Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
Oil changes are less than $100 / year and I've never had any other type of maintenance other than tires and brakes (which would also have to be maintained on an electric car) in 19 years.

I've done the math. At this point in time, a purely electric car would be far more expensive for me, especially when you consider the purchase price premium vs an ICE car and the massive hit you take at resale.

I tend to keep my cars for a long time, and in my personal situation I am just going to continue to drive my almost free current car and wait for things to evolve a bit more.

I would give it stronger consideration if I had a second car.
Wait, so you've never changed your engine air filter? Cleaned/replaced the AC filter? Flushed your brake system, transmission fluid, or engine coolant? Inspected/replaced drive belts, hoses, exhaust components, suspension components, etc? Checked/adjusted alignment? All things on the required service schedule for your vehicle in your owner's manual? These are all critical components of your vehicle to keep it running in top condition and all have finite lifespans. Most brake fluid is hygroscopic and will slowly absorb moisture from the air (which can cause corrosion and leaks within your braking system - Lexus recommends changing it every 36mo/30k miles), engine coolant contains corrosion inhibitors that degrade with time and temperature (also causing corrosion and leaks within your engine cooling and cabin heating systems - Lexus recommends changing it every 120mo/100k miles), and transmission fluid contains friction modifiers and corrosion inhibitors that also degrade with use/time/temperature (increasing wear on critical internal components that lead to poor performance and failure - Lexus recommends changing it every 60mo/50k miles) - just to name a few examples. If these regular maintenance items are not performed, you set yourself up for catastrophic failure - and I think you're lucky that you haven't yet experienced one yet.

Though truthfully, after typing the above then reading through the rest of the thread, I think you likely have done most or all of these routine maintenance services and just forgot to consider them as "maintenance" - since you did mention air filters at one point, and that you're on your 4th set of brake pads now. And since you're a car guy, you probably already knew about the service intervals and what goes wrong with fluids, but I'm going to leave it in my reply for anyone else reading who may be unaware.

Many of these routine maintenance items simply aren't required anymore - or have a far longer service life in electric vehicles. Brake pads, for instance, are generally expected to last at least 100k miles in EVs - and depending on your vehicle and driving habits, they can last much longer than that. There are multiple reports from Japan of early Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf models being used as taxis, racking up well over 300k miles and still using the factory-installed brake pads and rotors. Some EV owners actually complain that their rotors actually become rusty and unsightly due to the lack of use, with regenerative braking providing the bulk of the effort to slow the vehicle down. In addition, since there's been question about battery life... for fully electric vehicles, batteries are generally expected to last up to 200k miles of use - up to 15 years - or more. To my knowledge all are warranted for a minimum of 100k miles or 8 years of service life by federal law.