What concernes me is not the battery or the motor but rather the surrounding electronics in EV cars. I work as a tools repair guy and every day I look at failed bms inside tools battery packs. More often then not the lithium cells are fine but bms fails. Furthermore these battery packs are not serviceable. the bms inside these packs are suicidal bms wich mean when you disconnect cells, the bms shuts down and cannot be reactivated (and it is intentional from the manufacturers). You can't buy a new bms from the manufacturer. The 150$ pack is not usable anymore.
The reparability of todays car, EV's and ICE's, is getting harder to service yourself and many times the electronic modules will come in a big assembly and a big price. For example If I want to change only the on/off trigger inside a milwaukee brushless drill it comes as an assembly with the whole electronic module and the motor coil as well, these parts are not available separately. Of course the price is higher then buying a new drill.
For ICE cars it is going in that direction as electronics are more and more present. But you can still service the common and basic parts yourself like the alternator, gas pump etc etc. Independent repair shops can easily do the work for probably cheaper then the dealer. EV's on the other hand appart from the brake pads and rotors there is not much we as users can repair because of the complexity and those independent shops struggles when it comes to repair EV's. The dealer is almost the only place so imagine the price of parts and labor.
My point is, yes you save on gas and maintenance cost but in the long run will you save if for some reason the bms or other electronic module fails. I hope my bolt will last long and hope the parts are reliable and that GM didn't cheap on the bms because I would like to keep it for a long time. That is why I took an 7 years unlimited miles extended warranty to at least cover the duration the the car loan
