See all Motoring AdviceOne of the long-term financial benefits of an electric vehicle (EV) which helps reduce its overall running costs is a less-involved level of servicing throughout the car’s working life.
In an internal-combustion-powered vehicle, the engine itself is a complex machine, full of multiple different moving components – all of which need maintenance, as they naturally wear themselves out throughout the course of normal operation.
Similarly, gearboxes need attention too, as do exhaust pipes, oil-supply systems and cooling. In essence, there’s a lot more to look after and a lot more that can go wrong in a combustion-engined car than in an EV; hence why the lifetime servicing costs of a vehicle with an internal combustion engine (ICE) are considerably higher than those of an EV.
However, that doesn’t mean that EVs have nothing which needs servicing and maintenance, and it’s just as important to properly look after electric cars as it is ones fitted with ICEs. Here’s what’s involved in servicing an EV.
Battery and motor
In place of the engine and fuel tank of an ICE vehicle, an EV has a high-voltage battery and at least one propulsion electric motor. These will be assessed by a technician during a service, usually through the car’s onboard diagnostics, to ensure that there are no faults anywhere in the system. There’s little that can malfunction in either, although the most common issue may be that individual cells of the battery pack have been damaged. If that’s the case, performance of the vehicle may be affected, but it is possible to replace individual cells or groups of cells in this instance, rather than the entire battery pack.
Cooling system
It’s not true to say that EVs have no cooling system when ICE cars do, because EVs do need to keep their battery packs at an optimum temperature – this is vital for peak performance from the car overall. It’s a simpler cooling set-up than the one you’d find in a petrol or diesel car, though, and it’s supposedly a sealed system that needs no checks. However, a good EV technician will ensure that there are no leaks or damage to the pipes.
Cabling
The main conduit between the battery and the motor(s) in an EV will be the high-voltage cabling. This is much more heavy-duty wiring than you’d normally find in a car and, again, an EV service should see this is all checked to ensure it isn’t damaged in any way.
Brakes
When a car is in motion it has what’s called kinetic energy, related to its weight and the speed it’s travelling at. To slow the car down, that energy is converted to heat in a normal car’s brakes and lost, but EVs have something called regenerative braking. This uses the motor(s) as electricity generators instead, slowing the car while sending energy back to the battery. In fact, around 70 per cent of regular deceleration work in an EV will be managed purely by regenerative braking. However, just like any ICE car, an EV still has a conventional hydraulic braking system, with fluid lines, discs and pads, and these will eventually wear and require maintenance and upkeep. As these physical brakes are not used anywhere near as often as they are on an ICE car, the wear rates on an EV should be lower, despite the increased weight of an EV.
Suspension
Also linked to an EV’s increased weight is suspension wear. Heavy vehicles put more strain on suspension arms and ball joints, so these need to be carefully inspected during an EV’s service schedule to ensure the car is still riding and handling as the manufacturer intended.
Tyres
Tyres are another component that might wear at a faster rate on an EV than an ICE car, mainly due to the former’s mass. It will depend on your driving style (i.e., if you take corners and junctions in a more aggressive manner or you accelerate away from rest quickly a lot) and how you maintain them yourself (checking pressures are accurate regularly, ensuring the car’s tracking and balancing is correct), but expect an EV to go through tyres equally as regularly as an ICE – or maybe more so.
Regular consumables
It’s still worth having an EV maintained according to the manufacturer’s schedule – which varies from maker to maker, but typically has longer service intervals than ICE cars – so that technicians can check, for instance, the air-conditioning system to ensure the refrigerant levels and cabin filters are OK, or so they can have a look at the vehicle’s wiper blades to see if they’re in good order or not. In short, EVs have a less involved and complicated service schedule and maintenance routine than ICE cars… but they’re also not going to work their best if you neglect them or imagine that they somehow don’t need to go into the garage for check-ups from time to time.