Consumer Reports shares insights about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) from its latest reliability survey, including the most reliable electric car.
The first generation of battery from most EV companies had a silly high failure rate.
Tesla, GM, Nissan, Audi, etc all had really high failure rates in the first generation of cars. In the 30% range for GM and Nissan, in the 5% range for Tesla.
The motors had high failure rates (again in their first generation). Similar rates.
They’ve also added high-complexity parts like heat pumps in their first automotive iterations.
I expect all of this will become more reliable once they’re more established.
It’s plausible they already are. From what I’ve heard the failure rate on Tesla parts (battery, motor, etc) dropped significantly after the first revision in 2016 and again after 2021. 2013 battery was a 5% failure rate, while the 2017 battery was a 0.2% failure rate (roughly) from the 2022 data I saw.
I expect that progress continues and third our fourth generation EVs will be decidedly more reliable than ICE cars.
I bought a used first gen first year volt. Usually I stay away from first year cars but had heard great things. Was like number 1400 manufactured. Unbelievably reliable for 5 years I had it. Totally over engineered. But that’s the exception for sure.
Yeah, they’re basically prototypes.
The first generation of battery from most EV companies had a silly high failure rate.
Tesla, GM, Nissan, Audi, etc all had really high failure rates in the first generation of cars. In the 30% range for GM and Nissan, in the 5% range for Tesla.
The motors had high failure rates (again in their first generation). Similar rates.
They’ve also added high-complexity parts like heat pumps in their first automotive iterations.
I expect all of this will become more reliable once they’re more established.
It’s plausible they already are. From what I’ve heard the failure rate on Tesla parts (battery, motor, etc) dropped significantly after the first revision in 2016 and again after 2021. 2013 battery was a 5% failure rate, while the 2017 battery was a 0.2% failure rate (roughly) from the 2022 data I saw.
I expect that progress continues and third our fourth generation EVs will be decidedly more reliable than ICE cars.
I bought a used first gen first year volt. Usually I stay away from first year cars but had heard great things. Was like number 1400 manufactured. Unbelievably reliable for 5 years I had it. Totally over engineered. But that’s the exception for sure.