The future of electric vehicle maintenance

[premmington]

My mate is a digger driver and is working at Sizewell. To tick the green box they have some electric excavators on site he's driven one a 20 tonner and said it was lovely to drive and nearly silent but could only get 3 1/2 hours work from a full charge.
And this is the best bit they are being charged by diesel generators overnight.

I seen photos of this - big electric plant tethered to diesel big gensets - the size of lorrys

 

[daleyd]

This is a vehicle from a well known make. A mate of mine is an RAC patrolman, has been for 20 years. They cannot as yet do much with EVs except recover them.

If you have had the good sense to buy a BYD, Jaycoo, Infinity, Wun Hung Lo etc ................Then the very best of luck with it.

His and his colleagues opinion is they are great. Dont need servicing, messy and expensive oil and filter changes, timing belts or water pumps and radiators etc. They are like washing machines. When it goes wrong, throw it away.

I imagine that’s no different to a petrol/diesel engine car with an electronic failure.

 

[Ubique]

I have never supplied a complete battery on a Bev. I have had loads out to do other repairs on them. I have only quoted 2x battery replacements both got refused. Wrote car off.

It is always the charging gear and inverters that fail.

The batteries I think is the best bit of the EV car thing

Don't forget the cooling/electric interface, these are often the cause for assembly replacements
In no order of frequency:-
PTC heater
AC compressor
Traction motor
Coolant pump (and associated consequential damage - usually traction battery)
Charge controller
Traction battery

And a special mention for Tesla charge cables and their interface resistive requirements....

 

[Smallfry]

My mate is a digger driver and is working at Sizewell. To tick the green box they have some electric excavators on site he's driven one a 20 tonner and said it was lovely to drive and nearly silent but could only get 3 1/2 hours work from a full charge.
And this is the best bit they are being charged by diesel generators overnight.

Yep, rather like charging units at a lot of roadside stops, hulking great diesel generator.

I guess the only advantage with the excavator would be quiet in noise sensitive areas. Other than that

 

[Ubique]

@Ubique, in what circumstances would there be that the service department of a dealership would refuse to divulge the reason to the customer as to why the vehicle is f**ked?

Simple - you're not the customer. There may well be some 'emerging concern' that the manufacturer has embargoed from disclosure to protect sales.
The diagnosis & repair is paid for by the manufacturer
The vehicle was purchased by a finance company
You're 'just' the driver.
If you had contact with a car salesman, they don't care and will tell you anything - talk to them.

 

[RichardM]

@Ubique, in what circumstances would there be that the service department of a dealership would refuse to divulge the reason to the customer as to why the vehicle is f**ked?

Are you the customer? Is it leased? Who do you have the contract with?
One of our neighbours has a leased ev, when it goes wrong they bring a loan car out for her to use while they fix her ev.

 

[Smallfry]

I imagine that’s no different to a petrol/diesel engine car with an electronic failure.

Maybe not, but at least you have half a chance of getting it fixed sometime soon.

AFAIK there are no obscure ICE manufacturers with no, or next to none backup.

 

[daleyd]

Maybe not, but at least you have half a chance of getting it fixed sometime soon.

AFAIK there are no obscure ICE manufacturers with no, or next to none backup.

most of the Chinese manufacturers sell ice vehicles too, so I think they would count.

 

[Smallfry]

most of the Chinese manufacturers sell ice vehicles too, so I think they would count.

TBH I wouldn't know, new vehicles and the market does not interest me very much, so wouldn't know who does what now.

 

[Smallfry]

Funnily enough I have received a rental car from enterprise whilst my car is in for repair, it is an ev which has batteries powered by a petrol engine which power an electric motor .

Now bear with me on this subject, it has an engine, which provides voltage via a generator to a heavy battery, which in turn provides power to the heavy EV motor, are you with me so far?

So why doesn’t someone develop a way of transferring the power from the engine directly, let’s say this fantastic invention could maybe be called something like a gearbox for example?

So that the engine is connected to this new invention a gearbox, that way you could do away with the heavy battery and electric motor?

