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.
So you’re just going to ignore data that says something opposite to your preconceived notions about how stuff works? In that case, I’ve brought you a nice box of sand for your head.
It is surprising that EVs are not as reliable as one would expect, but then again, we have way more experience building internal combustion engines than we do EV components.
Consumer Reports publishes their methodology for collecting this reliability data. It’s not difficult to find. It’s not a black box.
I’m in the market for a new EV, so I checked out Consumer Reports reliability data for the models I was looking at. They break it down based on 20 areas (engine, electronics, infotainment, build quality, etc.) and provide reliability for each of those areas. And those areas are not weighted the same. Most of the reliability issues with the EVs I looked at are with electronics (presumably charger related) and drive train issues.
But despite that, CR still recommends a number of EVs, even ones with meh reliability. Fossil fuel good ol’ boys my ass.
Many other studies have said the opposite of what CR says, so not sure it’s worth what it looks like. They’re also considering non-dangerous recalls as a failure, for example the slow acceleration in eco mode on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (which I considered a fantastic feature) would be a “problem” under the consumer reports methodology.
Tesla was considered absolute bottom of the pack in a Which? report https://www.autonoid.com/which-ev-owners-survey-ranks-tesla-bottom-for-reliability/ and https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-least-reliable-ev-brand-uk-survey-2022-3, with 2/5ths of Teslas having major problems and 1 in 20 failing to start! How in the world did CR get the complete opposite data and actually recommend a car that could fail to start.
Clearly there’s something wrong with how all of these reliability surveys are occurring, if they’re getting completely opposite data.
tesla 3rd from bottom in reliability while Kia and Hyundai are at the top
What is very clear from looking at all these surveys is that American brands are absolutely terrible for reliability. Every single one of the surveys ranks American cars far below European or Asian cars, with many incredibly dangerous recalls for things like failure to start, losing power while driving, airbags failing to deploy or deploying at the wrong time (like when a child is in the seat), loose subframe bolts, and tesla has had so many that it’s not even worth sourcing them at this point. just go look up all the dangerous tesla recalls.