Who’s Going To Repair My Electric Car?
This is the BMW i3s the content car that I bought a few week ago but it wasn’t the original one that I bought or was going to buy about a month or so ago that had to go back but it did highlight a point to me it led me down a Garden
Path so to speak where I came to realize that some of the content cars that I’m keeping an eye on because I tend to have at least half a dozen in my sites as it were well if I did buy them who’s going to repair them
Let me take you back to what started this all off so as I said it wasn’t the i3s it was actually a Renault Zoey that I bought it was getting delivered in fact it got delivered to my workplace and it was a 40 KW hour 2017 I think
Very good price battery owned and that was going to be the next car however it arrived I had look at it falter heater the main independent dealer should I say it was very good he said I’ll tell you what you get it fixed I’ll pay for it
And that saves us taking the car back him fixing it and then delivering it again and so forth so that’s what I agree you so I drove the car back from my work got back here and by that point in The Heavy Rain it was just well it
Was peeing inside the car there was water coming in the inside of what turned out to be the windscreen there was well whatever it was it got to the point where I’m like I’m not sure I want this car anymore if I’m honest who knows what’s gone wrong with the electrics
With all this water coming in maybe that’s what’s wrong with the heater and when water comes in how long’s it been doing this for so far so anyway he took the car back give him my deposit back all was good so then I set my sight on
The market again got Auto Trader out started cycling through one of those was a used Tesla Model S and I’m talking about a 2014 15 16 car here that had 150 to 200,000 M on it I thought that might make interesting content what’s a real
Hyper mile used Model S going to be like to live with in fact let me know in the comments if you think that might be interesting okay so if I buy a used Model S let’s use that specific example in this video If I buy that and something goes wrong like the heater
Goes wrong the basics any garage can take care of the suspension components the tires the you know the the the the obvious stuff anyone could do that and has done I’m I’m not not got any issues with that sort of stuff the high voltage batteries and things like that again I’m
Not really worried about that at all especially as the majority of them are still under warranty anywhere but with the Tesla the batter’s out of warranty the car the whole thing is out of warranty essentially so I rung up a few of the garages that I’ve used in the
Past there’s the one that I take the TT that’s a a vag specialist there Mercedes mini specialist I’ve used a few but essentially none of them would look at a used Tesla Model S which wasn’t surprising I didn’t expect them to but I thought I’d ask anyway because it’s
Different isn’t it even though there are some shared components of cars just a car there is something specific to EVS that you would need to know certain uh equipment that you would need and so forth so I then did some more searching and there’s an organization called he
The hybrid and electric vehicle repair Alliance I think it is and it’s a great ARG iation it has to absolutely exist for EVS to become a repairable thing for outside of the dealer Network anyway and if fact let me get my phone so I don’t get this wrong Our member garages have
Been checked for the right qualifications tools and equipment to service and repair electric and hybrid vehicles all of our members get support from us too so you’ve got the experience not only of your local garage but our entire network so it’s great they support each other and if one comes
Across a problem that the others might know how to fix fantastic uh he actually says here under repairs regardless of whether you need a mechanical repair electrical repair or a repair to the high voltage system so that’s the main batteries in there uh a network of leading electric vehicle repair
Specialist can get you back on the road fantastic so I looked at the map on uh he’s website and as I’ve known for a couple of years there are two in the closest town to me two hea uh garages that are part of the alliance whatever
Two members I rung the first one and said I’m thinking about buying a used Model S would you be able to repair it diagnose it maybe not absolutely everything but at least would you can I bring it to you no we don’t we don’t do
That I’m afraid no we don’t do that okay that’s odd uh move to the second one essentially the same thing now we just service anot electric cars we we don’t we don’t repair them we don’t have the tools for that we don’t have the equipment we’re just servicing mot
That’s all we’re doing I’m like well I thought you would remember M of he well we we choose to do whatever we choose to do as you’d expect from an independent garriage they can’t force them to repair something but he did say on their website that all of our members can do
