EVs less reliable than conventional cars: Consumer Reports [Lauren Sforze | 11/29/23 | The Hill]
The annual car reliability survey by Consumer Reports found EVs are 79 percent more likely to have problems than conventional cars. Consumers reported electric drive motors, charging and EV batteries had the most common issues associated with EVs, according to the survey.
Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, noted that there may be “growing pains” among EVs because they are based on new technology or are being manufactured by new upstart companies, such as Rivian. He said companies “need some time to work out the bugs,” according to the magazine.
Plug-in hybrids are more likely to have more issues than gas-powered cars, EVs and hybrid vehicles. The survey said that plug-in hybrids have 146 percent more problems than gas-powered cars.
Or it’s because Tesla is like 60% of the market and their quality is absolute shit. https://insideevs.com/news/686440/tesla-60-percent-ev-market-share-new-registrations-2024/
FTA:
"Consumer Reports recommended Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y for those interested in purchasing an electric car. Steven Elek, who heads the auto data analytics program at Consumer Reports, said Tesla’s components are “generally reliable,” according to the magazine.
However, Elek added that Tesla still struggles with the build quality of its electric cars."
The same Tesla that didn't know why automotive grade parts exist?
Thank you!
That was my thinking. A friend of mine has had a Polestar 2 for about a year now and absolutely loves it. Hasn't had a single problem with it. Like with conventional vehicles, some brands are just shit for quality and others are great.
To play devil’s advocate, I bought a Model 3 in 2017 and have had 0 issues with it also and it has none of the fit-and-finish issues that newer ones have.
Seconded, mine is a 2018 and has had only one problem. Best car I've ever owned.
Kinda hate to say it but… same. The stereo is my favorite part and it’s the best stereo I’ve ever heard in a car. It’s incredible.
What makes the stereo great? Good speakers, a nice interface?
Great speakers that are incredibly well-tuned and balanced with power that gets them right up to the limit without clipping. Granted, these were the premium speakers installed with the first models so I don’t know if they’re still available but they are the best sounding audio system I’ve ever heard in a car.
Same here. No panel gaps or fit and finish issues on mine from Sep 2018. And it's not like there was a lack of reported issues from that time either.
That's not devil's advocate though, that's two exceptions to a rule
Even over in Europe, Tesla ranks at the bottom for build quality and reliability in almost every metric, for ALL types of vehicles
You have to be pretty bad to be as unreliable as a Land Rover Discovery, but they've somehow managed
The Chinese built ones that supply Asia and Australasia are almost faultless as well. My one is an earlier model, US-built, and you can definitely tell the quality difference even with the early models that came from China.
My Chevy Bolt has been solid as a rock, and anything that was “wrong” with it has been fixed under warranty.
Right to repair is also not helping EV market.
Nope, it’s because of legacy automakers producing shit EVs bringing the average down.
If you’d read the article, teslas were the “middle ground” and the only recommended vehicles.
Their reliability rating hits came from defects like chipped paint, door handles not releasing, and trunks that didn’t close, but their actual drivetrain and batteries were fine.
I would point out that the CR report does not agree with reports from other companies and other countries. Tesla is generally bottom of the barrel. But pointing out something I meant to comment upon the other day, the problems you see coming from these brands all seem to be tied to American automakers, not legacy automakers. In general Korean and Japanese brands have been fine, even German and Swedish brands. But all the american brands? GM? Rivian? Tesla? Ford? Jeep? They're all terrible. They also tried to point out that the HI5 has had battery issues. 1 recall for 1 issue affecting a very small subset of customers is not anything like massive recalls affecting entire fleets like we've seen with GM, Tesla, etc. I have a HI5 and while there are problems, that's normal for brand new vehicles, and they're nowhere near as bad as problems I've had with american made vehicles (including my f150), and about par with the problems we have with our other korean vehicle (a kia sorento).
Yeah bro no worries, if the car brand you’re emotionally attached to doesn’t do well this year just feel free to ignore or justify the results until your feelings have stabilized. That’s what everyone else here is doing based on their hatred for one dude. No judgement here!
That was my assumption. They have issues with batteries dying from heavy rain because they suck at fitting things together properly. Their manufacturing tolerances are way too high.
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Got it.
I had to do some serious digging on this. They previously listed the Chevy Bolt as expected to have good (not excellent) reliability in terms of batteries and motors. A few years later, reviewing their ratings for those same years, it dropped to very bad.
