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Comment by neya | Hacker News Reader

I thought EV's also have maintenance costs and energy costs?

Much less so than combustion engines, unless you're not able to charge at home.

Both maintenance and charging are negligible costs.

Yes. Even with the ludicrous subsidies and support from governments, ICEs are a nightmare to feed and maintain. (And inefficient and massively polluting.)

How much does the major service cost, if we remember it includes engine and the entire transmission?

What other maintenance costs can you think of?

And how much does it cost to drive 500 miles in the electric car charged at £0.08/kWh vs diesel at 50 mpg (£1.91/L) or petrol car at 35 mpg (£1.58/L)?

So, one of the reasons I asked is because the motors used in EV's also are usually embedded inside transmissions which require regular oil changes (like any gearbox) and the motor itself needs to be serviced every x years - or even be replaced. These motors house Neodymium magnets - which is a rare earth metal. Although, some designs like in the earlier Teslas used coils for both the stator and the rotor using a switched reluctance design.

Plus, you have to service the steering column, wheels, bearings, etc. Not saying these are equal to ICE costs - definitely not. I just thought even EVs had to get regular maintenance as they are fundamentally the same apart from the drivetrain itself.

There are the words "a multiple of" in the parent post, just before the words "energy and maintenance costs"

Which means that ICE Vehicle energy and maintenance costs are a multiple of (i.e. several times that of) EV energy and maintenance costs.

And so EV energy and maintenance costs are a fraction of the ICE energy and maintenance costs.

You can debate this assertion if you like, but first you have to read it successfully.

The multiplication factor can't be a third?

That's not how the phrase "x is a multiple of y" is typically used, so colloquiality speaking: no it can't be 1/3. That would be a submultiple

If your argument is about the actual running costs of EVS and ICE Vehicles: also no.

So, it is in fact used that way sometimes then.

I have no argument, just an observation that for six decades I've always taken multiplier to possibly mean any positive, negative, or zero value, rational or irrational, etc.

> So, it is in fact used that way sometimes then.

No, and that's the point of using a different word "submultiple".

> I've always taken multiplier

"a multiple of" is not the same thing as "multiplier". Or "submultiple" either. Different words have different meanings. So not relevant.

> to possibly mean any positive, negative, or zero value, rational or irrational,

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multiple

multiple, noun: the product of a quantity by an integer. So no.

> but first you have to read it successfully.

1/2 * x

What do you think 1/2 here is? Stick to doom.

> What do you think 1/2 here is?

I think it's a ratio between two integers. If you have a point to make here, you also first have to write it successfully.

My EV gets charged by energy made in Germany and EU, that's the difference.

(0.33 to .35 euro per kwh, .4 on an old contract, double the price in France or US, and more than legendarily expensive Switzerland. Still way cheaper than the same range in gas btw)

If charging at home.

Bring in fast chargers or a lot of the commercial offerings into the mix and you're looking at .6 per kWh. Never mind the subscription/account bullshit a lot of companies are doing.

Regardless of that, I would still only ever buy an EV when I get a new car.

where are the battery materials from?

Marocco maybe?

Australia via China for a decent amount of it.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spodumene

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