This they said they’re physically not able to do it they can they don’t have the equipment they don’t have this so then I run the third closest garage the fourth the fifth the sixth and at that point I just give up because they all said the same thing
With my specific example I used Tesla Model S out of warranty won’t even look at it some of them would look at cuz I gave them the Renault Zoe heater as an example would would you look at that and some said well yeah we’d probably have a crack at it um but
When it comes to now not interested in testas I’m sorry servicing an basic repairs only so at this point I contacted he I said I’m having real difficulties here and I think it was the ninth closest garage to me that they found on my behalf so that was nice that
Would actually look to use Model S unfortunately for me anyway from door to door it’s a roughly 60 mile round trip now I don’t want this to become a hea rant because that’s not my intention they they need to exist they’re doing good work but that map I’m sorry he and
I did email you about this my last email was saying what I’m about to say now and I didn’t get reply from that is it’s misleading because quite frankly I thought there was all these garages and there isn’t it’s not your fault but it’d
Be nice if we had a tiered map the do service in mots these actually repair them I I don’t know that it each changing clearly but forgetting that for a second I’m in a situation where I’m not sure if I want to do this Model S thing now what if something does go
Wrong I’m going to have to rely on Tesla now I know they will fix it I’m not saying we’ll end up with undrivable cars that will not happen but who would take an 11y old golf that’s done 150,000 Mi on it to Volkswagen for example you you
Just does happen does it you know there be some I guess but ultimately you take it to a specialist or someone local and dealers now are getting fewer and far between for financial reasons I guess and to be perfectly blunt I wouldn’t trust the main dealer with a weird issue
I’ve got 20 years of experience which basically backs me up on this and I’m sure lots out there will have the same thing but so many stories the last one I had oh you need a new ECU £950 what if it’s not the ECU would look favorably on any future
Work they just replace components it seems until it fixes the problem they actually diagnose it or most of them don’t there will be some out there that are actually quite good I’m not having a main dealer bash but quite frankly I don’t want them to diagnose a weird
Issue I want somebody who knows what they’re doing and there’s only a few people in the deal Network that probably know that as it turned out in that specific example the ECU that wanted to replace on my car turned out it was an injector fault £5 changed it myself
Problem fixed because the specialist looked at it rather than the main dealer so whether you agree with that or not is a material I will not want to take my Tesla to a Tesla main dealer because of the cost I would prefer take it somewhere local support the local
Garages and it wouldn’t be as expensive quite frankly yesterday I read from somebody on one of these groups someone I actually know uh I think it was 950 Tesla wanted to charge him to repair whatever issue it was it something to do with the the mount on a one of the
Motors or something took it to a a known independent specialist EV specialist £250 later it was fixed and they replaced a completely different part that Tesla wanted to replace so it wouldn’t have fixed the problem anyway so there’s a little bit of that there’s a little bit of the finance of it either
Way we need local garages to do the EV fixy thing don’t we now don’t get me wrong I’m not having to go any garage here because it’s a huge investment to get this level of diagnostic equipment the training you know it’s a small industry if you think about it we’re
Talking about cars that were probably from well when did the EVS come out in the UK 2011 realistically 2012 and even then we’re talking in a few hundred maybe a few thousand in the first two or three years I think it was 2020 when they said they sold more
Electric full electric vehicles in 2020 than all the previous eight years combined or something like that so in terms of cars that are well out of warranty that you would want to take to an independent garage we’re probably only looking at a few thousand here out
Of millions upon millions in the UK even if you counted every full electric vehicle in the country I think it only corresponds to about 2% of all cars that are that are on the road so to speak so we still got a very small you know
Market I guess for these garages to to pitch themselves to a we can repair your EV it’s not going to happen over night but ultimately it has to happen certainly if the government are adamant that we’re going down the full electric route the garages need to be in place
Before we get to that stage not the other way around it’s it’s a bit chicken in the egg but that’s where problems that I’m not sure how are fixed to be honest need to be solved whether it’s a government grant or incentive or interest free loans or something for
