[Bboozer1]

I am curious for the many of you here who are already EV owners, what the general prescribed maintenance is for EV's.... I saw an article elsewhere where someone with an Tesla (model 3 I believe) had done an extensive write up on. The electricity cost vs the cost of gas.... And he had factored in when and where he charged and rates and what not, but there wasn't anything about other maintenance... If you are comparing to ICE engines and or Diesel engines there would be other savings as well... I have a 2005 Silverado 2500 Duramax, and with the diesels, the oil changes are more, fuel filters have to be replaced more often, and the newer ones also require DEF as well....

Would there be anything other than tire rotation? I assume that the differentials may require maintenance at some point... But just curious..

 

[Tom E-Tron]

I am curious for the many of you here who are already EV owners, what the general prescribed maintenance is for EV's.... I saw an article elsewhere where someone with an Tesla (model 3 I believe) had done an extensive write up on. The electricity cost vs the cost of gas.... And he had factored in when and where he charged and rates and what not, but there wasn't anything about other maintenance... If you are comparing to ICE engines and or Diesel engines there would be other savings as well... I have a 2005 Silverado 2500 Duramax, and with the diesels, the oil changes are more, fuel filters have to be replaced more often, and the newer ones also require DEF as well....

Would there be anything other than tire rotation? I assume that the differentials may require maintenance at some point... But just curious..

I have an Audi E-Tron and a Tesla model Y, the E-Tron has more maintenance as like all European makers they require brake fluid changes which seems such waste because the brakes are hardly ever used on an EV as the motor provides most of the slowing effort, but I assume Hummer will be more like the Bolt, no EV powertrain maintenance until 150K miles, and then its just a cooling system flush.

So basically just consumables wiper blades and fluid, tire rotations, The Hummer EV may have an oil change interval for the drive units as with higher power there may be more need? I figure the Hummer will cost about .10 a mille to operate in fuel and scheduled maintenance, compared to .45 cents a mile for my 2020 GMC 2500 Duramax. The more you charge at home the Cheaper the Hummer will be to operate. Thats a delta of $35K in 100K miles of operation, its a big difference, hence the reason fleets are going to be all over EV pickups.

 

[azbill]

I have 90K miles on my Bolt, so far it has been:

• New tires
• Tire rotations (free at Discount tire where I buy mine)
• Cabin filter (easy DIY job)
• Replaced 12V battery recently (its an AGM only available at the dealer)

I may be needing to replace the wiper blades soon.

 

[Tom E-Tron]

I am curious for the many of you here who are already EV owners, what the general prescribed maintenance is for EV's.... I saw an article elsewhere where someone with an Tesla (model 3 I believe) had done an extensive write up on. The electricity cost vs the cost of gas.... And he had factored in when and where he charged and rates and what not, but there wasn't anything about other maintenance... If you are comparing to ICE engines and or Diesel engines there would be other savings as well... I have a 2005 Silverado 2500 Duramax, and with the diesels, the oil changes are more, fuel filters have to be replaced more often, and the newer ones also require DEF as well....

Would there be anything other than tire rotation? I assume that the differentials may require maintenance at some point... But just curious..

I was curious so I slapped together a quick spreadsheet, my values are close but not perfect, but this gives you an idea, I figured gas and diesel maintenance at .02 per mile added .005 for DEF fluid on diesel, and fuel at 5 year average prices, notable I threw on the TRX because I think that is the number 1 competitor of the Hummer Ev Edition

 

[Bboozer1]

Wow... Thanks Tom E-Tron.... That was way more thorough than I was expecting, but fantastic even if they are averages/guesstimates.... My Duramax is mostly parked now as I have a company truck again... But I had been torn about what truck to get when I finally pulled the trigger on a new one... And I was thinking that I would go back to a gasser because the extra maintenance on the diesel is expensive and I do not pull anything much or drive it a whole lot... Then when I saw the Hummer, I changed my mind completely.. I had kicked around the idea of the Cybertruck (but I couldn't get past its UGLY styling).... I would like to have a longer bed for general pick up truck stuff, but I think that I can probably manage with the Hummer (I won't be driving it for the day job like I have the other)... My wife may even like driving it... She really doesn't like the diesel... She doesn't like the turbo lag... Or really anything about it... Now if we could just get some on the road....

 

[Inline]

Wow... Thanks Tom E-Tron.

I think you should be thanking azbill??

 

[MCH]

I have 90K miles on my Bolt, so far it has been:

• New tires
• Tire rotations (free at Discount tire where I buy mine)
• Cabin filter (easy DIY job)
• Replaced 12V battery recently (its an AGM only available at the dealer)

I may be needing to replace the wiper blades soon.

Seems like you will need to replace your shocks/struts soon. Other suspension components will need to be replaced - ball joints, etc. Same as ICE, of course.

