Hacker News Reader

Comment by whoisjuan | Hacker News Reader

I think this is a bug of the system, not a feature. Manufacturers and Dealerships have a co-dependent relationship where manufacturers provide a franchised business and the supply of a very unique product and dealerships provide distribution/footprint, last mile logistics and support.

This is where Tesla has an incredible position. They can invest in becoming a logistics company in every possible part of the chain and maximize value at every point.

The other manufacturers have to undo their dealership footprint which is predicated on a +60 year relationship. That divorce will eat alive most classic manufacturers and will permanently block them from making good progress in direct to consumer.

This is what being disrupted looks like.

View on HN

The reviews of Tesla‘s support system I‘ve seen in recent years let me come to a different conclusion: If the manufacturer is tight on money or resources, then customers will wait an excessive amount of time to get their issues fixed. Those manufacturers might also stop requiring yearly inspections and let the customer decide when to do them - you can look at that as efficiency („EVs just don’t need as much maintenance“ - which I agree with, I own an EV), but you could also call it a shortcoming in their ability to come up with a proper servicing infrastructure.

In many ways the big disruption is that EVs require orders of magnitude less service than ICE vehicles.

In the case of Tesla, their gains in reliability are directly transformed into a lesser demand for servicing. Once they get into a inflection point with their fit and finish quality they will likely become less dependent on having a traditional service infrastructure. Instead they can double down on more unorthodox models like mobile service.

Traditional manufacturers, in particular Japanese manufacturers, already achieved peak reliability in ICE vehicles. But even with that, they still need to have a service and maintenance footprint because their cars still break.

The average-reliability EV breaks way less than the top-reliability ICE, so you really need way less service infrastructure if you only sell EVs.

> EVs require orders of magnitude less service than ICE vehicles

I think not. I have a Hyundai Ioniq, and I still have to change tires 2x a year, fill up wiper fluid, change the pollen filter, get AC/heatpump fluids checked. I had to get an axle boot repaired for 200€ - these things happen to any car. EVs (even Teslas) also have a conventional car battery for backup power - this will die every 4-5 years. People might key your car, or bump into you. If you own a „Monday“ Tesla, chances are you‘ll spend more time at a garage in the first few years than a gasoline Kia or Toyota.

Will you spend less on maintenance? Very likely. An order of magnitude less? Highly unlikely!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com