Garages to actually put this investment in to adapt to an Ever Change in industry and it’s happened many many times before 15 20 years ago I remember reading Lots about all these ecus are going to kill the local garage cuz they won’t have the equipment to fix them no
They’ll just adapt or at least those that want to will adapt so I’m I’m I’m stuck I’m in a position where I’m like I’m not sure what to do here do I take a chance on this because I’ll be selling this car on I don’t want to sell a car
That’s got faults to someone else especially being on social media that’ be I won’t get away with that but ultimately it’s annoying that this is where it is for for a couple years I thought I have this safety net of these local garages that clearly don’t exist
Um and ultimately we need the cavel of this world which I have to mention because that’s all I’ll get in the comment section when I put this video sort of speak in a tweet all I got is take it to these ticket to these ticket to these I’m well aware of Cleveley but
They’re a 400 mile round trip from me that ain’t going to happen and before you say they do a mobile service that ain’t for everything and it certainly isn’t anything that would require diagnostics for a day or two they’re not going to keep the car on the roadside
For two or 3 days while they poke at it or regas the air whatever I’ve I did ring them about the Renault Zoe and they said we need that in for the fault year for two or three days to diagnose it it’s not you can’t do that in a mobile
Environment that’s ridiculous and of course you can’t it makes sense so it’s not a mobile service that they’re going to do anything anywhere it’s obviously restricted to the basics which is fine and if I had a cleevely down the road would be SED the fact that you ask anybody in the electric vehicle
Community who would you take an electric vehicle to outside of the dealer networks oh well I would take it to these guys we’ve got one garage that I know of anyway that has got a reputation for this in the whole country you can see where I’m going this is something
That the government the council somebody needs to do something about this is why I keep on badgering my NP about such things because I’m not one of those that just sits back and thinks well it might fix itself I would like to shout at somebody until something’s fixed or
Highlight a problem is probably more accurate until the problem goes away because then if we do that at everything we can find when it comes to EVS anyway there won’t be any problems to shout about to complain about so we will end up with what we need I don’t want to
Just put my fingers in my ears and go oh I’ll be fine electric vehicles are brilliant blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah so that’s it really I have an EV which I really like and I’m not worried about but if I ended up
Getting a Model S of that age or even a model three my car that my Tesla Model 3 is out of warranty right now the battery and drivetrain isn’t but the car itself is so if the heater goes on that there’s an inment problem or whatever I’m going
To have to take it to Tesla which I don’t particularly mind but again there’s a cost involved to that so yeah it’s not exactly what I’d call A A positive EV video on this I’m sorry guys but again we need to highlight these issues rather than pretend they don’t
Exist otherwise they definitely won’t get fixed so let me know please do let me know in the comments do you know of a garage and we’ll stick with the same example that would actually fix or diagnose a Model S you know a well out of warranty full electric model S EV Zoe
Leaf there’s not many other options of that a because there’s not many cars around but do you know of one outside of the one I’ve already mentioned anyway does this what you your FS I’m talking about old used ones now of course are you happy to stick with
The dealers are you do you have someone nearby does it change anything for you it’s not so much paying for the repair it’s the inconvenience of it all again I would to take a day or two off to get a car repaired shouldn’t be a thing you
Got subscribe and like and all the usual YouTube crap which YouTube channels say for a very specific reason if you ever want to help a channel out just put a comment in Click a like button because any interaction with a YouTube channel will help the algorithm so to speak push
It on other people so you don’t have to give anyone many money just type a comment in what can I get you to type in for those that are still watching at this late stage of which there is probably very few H tell me a joke
That’s what we usually do tell me a joke in the comment section because then it will help the channel um might give someone a laugh so again thanks for watching uh look forward to your jokes try and keep it clean social media clean uh and I’ll see you soon
I’ve been buying used EV’s this year and after looking at others I’ve come across an issue!
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