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Comment by technion | Hacker News Reader

I keep seeing this argument but I think about whats broken in my ice over the years: brakes, control arms, struts, suspension springs. You get a pass on gearbox but as a genuine question, do these usual mechanical problems that have nothing to do with the engine jist not happen on EVs?

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Bushings and suspension parts will likely have similar (or possibly worse) wear than an IC based car due to the extra weight. Brakes a bit less possibly since you can use the regenerative braking but this also depends largely on the driver and situation.

*This is an assumption based on my experience with cars in general and doing my own repairs/maintenance not a slam on EVs.

My increasing fear is that EVs just have mechanics' eyes on them a lot less frequently, so preventative maintenance on brakes and the other mechanical parts doesn't get done. Which means, on a heavier vehicle as well, more risk of catastrophic failures during use and vehicles on the used market being junk.

A heavier vehicle also will wear tires faster, and my observation of other cars on the street is that people as a whole are very bad about not replacing tires on time.

My Model Y had to have its front control arms replaced after 4 years, it was squeaking really loud when turning. That's the only part that needed to be fixed so far, and at $250 it didn't exactly break the bank. There's the other stuff like wiper replacement and rotating/replacing tires which still have to be done. Much better than the regular $500+ annual maintenance with occasional $1000+ repair that my Honda Civic required. And that was a relatively cheap ICE to maintain.

If you look at an evs maintenance schedule it’s basically inspect stuff from time to time until 150k+ miles. Brakes don’t get changed as you almost never use them. Parts might break but not really anything maintenance wise.

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