Once I filtered out the noise (and trust me, there was a lot), it seemed that they were counting recalls as failures. And to be clear, the Bolt had a very significant battery recall that drove most of this. But being a recall, these were all covered for free, and most of the repairs were done before failure (as parts became available).
While these were technically failures, they are not the type of data that people generally look for. I want to know how likely I'm going to be stuck with a repair bill (especially a big one), and how often I'm likely to be going in for service. Neither of which is covered by this data.
Look I'm all for EVs, but massive recalls absolutely should count as failures. Them covering it just means the company isn't pure trash.
It's a valid point of view, but I don't think that's what most people use these reliability ratings for. At least for me personally, I use it as a way to gauge the likelihood of future failures. At least in the past, CR has explicitly stated this as part of their methodology. I don't think the recall is indicative of future issues.
One brand brings the average down. Can anybody guess which one? 🤔
Rivian, according to the article. Saved you a click.
Yeah, the problem is it isn't Rivian. I own one, and I previously owned the actual shitty brand.
“Rivian and legacy auto makers” saved you another click.
Tesla, bud. Sorry to tell you, it's Tesla that sucks.
Mini at #3 is the most shocking part of this.
People love their Minis, bruh.
Oh I love them too. My family has had a few and all of them have had major mechanical failures at under 100k miles. They are just more cheaply made BMWs after all.
Hilarious that you included the graphic proving you aren't talking about EVs, but hybrids, phev, and bev. You're confused about the topic being discussed, clearly.
Go ahead to their ratings page, select BEVs, and order by score. You'll kind the EV6 is at the top. If you had actually read their entire article, you would see that they said PHEVs are less reliable than BEVs as a class.
“Oh no you brought facts and information to my feelings!”
Cope more.
Says the one that quoted a partial sentence to try to support their bullshit take. The article literally says this is the first year that CR recomments the MODEL Y, and only because they suspect the drivertrain issues have mostly been solved. After 7 years of production vehicles. Amazing stuff.
I'm guessing you're an investor but not an owner to be working this hard to bend what CR reported. What a shame.
I’m just pointing out the data from the article we are all referencing my dude.
Glad you love your Rivian so much, though! I’m all for EVs and hope it serves you well for a long time.
The problem is, you aren't. Because here's what they actually said in the article:
Simply stating the fact that most EVs are made by, existing companies or startups. Literally the only two choices that there are.
Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/electric-vehicles-are-less-reliable-than-conventional-cars-a1047214174/
The Model Y comment:
Again, pointing out that after four years of producing the vehicle, they finally have fewer owners reporting issues with major components of the car. and as they note in the article, they aren't weighting the problems that consumers report for the severity of the issue or the criticality of the component, but just counting any issues whatsoever that required repair.
This isn't even a controversial thing, CR has reported it multiple times. You simply didn't bother look at the source, don't understand the breakdown between Hybrid, PHEV, and BEV, and you're here pretending the article came to a conclusion that simply IS NOT stated anywhere within.
If you're interested in actually reading what CR has reported about most reliable EVs, you can find that here https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/hybrids-evs/best-electric-vehicles-from-consumer-reports-tests-a3759669425/
Do better next time. Bye.
How many years until they recommend Rivian is acceptable to you? Or did they do that already and I missed it?
Rivian started to release cars in 2021, so they better work on getting out of 28/30 place in another year or two according to your own logic.
Let's hope they do better.
I really want to see the data behind this, because it just doesn't ring true based on my own experience with multiple EVs and a lot of friends who have EVs. Maybe 79% more likely to "have problems" if you are including things like broken plastic or chipped paint or bad design recalls (which I see of as different from buying a vehicle that has a maintenance/repair problem). It's not shocking that there are fewer recalls on 100 year old technology than 20 year old technology, but it is shocking that there are more serious problems on something with 1000 fewer moving parts.
I looked through the article and didn't see, but I imagine this includes all of the battery recalls. As serious as those are, I don't see them as reliability issues, so much as product defects.
Does "an issue charging" include the broken machines? If so that's not an issue with the EV, that's an issue with the charger. That'd be like including every downed nozzle someone drove to in an ICE vehicle as an issue as well
FTA:
Sounds good then
Assuming it's actually issue switch the car and not operator error (something I see depressingly frequently are people at other fast chargers on a call with support claiming there's an issue when they just can't read instructions)
Something that just came out and is technologically more advanced isn't as reliable as the "gas go bang car go fast" version that's been around longer than we have been alive? I'm shocked! /s
My Japanese EV is as reliable as any other Japaneae car I've owned.