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Cars are like horses: people will soon realise EVs are just better, claims VW boss
(www.autoexpress.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2026
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I own a 12 year old volt. One of the community apps tracks crowd sourced battery degradation. My pack's still about 75%-80% of it's new range. I'm in the center of the bell curve, drive mostly on electric, but it can't quite make it all the way to/from work anymore. :(
Chevy did a decent job at battery cooling. There are plenty of Nissan leafs that didn't fair as well.
If I did have to replace my pack right now, (and it's only a 10kWh) it would be around 8k, but they're generally not available. None of the used packs on ebay have any assurance that they have any significant life left.
Bluebook on the car is maybe 5k but that is a hybrid. 8k would essentially total the car. If i did manage to get a remanufactured pack (assuming it lasted another decade) it's still going to need wheelbearings, axels, suspension, steering, HVAC.
Just because an EV's motor can last longer, doesn't mean it makes a significantly better long term investment.
I have a 12 year old ICE car @ 172,000 miles and it needs none of those wheel bearings, axels, suspension and HVAC fixes. I would not bundle regular car issues with EV issues since it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer (and even model & year).
The high cost of a battery replacement compared to the cost of the car after a few years is a concern which is seems very relevant though.
172k on a car with no suspension issues ever, you're in the red zone for all those kind of failures, that's just luck or very very careful driving/maintenance.
Except for oil changes and transmission issues EV's suffer from the same problems. And an HVAC failure can destroy a batterypack
The batteries, there's just no way around it. Batteries are expensive as hell. You could make the pack standard and small enough to diy replace, but then you lose efficiency, safety, and have higher resistance. I was kind of hoping we could do some kind of flow battery where you'd pull up to a gas station and just swap out your electrolyte, but the power density is just awful.
Talking about battery replacement for EV is like talking about engine replacement for ICE.
"Sure, ICE car are nice but the high cost of engine replacement after a few 100k km is a concern"
Batteries in today's EV can last way longer than people expect, changing the battery is really not something that will be fine regularly, not more than changing the engine in current ice car.
Your location likely is helping the cause. Any car that has live life in a big city where it might snow will eat shit every day on rough roads.
Also, I don't know a single soul who thinks they need to replace their shocks or struts. They wear out and the car is mostly fine as long as you're driving peacefully. However, if you ever need to brake quickly or dodge something, those worn suspension components will greet you by not responding well and you could end up having a bad day.
Remember folks, your shocks and struts are a wear item. They usually wear out around 70k. Lower for hard city life, higher for glassy roads. No matter what, they do wear out, even if you're not aware of it.
Luckily they test shock/strut function at the annual inspection. If it's below a certain percentage, your car fails.
If they don't do mandatory inspection in your country, you're sharing the roads with death traps that could crash into you at any moment because who knows if they even have brakes. In that case, who cares about worn struts?
Anyway, from experience, original struts are usually good for 200-300k km but I've seen more than that and still good. On mostly German cars. Of course if you see an oil leak from a strut you should get that pair replaced immediately. At that kind of mileage, you get a handling improvement if you replace them before outright failure, but they're not actually dangerous at anything resembling sensible driving.