Initial indications from the approximately 10 years that EVs have been mass produced is that EVs are costing about 40% less to maintain. This is due to less mechanical complexity because there are fewer moving parts and the fact that EVs do not require regular oil changes or typically brake part replacements. There are also no engine air filters or spark plugs. More about brakes below….

Most EVs have very simple geared transmissions without nearly the complexity or parts count of conventional automatic or manual transmissions. There are no torque converters or clutches that are the common parts that wear out or fail in conventional gasoline engine cars.

Brakes

EVs have “regenerative” braking systems that take the kinetic energy of the moving car and use the electric motor as a generator to recharge the battery and slow the car down. This means the conventional friction disc or drum brake systems on EVs do much less work, which means the brake pads and rotors see little wear from actual braking. Because the EV brakes do less work, they do not heat up as much as gasoline car brakes and experience is showing that dampness and dirt are the long term enemies of EV brakes. In Ontario’s (and much of Canada and the northern USA) salty wet winter road conditions are the enemy of EV braking parts. If you buy an EV, make sure the brake systems (guide pins and pad clips) are cleaned and thoroughly lubricated once a year. Wash the salt off thoroughly in the spring at a car wash or have a mechanic do so for you. Eventually, due to corrosion, new rotors and pads will likely be needed, but it is the corrosion and seizing of the pads in the calipers that ruins the parts, not the wear from friction. In a similar way, through careful maintenance on my now sold 2001 Prius, I put over 200,000 kms on the original braking parts. At abut 12 years in Ontario, even with cleaning, corrosion ruined the discs.

Batteries

Many folks considering EVs worry about or believe the main traction battery will need to be replaced at some point, but all indications are that these batteries will last well over ten years. An ongoing study by Geotab shows battery loss of capacity for thousands of EVs. Loss of capacity is referred to as “degradation”. Some degradation is unavoidable, but large lithium based batteries in EVs do not have the short lives of laptop or cell phone batteries. Current data by Geotab shows about 10% battery capacity loss on average for 5 year old batteries, but newer EV models are showing degradation curves that indicate they will have less loss over time.

Almost all new EVs have batteries that are “thermally” managed. This means they are both heated and cooled by systems on the cars. This temperature management is part of prolonging battery life and maintaining capacity during colder temperatures. Some earlier EVs and one or two still in production do not have thermal management and indeed they have slightly higher battery degradation. In the moderate climate of southern Ontario we do not have to be too concerned about extreme hot or cold ambient temperatures that might shorten battery life. The fact that winter conditions reduce the driving range of the vehicles does not mean the batteries are being damaged, they just cannot deliver as many kWh when they are colder, and battery heating to maintain them at more optimal temperatures is included in most EVs. This battery temperature conditioning does not use much energy.

Some EVs have been recalled for faulty batteries, in particular the Chevy Bolt and Hyundai Konas received much publicity for the fact that about a dozen cars caught fire, apparently from battery failures. GM has replaced tens of thousands of the suspect batteries at no cost to the owners. In fact, the replacement batteries have 10% more capacity than the original batteries. Hyundai Kona’s have also been subject to a battery recall. Because EVs are so new, there are a few owners who have cars with high enough mileage that they have had battery failures outside of the warranty periods. If you’re concerned about battery life and potential replacement cost, think of the battery more like the engine of a good quality gasoline car, the engine will probably last the life of the car, but some engines in any population will fail, some within the warranty, some outside of the warranty. When those engines do fail, it may or may not be worth the cost of putting a used or rebuilt one into the car. The same is true with EVs. In cases where the overall vehicle is in good condition, it may be worth investing in a new or used battery. In other cases a car may be parted out at that point in its life, just like gasoline cars.

Presently, there are not millions of used EV batteries, EVs are just too new, but eventually there will be a huge volume of depleted batteries to recycle. Just like automotive lead acid starter batteries there will likely be value in the used EV batteries and many companies around the world are gearing up to recycle the anticipated large quantity of these batteries. Here’s a recent story on a Canadian EV battery recycling company. This is an evolving situation, but not a reason to not get an EV, the batteries will not be going into landfills.