Nina's Blog - Wednesday 14th August 2024

@Nihiless 2015 Tesla Model S.

@ninalanyon Did you buy it new?

@Musicman No, second hand in 2017, so it was two years old.

@ninalanyon Damn these are nice cars! 😍

@Nihiless Low maintenance but when things do go wrong it can be expensive. Luckily the most expensive things so far have been repairs after minor damage covered by insurance.

It's on its second battery but that was covered by the eight year battery and drive train warranty. It failed with six months left on the warranty.

In Norway where I live 85% of new cars sold last year were pure EVs.

@ninalanyon Was the battery expensive? How much was it? If you would have had to pay for it.

@ninalanyon How does the maintenance and expenses compare to regular cars? 🤔

@Musicman I was told when I collected the car that it would have been about 7 000 GBP. That's about 9 000 USD at the current exchange rate. That's a lot less than it would have been a few years earlier.

@Nihiless Some parts are just the same. The steering gear is all Robert Bosch just the same as in a Mercedes. Brakes are much the same as on any other car but the disks last longer because regenerative braking is used more than the brakes. But there is no oil to change because the motors just have a couple of sealed bearings, no steering fluid to change because it's all electric. It does have brake fluid that Tesla recommend is checked every other year and coolant (antifreeze) for the battery and motors, I think Tesla recommend checking that every four years. Tesla have no required servicing intervals and the warranty is not voided if you have servicing done by a third party. Unless they make a mess of it that is.

The pollen filter in the climate control system needs replacing at an interval that escapes me but that's just the same as on any car.

One day I'll collate all the invoices and try to figure out what the maintenance cost is.

But on the whole it seems cheaper than an equivalent ICE car would be and unlikely to get drastically more expensive as time goes on.

@ninalanyon That's refreshing to hear, I was under the opinion that they were more expensive to maintain and repair than regular cars. PS I know know nothing of those as yet because I don't drive nor have I had lessons - I'm taking an intense driving course within 2 years however. Thanks for your advice!

@Nihiless In my opinion EVs are the way to go. They are mechanically simpler than ICE (internal combustion engine) cars. There is no gearbox, no pistons, no crankshaft, no spark plugs, no coils, no timing chain or belt. There's nothing in the drive train that needs adjustment.

Anyone who can park the car on their own drive can plug in to charge overnight so that the car is fully charged every morning. That means you almost never need to visit a public charger. And plugging in takes seconds.

Another reason to use EVs is the dramatic reduction in local pollution and noise.