Someone should suggest this to vehicle manufacturers, it’s a revelation, should I apply for a patent on this way of propulsion?

Shhhhhh. Keep quiet about that, or someone will steal your idea.

 

[Trevorleach]

I read a great comment the other day and it was, would you buy a second hand battery?

 

[daleyd]

I read a great comment the other day and it was, would you buy a second hand battery?

Erm…

 

[premmington]

Don't forget the cooling/electric interface, these are often the cause for assembly replacements
In no order of frequency:-
PTC heater
AC compressor
Traction motor
Coolant pump (and associated consequential damage - usually traction battery)
Charge controller
Traction battery

And a special mention for Tesla charge cables and their interface resistive requirements....

Low temp coolant leaks/pumps oh yeah...

I have had coolant leaks wreck main EM motors - finish pilot bearings off in the array. AC heat pumps another failure.

Low temp pumps and leaks kill main controllers for sure...

Then there is the endless sets of four tyres

 

[Greeves246]

Simple - you're not the customer. There may well be some 'emerging concern' that the manufacturer has embargoed from disclosure to protect sales.
The diagnosis & repair is paid for by the manufacturer

The main dealer ( motorcycle) I worked at we were paid 50% of retail labour rate for warranty work by the manufacturer. If car dealers are the same which would you prioritise, warranty or retail customer work?

 

[premmington]

Simple - you're not the customer. There may well be some 'emerging concern' that the manufacturer has embargoed from disclosure to protect sales.
The diagnosis & repair is paid for by the manufacturer
The vehicle was purchased by a finance company
You're 'just' the driver.
If you had contact with a car salesman, they don't care and will tell you anything - talk to them.

Yep - you are hiring it - take it back to the person/company who it hiring it you - it is there car as @Ubique states.

 

[daleyd]

 

[ajlelectronics]

View attachment 530174

You would have thought that after more than a Century, ICE would have got to the pinnacle of their reliability and efficiency, not still behaving like an Austin sidevalve engine.

 

[Ubique]

The main dealer ( motorcycle) I worked at we were paid 50% of retail labour rate for warranty work by the manufacturer. If car dealers are the same which would you prioritise, warranty or retail customer work?

Except there is more warranty work than retail (M-B, Audi, JLR & Volvo all pay around 70% of retail, VWG pay around 60%, only PSA pay 50%) and the dealership is monitored on warranty turnaround performance. Most have to be diagnosed within two working days (VWG is three), they can be held for parts but repairs have to start within 24 hours of (all) parts arrival.
Warranty can be lucrative if you know how to time the jobs up correctly, plus there is performance bonus for the dealership and sales bonus for the parts dept. (tech's earn their own), so it's not unusual for every tech except the 'filter-spinners' to be doing warranty work and out-of-warranty repairs to be pushed back.

 

[Ubique]

View attachment 530174

There's more questions than answers there:
Is the vehicle in the VIN range for 13I4?
Should the vehicle have been on LL service regime?
Has there been any contributory 'drive-on'?
Why isn't the finance Co. dealing with it?
Has there been any other contributory issues?
Is the 'correct oil' the correct specification or just grade?

 

[ajlelectronics]

Quoted from today's business news...

When Doug Fawcett took his four-year-old Land Rover Defender in for a new bulb at his local dealership last August, he did not expect to pay more than £20. He chuckled when the mechanic said the actual cost was £2,629.30, assuming it was a joke.

But the mechanic was deadly serious – and Doug's case is not just a one-off.

Many modern vehicles now require you to replace entire light fittings and remove bodywork, such as bumpers, just to get to them. This can leave customers with garage bills that stretch to hundreds, or occasionally thousands, of pounds.

It is a far cry from a time when all you needed was a practical approach, a screwdriver and a bulb costing just a few pounds.

Doug, 81, a retired cosmetics company owner from Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, says: 'I went down to the local Halfords to get the lightbulb changed, but they said it was a specialist job that my dealership would have to sort out.'

He went to the dealership in nearby Sunbury-on-Thames. The cost was £292.50 for the work to replace the fitting plus £1,898.58 for the new unit – then the VAT.