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Comment by hangonhn | Hacker News Reader

Is there a reason why body damage on an EV would cost more to repair?

Yes, because the Model 3 incorporates quite a bit of aluminum in the body. This is good for weight savings, but more difficult to work with.

The root cause is that batteries are too heavy so other components must be made lighter.

The Model S has a fair amount of aluminum in the body (about 400 pounds or so, IIRC). The Model 3 is much more biased towards steel for most of the body, due to cost.

Do you know why it's harder to work with? My untrained brain would have assumed it was easier, what with it being more malleable.

Aluminum is more brittle and far more difficult to weld than steel.

But we're comparing to fiberglass, not steel.

Possibly due to Work Hardening.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_hardening

To an extent, for banging into shapes, but it's challenging to add more material to it if needed. None of the options are especially good compared to welding, though that's just my opinion (compared to fasteners - size, brazing - high temperature but maybe).

Other materials have their own issues, but if you cast large pieces of anything you also make it super expensive to replace parts that can't be repaired onsite.

A lot of guys are telling you it's because it the workability of aluminium which is purified bullshit. Panelbeaters rarely work panels nowadays, they replace them. The problem with Tesla is that they're gaping assholes when it comes to supplying parts to third party repairers. Repairing Teslas is expensive because that's how Tesla wants it to be.

It’s got nothing to do with being an EV and everything to do with Tesla requiring monopolized first party repairs where they dictate prices and refuse to sell parts to third party shops.

Tesla uses Giga Presses to build the body of some of their models. While lighter and stronger than a body build of smaller parts, it also makes impossible to repair damages by replacing some of the smaller parts.

Don't know if the Tesla cars owned by Hertz are built using a Giga Press.

I suspect the main reason is because Tesla has a monopoly on replacement body parts.

Plus, they’ve spent years prioritizing production and sales, not service. As a result their cars aren’t designed with repairability in mind and their service centers are backlogged, and even when they can work on your car they may not get parts, because they go to new cars.

Getting replacement parts from Tesla has been consistently reported as time consuming. Even if the repair is the same cost, there's more loss of use if you can't get parts in a timely fashion.

Body damage far from the battery for me was normal price. Anything close to the battery was outrageously expensive for me.

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