The validity and practicality of electric vehicles is not going to be answered any time soon. As of now there are simply too few of them on the road and they haven't been used over a long enough period of time nor collected enough combined miles to really make an informed judgment.
When electrics account for 20%-50% of the cars, trucks and SUVs on our streets, highways and Interstate network, operating in all types of terrain and weather conditions in all 50 states and they have collectively racked-up a few million miles; then we will have the answers to those questions.
And that's going to take decades.
Let's hope there isn't something we are all overlooking with regards to electrics that comes back and bites us in the butt after we have ditched the internal combustion engine and can't go back to it. Think the F-22.
I prefer to just look at the facts.
There are over 1 million tesla's on the road, and they have racked up over 22 BILLION miles driven (
https://lexfridman.com/tesla-autopilot-miles-and-vehicles/) - every state, 180 countries, every climate zone on the planet.
The average ICE car lasts about 200,000 miles. The average Tesla lasts 600,000 miles, and that's just an approximation because the taxi services that use them for high mileage are only in the 400,000 range, and there have been so few Tesla's junked because of drivetrain of chassis wear that it's not statistically calculable yet, despite the 20 billion + miles driven. (
https://www.aarp.org/auto/trends-lifestyle/info-2018/how-long-do-cars-last.html)
Why such a big difference?
the average ICE vehicle has over 200 moving parts in it's drivetrain, all creating friction, wear, and ultimately failure.
- Oil pump or filters
- Fuel pump, filters or fuel injection systems
- Air intake system
- Exhaust system
- Belts of any kind
- Air filters (outside of a/c)
- Muffler
- Gudgeon pins
- Chains
- Alternator
- Clutch
- Multi-speed transmission
- Conrods
- Balance shafts
- Spark plugs
- Valve springs
- Pressure regulators
- Ignition leads
- Main bearings
- Piston rings
- Coils
- …and so the list goes on.
None of which are in an electric vehicle.
Tesla claims there are only 18 moving parts in their drivetrain. (
https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/18-moving-parts-in-a-tesla.279729/)
I focus only on the drivetrain (Tesla's video in the above page claims 2000+ moving parts in an ICE vehicle, and they've drastically reduced all of them) because it's usually drivetrain, or chassis failures that junk a car.
with the number of cars on the road, and the number of miles driven, there is more than enough data to calculate a high confidence, stastically significant 'validity' of electric cars, and they are vastly superior from a maintenance and longevity perspective.
Maybe the most important difference: My Tesla drivetrain warranty, which includes the battery is for 8 years and 150,000 miles (
https://www.tesla.com/support/vehicle-warranty).
My Wife's Escalade has a 4 year, 50,000 powertrain warranty (
https://www.cadillac.com/ownership/warranty-repairs). Admittedly, Cadillac's service is SIGNIFICANTLY better than Tesla's. Then again, my wife's car goes in about 10x more than my Tesla, so it better!
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