EVs are going to be like smart phones, throw away appliances. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
I have a number of vehicles that are not far from being fifty years old – something it’s doubtful any electric vehicle will ever be. This is interesting on a number of levels, including the one given as the justification for electric vehicles – i.e., that they are “sustainable.”
This seems improbable given they are – fundamentally – disposable. Like the Face Diapers that now choke sea turtles (and landfills).
Like the smartphones we use and discard after three or four years, they are not designed to last and – as such – are the antithesis of “sustainable.” When the battery can no longer hold adequate charge, you throw the vehicle away – because it is not worth the cost of replacing the battery, relative to the value (by then) of the vehicle. This is a sustainability problem that cannot be solved because of the baked-in problem of depreciation – i.e., the inevitable decline in value over time that afflicts every appliance, which is what cars fundamentally are, no different than an oven or a blender. Whatever they cost when you bought them, they are worth less as soon as you buy them. And worth less and less, the longer you possess them.
A point arrives when the cost of fixing is such that replacing is the more sensible option – and so the blender or the oven or the EV goes to the landfill.
But this economic event horizon is reached sooner with electric vehicles because they are also luxury vehicles in that both are expensive vehicles – so both have more to lose and lose it faster. A vehicle bought for $50,000 today is apt to be worth about $40,000 year from today. Six years from today, it will likely be worth $25k. Is it worth spending $5k to replace a failed transmission?
Probably.