Brake fluid is susceptible to contamination from moisture, and I think it should be replaced every few years to avoid damaging brake components even if the brakes are rarely used. Is there power steering fluid to replace in a Bolt or Tesla? I don't know the answer, but if so, that fluid is also susceptible to moisture and should be replaced every few years.

Battery cooling may be done with fluid that needs to be replaced periodically. Maybe. If there are no moving parts, maybe the fluid lasts the life of the battery. Which lasts... 150,000 miles? 200,000 miles?

Factor in a new battery at 200k and I bet the scales tip toward ICE. Replace the car at 100k and it won't matter, but it could be fairly depreciated by then. More depreciation than ICE? Time will tell. I don't think Tesla is a good judge, because they have kept a premium due to their fairly exclusive market share. That will not be the case when a Hummer hits 100k.

Fewer moving parts should mean less maintenance and fewer parts to fail, but the battery wearing out is a huge cost to consider.

 

[Tom E-Tron]

Seems like you will need to replace your shocks/struts soon. Other suspension components will need to be replaced - ball joints, etc. Same as ICE, of course.

Brake fluid is susceptible to contamination from moisture, and I think it should be replaced every few years to avoid damaging brake components even if the brakes are rarely used. Is there power steering fluid to replace in a Bolt or Tesla? I don't know the answer, but if so, that fluid is also susceptible to moisture and should be replaced every few years.

Battery cooling may be done with fluid that needs to be replaced periodically. Maybe. If there are no moving parts, maybe the fluid lasts the life of the battery. Which lasts... 150,000 miles? 200,000 miles?

Factor in a new battery at 200k and I bet the scales tip toward ICE. Replace the car at 100k and it won't matter, but it could be fairly depreciated by then. More depreciation than ICE? Time will tell. I don't think Tesla is a good judge, because they have kept a premium due to their fairly exclusive market share. That will not be the case when a Hummer hits 100k.

Fewer moving parts should mean less maintenance and fewer parts to fail, but the battery wearing out is a huge cost to consider.

Why would you "plan" to replace Battery at 200K? There are Bolt's over 100K miles that have very little degradation, somewhere 5-7%. Battery degradation does not seem to be linear, it seems happen mostly in the first 30K miles and then levels off. GM has set up the battery conservative having a max DC charge rate of 1.5C and having 800v, should treat all the components gently. I think if people take care of their battery, it will last the life of the truck. (charge only to 90% unless on a road trip, and DC charge only when nessassary and to 80% max, and never run the battery below 20% SOC)

I do whatever maintanance the manufacture recommends on my cars, no more, no less. On Bolt there is no mention of brake fluid or power steering other then to keep it topped off. Battery coolant is at 150K miles that is also the same coolant loop that feeds the drive units and power electronics, EV's typically just have 1 coolant loop.

 

[azbill]

Is there power steering fluid to replace in a Bolt or Tesla? I don't know the answer, but if so, that fluid is also susceptible to moisture and should be replaced every few years.

Power steering in the Bolt is electric, no fluids. I can also tell you that my battery has lost maybe 5%, with nearly 100K miles, the degradation is not significant. The Nissan Leaf had really bad degradation because it lacked a cooling system, but Nissan added that recently. The first year Chevy Spark also had bad degradation with the A123 batteries, the newer batteries are LGChem.

 

[Tom E-Tron]

Power steering in the Bolt is electric, no fluids. I can also tell you that my battery has lost maybe 5%, with nearly 100K miles, the degradation is not significant. The Nissan Leaf had really bad degradation because it lacked a cooling system, but Nissan added that recently. The first year Chevy Spark also had bad degradation with the A123 batteries, the newer batteries are LGChem.

Yes, that is true, those early Leaf batteries did not last long, one of my friends bought one, and after a few years in cold weather he has 25 miles of range... one of the moderators on InsideEV's drives a Spar EV, he loves it, never heard him mention degradation.

 

[MCH]

I agree with all the responses; however, there is a life expectancy and generally it is believed that 200,000 miles is the typical life expectancy for an EV battery. Telsa and others are working on a "million mile battery", but the Hummer is still using current technology. Keeping the battery between 20% and 80% and rarely using DC fast charging will make a big difference, but also have a big impact on real world range if you are only using 60% of the available capacity. It will be less important with the massive battery in the Hummer, but then again, the Hummer will be much less efficient than smaller vehicles. (I hope that assumption turns out to be false, but physics and f=ma are hard to overcome.)

If you buy a used EV, you will not know how that battery was treated. If the previous owner charged to 100% every time, frequently used DC charging, and liked to see how far he could go beyond 0 miles to empty, your battery may need to be replaced earlier than 200,000 miles.

