[PNWariya]

A CR report found that EVs are less reliable because of newer technology.

Electric vehicles are less reliable because of newer technologies, Consumer Reports finds

Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.

www.cnbc.com

• Electric vehicles are among the least reliable cars and trucks in the automotive industry today, according to Consumer Reports rankings released Tuesday.
• Reliability issues with all-electric vehicles were expected, since most automakers, with the exception of early EV leader Tesla, launched fully electric models just in recent years.
• Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.

Interesting! Thank you for the link to the article. In my own personal experience of driving electric cars since 2011, the only issue I've had is from the old technology -- tires going flat. But that's just me. I'd be interested in reading the opinions of others, and what issues they have encountered.

 

[EarlyEVadopter]

A CR report found that EVs are less reliable because of newer technology.

Electric vehicles are less reliable because of newer technologies, Consumer Reports finds

Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.

www.cnbc.com

• Electric vehicles are among the least reliable cars and trucks in the automotive industry today, according to Consumer Reports rankings released Tuesday.
• Reliability issues with all-electric vehicles were expected, since most automakers, with the exception of early EV leader Tesla, launched fully electric models just in recent years.
• Consumer Reports surveyed owners of more than 300,000 vehicles to make predictions about the reliability of 2023 model year vehicles.

It’s difficult for me to give any credibility to this CR article when they don’t even mention the reliability of Nissan’s huge sample size of 600,000 + EV’s sold worldwide in the past decade . Regardless Nissan offered their fully electric BEV two years ahead of Tesla’s model S and my Leaf that I purchased new in 2011 continues to provide my family with outstanding reliability to this day.

 

[atreis]

I think the statistics are overwhelmed by the dominance of Tesla in the US, and primarily reflect some of the issues that they've had scaling up.

 

[ab13]

Most electric cars are first generation products so I would expect them to have more issues. Ariya is a second generation product based on the knowledge from the Leaf, where they fixed the main weakness of the Leaf, adding liquid cooling to the battery. Other issues are quality issues, which depends on manufacturing and design, some companies don't spend much time on quality issues.

 

[GSX-R35]

I would take this with a grain of salt because CR's reliability ratings don't necessarily differentiate overall from catastrophic issues like an engine blowing up in your face versus things that are far more innocuous but still irritating like bad panel gaps or a glitchy infotainment system. Any of those can count to being "unreliable" in their survey as long as its something that needs rectification so for example a brand known for having engines that can suddenly die over time (cough, cough Hyundai/Kia's Theta engines) but has excellent fit and finish overall can look great in the rankings while a manufacturer with lots of little niggling issues but generally decent powertrains can look worse.

Since this is based on a survey people will complain about anything and everything with their vehicle but the results don't always convey the huge difference between a car stranding you on the side of the road versus a spot of orange peel in the paint annoying you every time you look at it.

Tesla is the main factor skewing this "EV's are unreliable" narrative because they still can't up their overall quality game with continued issues related to paint, body panels, wonky screens, and of course their infamous automated driving features - all made worse by problems with timely repairs at their service centers. Last year's CR rankings for brands showed Tesla right at the bottom out of 28 manufacturers only beating Lincoln - supposedly they did better this year climbing a few spots but it's hard not to do better when you're pretty much dead effing last (Nissan was 9 out of 28 for comparison at the time - last among the Japanese brands but above pretty much all the American and European ones).

Yes, EVs will have teething issues just like with any newer technology but it's a pretty big generalization to say that they're especially unreliable like the headlines are implying.