The future of electric vehicle maintenance

[AVI_8]

Apologies if this comes across as bit of a rant but.
Last Tuesday I took delivery of a brand new EV, rolled off the transporter with 7 miles on the clock, I had a good look around the car, all looked fine so I signed for it and the delivery driver went away.

After getting some pictures of it with my wife (it was her birthday present) we tried to go for a drive, it’s so futuristic as we’ve never either had a new car in our lives so I presumed I was doing something wrong as it wouldn’t go into drive, well eventually if did, but it felt very underpowered, should have had 640 bhp, but this was slower than my 260 bhp BMW diesel, then I noticed the warning light on the dash.

So back home, called the assistance line, they sent out the AA, the guy walked towards the car shaking his head, “there’s nothing I will be able to do about this” he said.

Sure enough his diagnostics wouldn’t communicate with the car, “they’re all *****” he exclaimed “we’ve nothing but problems with them” EV’s in general he said, I tried my Topdon tablet with him present, it wouldn’t communicate either.

So after that I drive the car to my local dealer in Kilmarnock, sorry we’ve no-one EV trained here, you’ll have to go to Glasgow ….. Fecking great!

So I phoned Glasgow, “Yes we can get you booked in for diagnostics, first appointment is going to be near the end of May though but that’s just for a diagnosis, if it needs anything it will be much longer” she said.
So a brand new car, 1 day old and the best they can do for me is a quarter of a year wait just to get it diagnosed.

“Oh there’s a massive shortage of EV trained technicians, we’re starting to get EV’s trailered down to Carlisle, we might be able to get it looked at sooner but it’ll still be over 4 weeks before they can look at it”

Totally unacceptable so I phoned the assistance department again, by now luckily I was on a day off as I’m 6 hours into the day dealing with this, she told me that if the car was not drive able I could get it transported to the dealership then get a hire car and if I had a provided drive car the dealer would be under obligation to get it diagnosed within 48 hours.

Well that’s what I did and Arnold Clark, I hate them with a vengeance! Had it diagnosed within 1 day, but the good news stops there as they refused to tell me the results of the diagnostics, told me it was with the “technical” dept of the manufacturer, reading between the lines they don’t know what to do with it, I’m giving them until Monday and if I don’t get an answer by lunchtime I’m driving up to Glasgow and won’t leave until I have an answer, I’ll be demanding to speak to the dealer principal if they refuse to tell me what’s the issue with the 2.2 Tonne paperweight

So yes, to the title of this post, what actually is the the future of EV maintenance, clearly the car manufacturers are selling EV’s at a level that they don’t even have a hope in hell in dealing with warranty work let alone being able to maintain them.

And this is a bit of an eye opener (which I already knew) no-one in their right mind should ever consider buying an EV outside of manufacturers warranty.

Apologies for the long winded rant

 

[Martin Hocking]

And this is a bit of an eye opener (which I already knew) no-one in their right mind should ever consider buying an EV outside of manufacturers warranty.

Damn! I was going to pull the trigger on one of THESE until you said that…



(My sincere apologies if it’s too soon for jokes, it sounds like you’ve had a total mare there, hopefully you get a decent result…)

 

[Barking Mat]

That's pretty shocking, in terms of after sales care.

 

[brewdexta]

We've had 3 EVs for the wife on leases, no major issues, so I decided to buy one outright. I took delivery about 4 weeks ago, Kia EV6 AWD. 3 years old, so still about 4 years of warranty left.

Just over a week after I bought it, the Integrated Charge Control Unit died. Evidently this is a common fault on the Hyundai/Kia/Genesis EV platform and there have been horror stories of long lead times for the unit, plus very variable skill sets at the dealerships.

The dealer largely diagnosed it via email/phone and much to my relief, transported it back to their workshop and fixed it within 3 days.

I think I was lucky with the dealership, they do seem to have trained EV mechanics, plus the part has been improved and no longer on back order.

 

[AVI_8]

We've had 3 EVs for the wife on leases, no major issues, so I decided to buy one outright. I took delivery about 4 weeks ago, Kia EV6 AWD. 3 years old, so still about 4 years of warranty left.

Just over a week after I bought it, the Integrated Charge Control Unit died. Evidently this is a common fault on the Hyundai/Kia/Genesis EV platform and there have been horror stories of long lead times for the unit, plus very variable skill sets at the dealerships.

The dealer largely diagnosed it via email/phone and much to my relief, transported it back to their workshop and fixed it within 3 days.

I think I was lucky with the dealership, they do seem to have trained EV mechanics, plus the part has been improved and no longer on back order.

