a mailing list of EV owners on our company email. If someone needed a charge and the spots were full, they would send an email and someone else would swap parking spaces with them.
Electricity $0.08/kwh.
Our electricity is much more expensive because we have to pay “penalty rates” for excessive consumption (two EVs in the household). That brings the price up to almost $0.10 per kWh! - the horror! :)
By my math (comparing $/mile of EV versus equivalent gasoline car), I drive for the equivalent fuel cost of gasoline at $0.87 / gallon.
For me, the biggest surprise was how wonderful it was to no longer have to take time out of my busy day at least once per week to find a gas station, to run the credit card, to stand outside in the weather for several minutes sniffing gasoline fumes and listening to obnoxious advertisements blaring from the pump, and to pay ridiculous prices for fuel.
I was so worried about “charging time” that I overlooked the fact that I don’t need to stand outside waiting for the car to re-fuel. Charging literally takes 5 seconds. I plug the car in at home and I walk away. The car is “full” before I need it again. I think that the convenience is easy to underestimate until you experience it directly.
My wife rented a flatulent car and then walked away, leaving it running out of habit.
That whole business of starting and stopping the “engine” that stinks and rattles and farts seems so barbaric!
I agree that OP should have specified their perspective was from the USA. However, if you have a different perspective, then please express it. I enjoy hearing how the USA compares to other countries.
I did the math where I live. I drive for the equivalent electricity cost of gasoline at $0.87 / gallon.
you don’t like China. I’m not super keen on every aspect of their society myself
My complaint is not with the people of China, their culture, or the products that they export. My complaint is the extreme lengths that the Chinese government goes to give artificial advantages to their domestic producers (e.g., heavy direct subsides, protectionist import policies, intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, dumping, labor exploitation, environmental damage, etc.) to the point that they drive all competition out of the market.
I do not want to reward cheaters for cheating.
EV maintenance costs are 60% of a gas vehicle’s maintenance.
That doesn’t seem right. You have to change your coolant at 100,000 miles. That can’t be 60% of all of the oil changes, belts and hoses, tune-ups, fuel and air filters, mufflers, stolen catalytic converters, etc. that the flatulent car will need.
Due to regenerative braking, brakes in EVs last almost forever. Also, an electric motor has one moving part. Toyota makes reliable vehicles, but those gasoline engines and transmissions are very complex.
And please don’t forget your time to take the car to the dealer for maintenance and your time to stop to get gasoline every few days. Also, there is a risk of high gasoline prices. You cannot make your own gasoline, but you can make your own electricity.
why not just do a flat charge for all cars and forget about the taxes built into fuel?
This unfairly burdens people who do not drive often - for example, retirees on a fixed income.
The state of WA did a pilot project on an odometer tax. This seems like a good compromise, although people who drive often in other states would get a raw deal (i.e., paying gasoline taxes in the other state and odometer taxes at home).
Every tax is unfair to someone. I would prefer many different taxes at low rates (if we could trust the government to keep the rates low).
it doesn’t take into account the usage of the vehicle
Exactly. It was a bad deal for me during the pandemic when I was working from home and hardly ever driving.
But then again, the federal government gave me $7,500 of my taxes back and the state government waived about $3,000 in sales taxes on my purchase price so I cannot complain.
My thoughts:
there is no evidence of bias.
There is a glaring conflict of interest and implicit bias is real. Any organization that holds the public trust must identify conflicts of interest and actively eliminate or manage them in order to maintain their integrity.
I do not know if the TÜV does that. The indignant and defensive responses that I see here do not inspire confidence.
USA car brands are in good company with European car brands for poor reliability.
The German TUV is comprised of human beings and implicit bias and confirmation bias are real consequences of being human.
If I believe that Volkswagen makes better cars than Tesla, I am a patriotic German citizen, and my job is to inspect cars from both brands, then I might be just a little more strict with inspections of Teslas than with VWs, even if I am not doing it consciously.
I am not saying that Tesla doesn’t have a real problem here; just that the TUV has an obvious conflict of interest that could result in some bias.
There are way too many people involved who have absolutely nothing in common.
They are all Germans who live in a country with a very influential automobile industry. There is a definite conflict of interest there. That doesn’t prove a conspiracy, but it could indicate a bias.
Either way, I hope that Tesla takes this seriously.
Of course, Tesla should be taking this seriously, but I am skeptical that German inspectors are finding more things wrong with foreign brands than with German brands, especially given the scale and the influence of the German automobile industry in Germany.
Even worse. Their membership is not a random cross-section of car owners.