As the availability of new energy vehicles increases, so does the demand for maintenance. Contrary to the low cost of use claimed by the new energy vehicles, the cost of maintenance in recent times has become a nightmare for many new energy car owners, with consumers calling “unrepairable” and expensive maintenance a major problem for new energy vehicles。
The cost of the maintenance is impressive
With the increase in the holdings of new energy vehicles, cases of high maintenance are frequent everywhere, and new energy vehicles that cannot be repaired become a problem for many car owners. In recent days, a non-sitsra owner has inadvertently smashed the tail of the car and the price of maintenance for the price of the flat price amounted to $200,000, or 71. 4 per cent of the total price of the car (280,000). Such high maintenance costs stem mainly from the damage to the integrated cast body, which requires the overall replacement of the body and the replacement of devices such as laser radar in the back of the vehicle。
Not long ago, a plum p5 was tumbled with a sedan, and there was a slight twitch and deformation at the left front light and the bumper under the light. A maintenance offer of $19,022 was made by 4s, several times the cost of repairing a fuel truck similar to the accident. The high cost of maintenance was due to the need to replace a laser radar on the bumper. An accident occurred in ningbo on the owner of a pure electric car, a polar star, which caused damage to the vehicle's large lights and chassis and left the battery plate to the inside. The owner of the car, who thought it was just a battery shell injury, was told that, because of the design problems, it would not be possible to repair the aluminium plate casings of the packaged battery individually, and that the entire battery would have to be replaced at a cost of $540,000 for maintenance, more than double the cost of the new vehicle. A good cat owner in guangzhou, whose vehicle fell into the pit, causing tire flats and twirling, incurred a maintenance cost of $95,000, which is significantly higher than the sale price of a new car of $1299 to $171,000。
A $65,000 electric vehicle, class a00, requires 69,000 for the replacement of batteries due to accidental vehicle damage, and the cost of repairing a pure electric vehicle is significantly higher than the cost of a new vehicle, with the addition of other components such as electric power, electrical control systems. While it is well known that many car batteries use integrated technology to integrate batteries and chassis to minimize battery thickness, increase vehicle space, increase car body strength, etc., this structure causes damage to the battery once a collision or chassis has occurred, and the cost of repair is naturally high。
Even without the maintenance of intelligent, electric-related components, the cost of maintenance of new energy vehicles is significantly higher than that of conventional fuel vehicles. An ideal owner of the oe car spent $2,400 repairing two scratches above the right rear wheel. This price is significantly higher than that of the guide price of $600-$800 for a private joint-venture car and $1,200-2,000 for a high-end brand。
The growing number of expensive maintenance cases makes them a major challenge for new energy car owners。
High cost of new technologies, product applications
In an interview with the chinese automobile news, secretary-general choi dong-soo of the national motor market information federation stated that the problem of new energy vehicle maintenance was prevalent at this stage, mainly due to new technologies and products carried by new energy vehicles, many of which were in the early stages of marketing and were costly, such as radars. Moreover, “traditional fuel vehicles are steel-based frameworks that are easier to repair; today's new energy vehicles are aluminum-based integrated framework structure, and once they collide with each other, the chassis is prone to serious damage and complex maintenance.” choi dong-ho indicates that most of the new things go through a costly phase in the early stages of market expansion. In particular, new energy vehicles, many of whose configurations (functionalities) are in the process of being market-driven, some of whose products are in crisis of capacity, supply of new vehicles is still insufficient, not to mention the need for after-sales maintenance, supply is short of demand, and price increases naturally occur。
“it is even more critical that smart new energy vehicles, be they the `trielectric' part, or the smart grid part, need more targeted maintenance if there are damage or product quality problems, and that even some companies, 4s stores, have difficulty finding solutions, and that parts and components suppliers are required to assist in repairing, such as power cells, where problems arise, most of which require the intervention of battery suppliers to complete the maintenance process. Targeted maintenance means that there are relatively few specialized institutions that can be maintained and that the costs are naturally higher.” at the same time, choi dong-sook indicated that the market for services after the sale of new energy vehicles, especially maintenance, was still in its infancy, which was also a major factor driving up the cost of vehicle maintenance. Three-power systems account for between 40 and 60 per cent of vehicle costs, while the maintenance of three-power systems is a relatively new area for traditional 4s stores, and specialized and targeted maintenance is a real problem for new energy vehicles。
There are also more new technologies, other than “triple power”, and the application of products also entails higher maintenance costs, such as integrated body parts, hidden door handles, etc. The integrated cast technique employed by the tesla model reduces the cost of reducing the number of spare parts and makes the body more robust, while at the same time having to face problems that, in the event of collision damage, may be associated with the overall body structure and incur higher maintenance costs, if not impossible. Survey data indicate that maintenance costs for electric vehicles are 1. 6 to 2. 3 times higher than for fuel trucks. Teslamodel y performed poorly on both the “maintainability” and “maintenance economy” indicators in the collision tests published by the china insurance vehicle safety index, with only the worst grade of p in “resistence and maintenance economy”, far below the equivalent level of fuel vehicles。
Choi dong-sook stated that new energy vehicles are now highly intelligent, behind which vehicles are equipped with soft and hardware with more intelligent properties, such as laser radars installed on vehicle bumpers, which are inevitably damaged in the event of vehicle collisions, and that the relatively high cost of these spare parts naturally entails higher maintenance costs。
Networking, talent lag industry development
Although our new energy vehicle holdings have now exceeded 10 million, they are at a very small volume compared to 300 million vehicles, and are constrained by the high cost of establishing maintenance systems and supply systems for associated components. At present, many of the new energy vehicles in the country are under a straight-to-cooperative model for after-sale maintenance, which is much slower than the rapid growth in the sales of new energy vehicles, even though they are accelerating the pace at which they are built. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 3,300 service points built by car companies to repair new energy vehicles, which is equivalent to 2,400 vehicles per store for repair and maintenance relative to the holdings of more than 10 million new energy vehicles. This is clearly beyond the capacity of these outlets。
The data show that there is a shortage of about 100,000 new energy vehicles sold each year. Often, maintenance technicians in new energy vehicles are required to master battery testing and maintenance, data analysis and electronic information technology, with a much higher threshold than maintenance technicians in normal vehicles. While the development of skilled specialists in new energy vehicle maintenance is being accelerated, the growth of professionals is much slower than that of new energy vehicles。
In choi's view, cars also need to re-examine their vehicle design and configuration strategies, with more of the functions produced according to market demand, especially in the area of automatic driving, which is not commonly used by some consumers. “the survey shows that consumer use of automatic driving is low in actual driving. There is no need to match autopilot functions and associated hardware and software configurations to make the cost of vehicles more reasonable. Choi dong-sook says。
In addition, some vehicles are poorly organized in smart network hardware, which can naturally increase the cost of vehicle maintenance in areas prone to scratching. “the issue of high maintenance costs also reminds companies of a more rational definition of vehicle design and configuration based on market demand. This is a process of market-based development in a wave of sand. Our new energy car will be more rational in the future." choi dong-soo said. The co-founder, jafan, vice-president of genevieve motors, said that to control the cost of smart new energy cars through rational configurations, “resolutely remove all other unneeded configurations”. The question of the maintenance cost of new energy vehicles also needs to be traced back to vehicle design to optimize design from the source, develop products based on consumer demand, define product functions and structures to reduce the cost of using new energy vehicles throughout their life cycle。
