Servicing for electric cars?

erfgyrh34

Bought an electric car recently (18 months old) and took a look at the dealers service options.


Was quoted £209 for a major service, or £159 for minor.


Feels really steep given that it lists what's included as:
1) Applicable labour, (2) pollen filter and (3) screen wash. [That's it -- that's the complete list!]


I got some sales waffle / scare story about the need for regular battery checks (which seems useful) and the usual line about future resale value.


I thought one of the benefits of these cars was the lack of moving parts in them. Am I just being sold the worlds most expensive screen wash here?

DrEskimo

It does depend on the manufacturer. Renault are only charging ~£60 for the Zoe.

Try and find an indie garage. It won't affect warranty, and will be much cheaper.

https://www.hevra.org.uk/

gzoom

30k in our current EV, not spent a single £0 in 'servicing', no intention to either till the car hits 50k, even than at most it'll be a brake fluid check at the local independent.

As you say the dealer will happily charge you £££ for a worthless stamp in the book though.

Goudy

It seems some confuse servicing with the cost of consumable parts that are replaced.
It's not uncommon to hear or read owners complain they were "charged £300 for £30 of oil and a £12 filter" when clearly they got a lot more than just oil and filter.

Sure petrols and diesels need engine oil and oil and air filters when a electric doesn't, but they all require a certain level of checks and those involve time and that costs money.

Tyres, brakes, suspension, drive chain and a whole host of other checks no matter what propels them and I presume most electric car will include some sort of battery health check.

As EV's get hooked up to mains electricity I imagine/hope some sort of recharging system safety checks would also be included, so the actual labour to do similar checks will be similar and more checks will naturally cost more.

ElefantEd

Our local mechanic services our Leaf once a year for about £40. There's rarely anything to do except clean the brakes which are prone to getting clogged up. We did change the oil after about 5 years. There doesn't seem to be any need to pay £100s for a dealer service; the only thing they appear to do extra is change the pollen filter which I can live without.

AdrianC

ElefantEd wrote: »

the only thing they appear to do extra is change the pollen filter which I can live without.

Don't neglect pollen filters.

Apart from the risk of a build-up of bacteria, restricted airflow can cause parts of the HVAC to overheat. The Zafira fires are caused by heater blower resistors overheating - especially cheap replacements - because of restricted airflow over them in large part due to neglected pollen filters.

NigeWick

erfgyrh34 wrote: »

Bought an electric car recently (18 months old) and took a look at the dealers service options.

You don't say what make it is. "Premium" cars will obviously cost more than ordinary ones.

erfgyrh34

This is "just" a 2018 Leaf -- not a Tesla or anything.


Thanks for all the replies. It indeed feels like there is a heavy mark-up here -- I could change the pollen filters and top-up the screenwash myself for almost nothing.


Really, this is about testing the battery to keep that in warranty.



Are there independent people that could test that instead of going back to Nissan?

tacpot12

If I had an electric vehicle, I would be inclined to ask to see the service it received to identify the equipment being used, and then see if there any independent garages that have access to the equipment being used.

AdrianC

erfgyrh34 wrote: »

Are there independent people that could test that instead of going back to Nissan?

Of course. You just need to prove that the work was done by a garage to the manufacturer standard, and that any parts were OE quality - else the warranty's void.

ElefantEd

AdrianC wrote: »

Don't neglect pollen filters.

Apart from the risk of a build-up of bacteria, restricted airflow can cause parts of the HVAC to overheat. The Zafira fires are caused by heater blower resistors overheating - especially cheap replacements - because of restricted airflow over them in large part due to neglected pollen filters.

Fair enough. I think we changed it once in five years. No fires occured, but this is of course not data, just an anecdote! How often do you reckon pollen filters actually need replacing?