Yes it’s a Hyundai, and ICCU is my diagnosis as the rear motor is inop, and that’s the powerful motor and from my internet searching that’s what fails if the ICCU is faulty. I’d have got more customer service if I’d bought a faulty calculator from WH Smith, that’s what’s really annoying me at the moment is Customer service.

 

[mechman]

Apologies if this comes across as bit of a rant but.
Last Tuesday I took delivery of a brand new EV, rolled off the transporter with 7 miles on the clock, I had a good look around the car, all looked fine so I signed for it and the delivery driver went away.

After getting some pictures of it with my wife (it was her birthday present) we tried to go for a drive, it’s so futuristic as we’ve never either had a new car in our lives so I presumed I was doing something wrong as it wouldn’t go into drive, well eventually if did, but it felt very underpowered, should have had 640 bhp, but this was slower than my 260 bhp BMW diesel, then I noticed the warning light on the dash.

So back home, called the assistance line, they sent out the AA, the guy walked towards the car shaking his head, “there’s nothing I will be able to do about this” he said.

Sure enough his diagnostics wouldn’t communicate with the car, “they’re all *****” he exclaimed “we’ve nothing but problems with them” EV’s in general he said, I tried my Topdon tablet with him present, it wouldn’t communicate either.

So after that I drive the car to my local dealer in Kilmarnock, sorry we’ve no-one EV trained here, you’ll have to go to Glasgow ….. Fecking great!

So I phoned Glasgow, “Yes we can get you booked in for diagnostics, first appointment is going to be near the end of May though but that’s just for a diagnosis, if it needs anything it will be much longer” she said.
So a brand new car, 1 day old and the best they can do for me is a quarter of a year wait just to get it diagnosed.

“Oh there’s a massive shortage of EV trained technicians, we’re starting to get EV’s trailered down to Carlisle, we might be able to get it looked at sooner but it’ll still be over 4 weeks before they can look at it”

Totally unacceptable so I phoned the assistance department again, by now luckily I was on a day off as I’m 6 hours into the day dealing with this, she told me that if the car was not drive able I could get it transported to the dealership then get a hire car and if I had a provided drive car the dealer would be under obligation to get it diagnosed within 48 hours.

Well that’s what I did and Arnold Clark, I hate them with a vengeance! Had it diagnosed within 1 day, but the good news stops there as they refused to tell me the results of the diagnostics, told me it was with the “technical” dept of the manufacturer, reading between the lines they don’t know what to do with it, I’m giving them until Monday and if I don’t get an answer by lunchtime I’m driving up to Glasgow and won’t leave until I have an answer, I’ll be demanding to speak to the dealer principal if they refuse to tell me what’s the issue with the 2.2 Tonne paperweight

So yes, to the title of this post, what actually is the the future of EV maintenance, clearly the car manufacturers are selling EV’s at a level that they don’t even have a hope in hell in dealing with warranty work let alone being able to maintain them.

And this is a bit of an eye opener (which I already knew) no-one in their right mind should ever consider buying an EV outside of manufacturers warranty.

Apologies for the long winded rant

It's unfit for purpose,give it back to them.

 

[m_c]

Those booking times are not EV specific.
Took my work 6 weeks to get a brand new van booked into a dealer that was delivered with a fault, and that's pretty typical.

 

[Kayos]

Posted this before

One year old VW Id.4, 20k miles

On charge and it just died, stopped charging and total drivetrain failure

VW very condescending at first but eventually stopped talking to me

5 months later it was dumped on my drive (on a day I told them I wasn't home)

Scratched bumper and filthy, put it on charge and it wouldn't charge

Charging became very hit and miss, to the point I couldn't drive it

I was about to return it to the lease company but I quit my job instead, so it sat outside my house for 2 months before they collected it

 

[AVI_8]

It's unfit for purpose,give it back to them.

It’s leased through salary sacrifice and that’s the one and only reason I got it, so it’s paid for by salary before tax.

Therefore it’s business to business and the consumer rights act doesn’t apply.
However! The leasing company have been very good to give them credit, and if it’s not fixed quickly they are talking of rejecting it under the sale of goods act, the next few days will determine.

If it’s a single component at fault and it can be replaced quickly then fair enough, but I’m not prepared to wait weeks so I’ll be on this with the leasing company.