Personally I will be charging to 100% any time I expect to be taking a trip outside my local area. Pre-COVID I was driving out of town weekly, so I would have been charging to 100% weekly, and DC fast charging at least once during that week. And I probably would be arriving at home at around 10% if the ABRP site is accurate. So my battery will probably fall within the expected life of 200,000 or less.

It is a factor that should be included in the cost to operate calculations, IMO.

How Long Should An Electric Car’s Battery Last? | MYEV.com

An electric car's battery is the vehicle’s most critical – and expensive – component. Fortunately it should be able to go the distance.

www.myev.com

By the way, there are items that need to be replaced due to wear and tear that are not included in the official service schedule. Every car will need the lower ball joints replaced, shocks/struts, wheel bearings, etc. If you only go by the service schedule, you will not be replacing things that really need to be replaced to keep your car safe and efficient. (It is a pet peeve of mine that service schedules do not include all service items. I think it is intentional so that the service shop can replace things before they really need to be replaced, and you won't know the difference.)

 

[Tom E-Tron]

I agree with all the responses; however, there is a life expectancy and generally it is believed that 200,000 miles is the typical life expectancy for an EV battery. Telsa and others are working on a "million mile battery", but the Hummer is still using current technology. Keeping the battery between 20% and 80% and rarely using DC fast charging will make a big difference, but also have a big impact on real world range if you are only using 60% of the available capacity. It will be less important with the massive battery in the Hummer, but then again, the Hummer will be much less efficient than smaller vehicles. (I hope that assumption turns out to be false, but physics and f=ma are hard to overcome.)

If you buy a used EV, you will not know how that battery was treated. If the previous owner charged to 100% every time, frequently used DC charging, and liked to see how far he could go beyond 0 miles to empty, your battery may need to be replaced earlier than 200,000 miles.

Personally I will be charging to 100% any time I expect to be taking a trip outside my local area. Pre-COVID I was driving out of town weekly, so I would have been charging to 100% weekly. And I probably would be arriving at home at around 10% if the ABRP site is accurate. So my battery will probably fall within the expected life of 200,000 or less.

It is a factor that should be included in the cost to operate calculations, IMO.

How Long Should An Electric Car’s Battery Last? | MYEV.com

An electric car's battery is the vehicle’s most critical – and expensive – component. Fortunately it should be able to go the distance.

www.myev.com

By the way, there are items that need to be replaced due to wear and tear that are not included in the official service schedule. Every car will need the lower ball joints replaced, shocks/struts, wheel bearings, etc. If you only go by the service schedule, you will not be replacing things that really need to be replaced to keep your car safe and efficient. (It is a pet peeve of mine that service schedules do not include all service items. I think it is intentional so that the service shop can replace things before they really need to be replaced, and you won't know the difference.)

The Hummer is using battery chemistry and formats that have never been used previously. GM current technology in the Bolt is NMC, Hummer will use NMCA, Tesla uses NCA primarily in its 2170 cells but is going to a NMCA in the 4680 cells.

I think charging to 100% is different in each EV, for example in a Tesla 100% is 100%, so you are stretching the battery every time you go there. In our E-Tron 100% is really 92% on the battery because Audi was quite conservative, but they also warranty the battery better than Tesla I charge the Audi to 100% every time (once or twice a week). I do not charge my Tesla to 100%, but 90%. I also try not to DC charge my cars unless I need to on the road. In 2 years I have not seen any noticeable degradation in the E-Tron, as the range is still the same as we use it.

Hummer will be far less efficient than other EV's I am figuring 625 wh/mi on average, where as my Tesla Y is about 285 wh/mi, and E-Tron is about 400 wh/mi. The Hummer will do much worse at higher speeds than the other 2, it's just aerodynamics and rolling resistance. If you go rolling the Hummer EV down the freeway at 80 mph you will be stopping to charge a lot.

 

[alkiter]

I am curious for the many of you here who are already EV owners, what the general prescribed maintenance is for EV's.... I saw an article elsewhere where someone with an Tesla (model 3 I believe) had done an extensive write up on. The electricity cost vs the cost of gas.... And he had factored in when and where he charged and rates and what not, but there wasn't anything about other maintenance... If you are comparing to ICE engines and or Diesel engines there would be other savings as well... I have a 2005 Silverado 2500 Duramax, and with the diesels, the oil changes are more, fuel filters have to be replaced more often, and the newer ones also require DEF as well....

Would there be anything other than tire rotation? I assume that the differentials may require maintenance at some point... But just curious..

With our old Tesla the annual required maintenance (to keep warranty in effect) was $1200 for basically changing the wiper blades. The Audi eTron and Taycan get an annual check of fluids, brake pads, etc. which is all covered for 3 years with maintenance Of $1000 total.