https://insideevs.com/news/721836/ev-repair-costs-vs-ice-q1-2024/
You’ve seen the horror stories about the substantial repair costs for electric vehicles. Let’s recall the tens of thousands of dollars for small dents or total losses caused by sub-$10 parts that can’t be sourced.
While these are true, they’re a drop in the ocean. The bigger picture is that EVs are not declared total losses by insurance companies at higher rates than comparable combustion vehicles. However, the average repair costs are higher. Here’s what the data says.
According to San Diego-based Mitchell, which processes tens of millions of transactions for more than 300 insurance providers and 20,000 collision repair facilities
In Q 1 2024, the average claim severity was $6,066 for all EVs-including Tesla models-and $4703 for ICE vehicles in the US, a 29% difference, according to insurance data provided by Mitchell.
The biggest reason for the repair cost disparity comes down to the number of mechanical labor hours. According to Mitchell, the average number of hours that pop up on the repair estimates for EVs is 3.04, while ICE vehicles have an average of 1.66 hours.
The insurance analytics firm mentioned in its report that the extra EV labor hours are likely due to the management of the high-voltage battery, which sometimes needs to be de-energized and removed from the vehicle before doing any collision repairs.
Other factors that hike up the average repair cost of EVs are the higher rate at which repair shops need to go for a new OEM part and the lower rate at which EV parts can be repaired. According to Mitchell, 89.29% of parts fitted to damaged EVs were OEM, while ICE vehicles get that figure down to 65.14%. The company stated that this difference is because ICE vehicles benefit from a more extensive variety of recycled and repaired parts compared to EVs.
However this article is about repairs done on broken vehicles. The more expensive EV repair is mitigated by no oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid regular maintenance changes that ICE vehicles require but EVs don’t.
I still change my own vehicle fluids and replace wiper blades. I’m cheap and can’t see paying $100+/hour to have it done. But eventually it will be a big PITA for me to do that work and I will have to pay to have the simple jobs done.
All the dearth of qualified technicians methinks is a factor also. Thus an EV owner will likely have to take his EV to a dealer, who higher labor rates, rather than an independent shop.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/09/global-ev-technician-shortage-could-lengthen-repair-times-increase-costs/
Global EV Technician Shortage Could Lengthen Repair Times, Increase Costs
An employment opportunity for individuals that rather deal with things than people. A similar occupation like an electrician or plumber.
As EVs become more dominant, the impact on vehicle repair shops will be huge.
