A guy at my workplace has a Tesla. I asked him how how his car was handling the -30 Celsius temperature (I have a gas car and it would not start). He said the electric car has no problems whatsoever starting up. The only issue is it loses maybe half of its range. So as long as you plan your routes accordingly you'll be okay with an electric car in the extreme cold. Electric cars are way more reliable in general because there's fewer moving parts, so there's less that can break down. This is why electric cars are such a game changer when it comes to car longevity; so long as car companies provide a way to easily change out a battery once it gets old and worn out, the rest of the car can probably last twice as long as a gas guzzler.
I've always had Toyota. I bought my Rav in 2008 and it is getting close to 500,000ks on the original engine and its just started to use about 500mls of oil every 1400ks or so. Along the way I have replaced 2 water pumps , just on my second alternator and one starter motor.. I gave the transmission a midlife overhall at about the 350k mark and on my second rack and pinion. A couple of electrical thingys went last year. I also replace a couple of oil seals along the way.
looking at my repair receipts I've spent $5684 55c on things concerning the running of the engine plus $2185 on the automatic and the 2 rack and pinion repairs cost $2684.
Leaving out the Rack and Pinion costs over 8yrs/closer to 9 my Toyota has cost me$7869 in mechanical repairs. But when one compares it to the owners of electric cars its still cheaper
Nissan Japan told Nissan Leaf owner with ‘range anxiety’ told a new battery for $13,000 car would cost $121,000
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Zoe loved her car, though. Everything seemed in perfect working order apart from the failing battery. So she wanted to replace it for a better one.
She contacted her local Nissan dealer. But instead of getting a solution, she was in for a shock.
"They quoted me $121,000 for a replacement battery from Japan!" she told TVNZ1's Fair Go.
Reeling from this ridiculous amount, Zoe got in touch with Nissan New Zealand's head office; they said they'd look into it, but months passed and she'd had no response.
Zoe also looked at second-hand replacement batteries. These were considerably more reasonable, but at $14,000 or so, they were still more expensive than her actual car without a huge increase in expected range. It was at this point Zoe came to Fair Go to see what we made of the situation.
Fair Go rang Nissan NZ and we did get a response, but it wasn't very satisfactory. The company said the quote of $121,000 for a new battery was "an error" but it wouldn't say how the error occurred, or what a correct price would be.
It was happy to go into detail about the extended battery warranty it now offers with brand new Nissan Leafs sold here in New Zealand, but would take no responsibility for the several thousand second-hand cars imported from Japan.
It added that any battery problems relating to these cars were the "sole responsibility of the vehicle importer".
We weren't the only ones unimpressed with this response. It got a shake of the head from Bill Alexander, who works at Blue Cars in Auckland, a company that specialises in electric vehicles.
"It isn't an acceptable answer. I think Nissan Japan is dodging a bit of a biggie with that," he says.
In his opinion, Nissan Japan and Nissan New Zealand should be co-operating to develop a way of providing cost-effective replacement batteries. Without this, thousands of cars could end up on New Zealand's scrap heap when the only thing wrong with them is the battery......."
I'll have a combustion engine vechile any day. The only time I'll be riding around in an electric car is inside a coffin.