 

[brewdexta]

The ICCU has a few functions, DC to DC charging of the 12v battery from the traction battery, and level 1 and 2 AC charging of the traction battery. There's a few failure modes, the usual one that I had is the 12v battery isn't charged and as that powers all the ancillaries and controls, and without a decent 12v battery the car will effectively shut itself down by not allowing drive to be selected, along with a few alarms on the screen and on the app. You can trickle charge the 12v battery so you can drive it a couple of miles if your near the dealer but it soon goes into limp mode. You can also use a jump starter pack so you can drive onto a transporter.

Not sure i would buy an EV without a dealership just yet, it will take a few years to get a decent breadth of expertise out there. But, there are independent EV specialists beginning to appear.

 

[premmington]

None of the above supprises/shocks me at all.

I would not be running or funding an out of dealership EV with my own hard earned money as yet.

 

[skotl]

That all seems utterly bizarre, from a customer service perspective. Even accepting that it's a business lease, if you just delete the word "electric" from the thread then what 7 mile old car gets deferred to the AA?
Assuming it was a diesel or petrol car, surely it's now down to the supplier and lease company to get a working vehicle to the customer?

I'd definitely be going down the rejection route, no matter whether it's consumer or business, electric or diesel.

 

[brightspark]

ev = lemon i wouldnt have one given

 

[premmington]

That all seems utterly bizarre, from a customer service perspective. Even accepting that it's a business lease, if you just delete the word "electric" from the thread then what 7 mile old car gets deferred to the AA?
Assuming it was a diesel or petrol car, surely it's now down to the supplier and lease company to get a working vehicle to the customer?

I'd definitely be going down the rejection route, no matter whether it's consumer or business, electric or diesel.

Bev or IC 7miles is no joke.

 

[skotl]

Bev or IC 7miles is no joke.

Huh?

 

[Beanwood]

I was just thinking today about an older Electric van as a local run-around - but didn't know how well trained garages are likely to be tocope with them. I apologise @AVI_8 but thank you, your situation has helped cement my thoughts well and truly away from EV's for a while yet.

 

[skotl]

Huh?

Oh wait. You mean EV - electric vehicle - or IC - petrol or diesel.
OK - yep - agree. Whoever's fault this is, it's not the OP's

 

[skotl]

I was just thinking today about an older Electric van as a local run-around - but didn't know how well trained garages are likely to be tocope with them. I apologise @AVI_8 but thank you, your situation has helped cement my thoughts well and truly away from EV's for a while yet.

Seems like the car makers are reversing "going all-in on electric", and then you have the orange buffoon in the U.S. (no politics!) ripping up the climate change act, suggests that better-or-worse, petrol engines are going to be with us for a few decades yet.

The most amazing thing to me about EVs with their far fewer moving parts is that they are still more expensive to buy and maintain than the carbon-fueled variants. And then you have a £10-15k battery replacement concrete-necklace hanging round your neck.

Count me out, new or used.

 

[dobbslc]

It's unfit for purpose,give it back to them.

That's what was thinking. Get it rejected in whatever way you have to and start again with a decent vehicle.

 

[AVI_8]

That all seems utterly bizarre, from a customer service perspective. Even accepting that it's a business lease, if you just delete the word "electric" from the thread then what 7 mile old car gets deferred to the AA?
Assuming it was a diesel or petrol car, surely it's now down to the supplier and lease company to get a working vehicle to the customer?

I'd definitely be going down the rejection route, no matter whether it's consumer or business, electric or diesel.

If it was diesel or petrol I could have diagnosed it my self likely, I can’t reject it, the leasing company would have to do that, I have read extensively into this as you can imagine, having said that it is something they are considering, I’d rather it was a simple component part fix within days though, it would be the simplest fix, rather than rejecting it and waiting ages for the right car in spec and colour to come into stock.

ev = lemon i wouldnt have one given

That’s been my opinion over the years, until I did the maths, tax bracket dependent, it becomes very much common sense, and I’m in that 70% tax NI bracket.

I was just thinking today about an older Electric van as a local run-around - but didn't know how well trained garages are likely to be tocope with them. I apologise @AVI_8 but thank you, your situation has helped cement my thoughts well and truly away from EV's for a while yet.

unless it’s under manufacturer warranty for the time you own it I wouldn’t.
I’ve a colleague friend who bought a Tesla outright when they first came out, before the end of the warranty period it needed a new HV battery, that was all done under warranty, bow the warranty is out it needs another very expensive part, so it’s sat on his driveway.

My son bought a 3 year old Porsche Taycan from a used car dealer, almost immediately it needed a 5 grand component, I won’t go into the details of that, it would be longer than this thread!

EV’s ….. An absolute gamble at best as to reliability and the ability and cost of repair.