At this point, most savvy auto shoppers know the primary benefits of electric vehicles. They offer zero tailpipe emissions, significantly lower well-to-wheel emissions and less fueling costs when compared to gas or hybrid automobiles.
But what about the long-term costs? How will the cost of maintaining an electric vehicle compare over the life of the vehicle to a traditional gas vehicle? While it’s a little early to know for sure since mainstream EVs are too young to be breaking down, a little understanding of electric vehicles provides some big clues.
The Good
According to the US Department of Energy, electric vehicles have one major moving part—the motor. Compare that to the hundreds of moving parts in an internal combustion vehicle, and you already know that wear and tear should be drastically less in an electric vehicle.
Even the motor itself is much lower maintenance when compared to a gas engine. Think about gasoline vehicle maintenance: the most common reason you pop the hood open is to test the fluids and change the oil. Electric motors don’t require oil, so the four-time-a-year process of changing the oil (or paying someone to change it) is eliminated. Electric vehicles also eliminate other fluids like transmission fluid and radiator fluid, leaving only things like brake fluid and windshield wiper fluid to worry about.
Now, think about your last gas vehicle and the dreaded clunk, rattle or pop that sent you on a quick trip to the auto shop. Remember that time you spent in the waiting room anxiously reading the paper while visions of hundred- and thousand-dollar repairs danced through your mind? From the transmission to the alternator to the muffler and exhaust system, most of the biggest worries don’t even exist on an EV. In fact, four out of 10 repairs that Autos.com cites as the most common repairs—oil changes, exhaust system, fuel system and ignition system—don’t apply to electric vehicles. All the parts, valves, filters, hangers, nuts and bolts thereof also don’t apply.
One of the most dreaded repairs on a gasoline vehicle is a transmission overhaul or replacement. While gas vehicles have a five or six (+) speed transmission with all kinds of moving parts, electric vehicles use a much simpler single-speed transmission… At least, more expensive AC motor powered EV’s.
Similarly, while EV brakes will still require maintenance and repair, brake regeneration, a process that captures braking energy ordinarily lost in heat, helps to slow wear on EV brakes.
So what exactly do you need to do? Well, the warranty for the Nissan Leaf’s battery requires that you get the battery checked about once a year. You’ll still need to worry about tire inflation, rotation and replacement. And you’ll have to pop open the hood every now and again to check the windshield wiper and brake fluid. Other than that, the EV is pretty hassle-free.
The Analysis
The problem with directly comparing maintenance and repair costs on electric vehicles with those on gas vehicles is that while we have years upon years of hard information on gas vehicle repairs, we don’t have anything comparable for electric vehicles. Therefore, comparisons are limited to projections and speculation and need to be read as such. Some foremost authorities in automotive costs have, however, provided at least some guidance on the issue.
Earlier this year, Ford did a comparison of maintenance costs between its Ford Focus Electric and its gas Focus over a 10-year, 150,000 mile life cycle. It considered savings in oil changes, air filter replacements, cooling system flushes and transmission check-ups, concluding that the Focus EV owner stands to save about $1,200 in 10 years.
Now, let’s break it down a little further. In 2008, Consumer Reports did an analysis of the cost of car ownership over time. Its analysis was concerned with two types of costs: carrying costs, which relate to depreciation, taxes and interest, and operating costs, which relate to maintenance, fuel, insurance and repairs. While the operating costs rise over time, the analysis showed that they stay pretty steady at an annual rate of about $3,500 to $3,900 over the first eight years.
Using the ~$800 national insurance premium average from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ most recent database, which covers 2006 through 2008, we pull the cost down to $2,700 for maintenance and fuel.
To isolate maintenance costs, we’ll use the 22 mpg new-car average recently identified by both the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and TrueCar.com. Consumer Reports used 12,000 miles per year as its average for calculating annual fuel costs, which brings us to about 545 gallons of gas. Multiply that by the 2008 national gas average (to keep it in the same year as the other data), which based on data from the Energy Information Administration, was around $3.25 per gallon, and we get a total annual fueling cost of $1,772. That leaves $938 per year for maintenance and repairs.
Now to electric vehicles… Edmunds “True Cost to Own” calculator shows a five-year projection of around $2,400 for maintenance costs on a 2011 Nissan Leaf, the only mass-market EV currently on the road. That breaks down to $480 per year, a little more than half the cost of gas vehicle maintenance. Extract that out over 10 years, and you’ve saved $4,600.
Bear in mind, these numbers are just for a quick comparison and are based on many wildly varing projections. Insurance, for instance, varies greatly by region, age, car and other factors; gas prices are constantly in flux; and maintenance costs and warranties vary greatly by car (the maintenance average we got for gas vehicles is an average across various styles and sizes of vehicles, whereas the EV projection is based entirely on the Nissan Leaf).
The best way to get an idea of the overall cost of potential vehicles would be to compare specific models, along with custom information such as your annual number of miles driven and annual insurance premium. Then enter all the data into calculators or comparison charts like those found on Edmunds.com and Consumer Reports.com to get a comparison specific to you.
The Bad
So far, you’re probably thinking that EV owners come out way ahead of gas-vehicle owners right? Fuel is much cheaper; maintenance is much cheaper and easier; and, despite higher base prices, tax incentives help to make electric vehicles competitive with gas models. It’s almost too good to be true.
Indeed, there’s a shadowy gorilla lurking in the garage: the battery. Yes, the lithium-ion batteries that power today’s electric cars are rechargeable, but they are finite—there is a limited number of times that you can recharge them before they become obsolete and must be recycled. The batteries’ ability to hold a charge also diminishes over time, meaning you’ll slowly lose range.
Given that the expense of battery technology is the primary reason that EVs have been slow to evolve and more expensive than gas cars, the fact that you’ll have to replace the battery becomes a rather large, looming maintenance concern.
According to Edmunds’ Auto Observer, replacement battery costs have been estimated as high as $10,000 to $12,000. Other estimates are lower, but still indicate batteries would run several thousand dollars. Considering those prices, the $4,600/10-year maintenance savings we calculated before doesn’t look so big anymore. In fact, it could very well be less than the cost of a replacement battery, which is something that you’re likely to need around the 10-year mark.
Two things to bear in mind, before you think that EVs are a bad deal, consider this: battery costs are widely thought to steadily decline over time as technology develops (think of how much other consumer technologies like computers and cell phones drop in price over the course of time) and pretty much all electric vehicles are brand new or just a few years old, as of 2011. In other words, you shouldn’t have to replace the battery for close to a decade—plenty of time for battery prices to drop and put some serious miles on your car. Also consider that automakers like Nissan and Chevy put solid 100,000-mile, 8-year warranties on their plug-in vehicle batteries, and you can rest easier.
Still, however, the potential cost of a replacement battery or the alternative of shopping for a new car much sooner than you would with a gasoline car are legitimate concerns when considering the lifetime cost of an EV. Until we know for sure how those play out, it’s difficult to directly compare maintenance costs. If a replacement battery were indeed to cost $10,000 without any incentives or buy-back program from the manufacturer, that’s more than double the saved maintenance costs that we calculated over the same 10-year time period.
We’d hope that by the time batteries start needing replacement, they’ll be much cheaper—say $1,000 or less—or battery manufacturers, EV manufacturers, government or any combination thereof will offer enough incentives to lift much of that burden off the back of the consumer.
Long-term maintenance cost remains up in the air for now, but in the interim, it’s clear that EVs will require less time and effort to keep up.
