As EV sales now move more into the mainstream, the questions around EV servicing are now starting to follow the typical time-taught tyre-kicking pattern with customers increasingly being over-focused on EV service history and it being a critical factor in the choice of used EV purchased.
In this article we will be discussing how relevant is service history, as well as the implications for some manufacturer warranties.
As most consumers are aware, EVs are essentially far simpler machines than your traditional ICE cars, with far fewer movable parts and serviceable components.
This not only makes them more reliable, it also means that their servicing requirement is greatly reduced.
A typical annual EV service is like half a traditional ICE cars service, requiring basically a series of checks, and a pollen filter change (which has absolutely no impact on the EVs performance and longevity, and you could certainly argue is not really necessary on an annual basis.) Most of the critical checks are actually also done on your annual MOT.
“EVs have far less serviceable components making them more reliable and routine servicing less essential”
Every 2 years it is worth adding to this additional brake system checks and lubrication, and at much longer intervals (typically 60k miles) it can be worth changing the coolant liquid.
But generally that is it. It is a fraction of what you need to do to maintain a combustion engine system, and the critical components such as the motor, battery and charging system have no serviceable parts at all.
So would you be right in thinking our advice is not to bother servicing your EV? No – whilst your EV will perform happily for years without ever having a service (for example most Teslas won’t require any servicing for 8 years or more), whilst having just its MOT checks, our advice is if you are planning to sell your EV in the future is to follow the manufacturers servicing guideline for your EV.
For some (BMW and VW for example) they ask for a service every 2 years, and others like Tesla, servicing is only required when asked for by the car and typically not before 8 years or 100k miles. The majority however are still asking for an annual service, but knowing what is involved and required in EV servicing, this is just a revenue-generating scheme by the manufacturers to support their dealer network. Due to the greater reliability of EVs and the resulting reduction of service department revenues, servicing, and often highly overpriced servicing, is being used to help make up for dealership’s lost revenues as we all move across into EVs.
“While consumers still think EV service history is important, then it is good to keep up with servicing schedules if you plan to sell your car in the near future”
The reason we always advise customers to try and maintain their EVs manufacturer’s service schedule, is that we are increasingly seeing how much it bothers the new swathe of EV buyers, who still have their mindset stuck in ICE car ownership and rules/traditions.
Although there is a very strong case for it being completely unnecessary, this sadly means that presently to maintain the maximum value of your EV if you wanted to sell it in the near future, having a full-service history is still viewed as important to many buyers.
Is it important to service your EV – no. Is it advisable to do for the time being – yes, at least until consumer education grows and they realise, like Tesla, routine regular servicing is largely unnecessary.
There are fundamentally 2 categories of manufacturer warranty. You have the statutory 3-year warranty, which covers the majority of car manufacturer car warranties. 3 years is a statutory minimum car warranty bound in law. As a result ‘all’ manufacturers have to look after your EV in its first 3 years. This is irrespective of servicing schedules being maintained, unless a manufacturer is able to prove that the fault is caused by a lack of service. Since there are fundamentally no serviceable parts they can’t really do this. For example they could not refuse to repair a charging system fault because you didn’t have a pollen filter changed at year 2!
“Manufacturers should honour their statutory 3-year warranty regardless of service history”
So you could certainly argue that EVs with a 3-year warranty, servicing and service records are not important, as the 3-year warranty should be honoured regardless, and once that statutory period has elapsed there will be no car warranty in place (battery warranties are separate and will still be in play, however with no serviceable parts are not affected by servicing ), so no manufacturer warranty will be provided regardless of service history or lack of.
If you are keen to have warranty cover in place after the 3-year period, a 3-party warranty should be purchased to give you that extra security and peace of mind, most of which will not have a minimum service requirement, unless they could prove issues are caused by a lack of servicing, which of course they cannot, due to a lack of serviceable components in an EV.
Things become more complicated when manufacturers offer a car warranty longer than 3 years. This is known as a ‘discretionary’ warranty as it is not bound by the same legal requirements as a 3-year warranty. So fundamentally manufacturers can choose their own rules and whether to honour a warranty or not.
The main used EV brands this relates to at the moment are Kia and MG with their ‘7-year’ warranties, and Hyundai and Renault to a lesser degree with their ‘5-year’ warranties.
All these brands are still bound by the same rules for the first 3 years of their warranties, which always have to be honoured, and to cover all of the car. However, after 3 years they can apply their own ‘discretionary’ rules, and reduce the cover of their warranties.
“Manufacturer’s warranties past 3 years offer greatly reduced cover”
These longer warranties are essentially marketing tools, and we know from our experience that the manufacturers will do everything they can to wriggle out of honouring the post-3-year parts of their warranty, and past 3 years what is actually covered reduces enormously.
For example the list of items not covered in MG’s 7-year warranty is extensive:
This is a long list and covers the majority of the car parts you are most likely to have issues with in 3-7 years, therefore, in reality, their 7-year warranty provides you with very little actual cover, and it is similar to the coverage of other manufacturers in the discretionary part of their warranties past 3 years. Be sure to study the small print of a manufacturer’s warranty and its exclusions and caveats before you apply too much value to it.
Due to the power of marketing and the consumer belief that their cover is better than it actually is, consumers hugely value the hope that comes with having a longer manufacturer’s warranty in place.
The manufacturers know this and they exploit it to try and make sure all serving is done as per guidelines and at one of their main dealers, to maximise their revenues. This is perhaps the biggest con in the motor trade, as whilst we know issues will not be the result of a lack of servicing, they use this to make sure as much customer money is flowing their way as possible, as they can use the discretionary element to refuse to honour their warranty for any reason, and this includes not servicing the car in their network for exorbitantly high prices.
“Maintaining a main dealer service history in order to maintain the manufacturer’s warranty can be a false economy, due to high costs and low cover”
We really do not like this practice at all, as manufacturers are trying to push their customers to spend lots of extra money on overpriced and unnecessary servicing with them over the lifetime of the car, whilst at the same time providing very limited actual coverage after the statuatory3 years, and always trying their very best not to honour the promised extra years of warranty.
For example with Kia if any of the car’s service at any time are done within a tight 50 miles or 30 days past their guidelines, then the whole warranty past 3 years becomes invalid and not honoured, which is just shameful when they know that the actual service has no bearing on any issues being potentially claimed for.
“There are lots of reasons to choose the right EV for you, and a full dealer service history should not be the main one”
Sadly consumers are placing lots of weight on these brands having a full and preferably main dealer service history. In many cases, this is not valid due to missed deadlines, or dealerships not actually stamping service books, and lost paperwork – this happens all the time.
As a result some really great cars are being missed or undervalued by consumers the fear that they will miss out on some potential long-term cover by the manufacturer, even though unlike their expectations lots of the car is no longer covered by the assumed warranty.
Our advice in these situations is that if you want extra warranty cover for a used car you are better off purchasing a 3rd party extended warranty that ‘actually’ covers the whole of the car.
“Buying a 3rd party extended warranty can be cheaper than maintaining a full dealer service history and it can provide you with greater cover”
You will most likely find that the extra cost of this warranty is covered by the reduced cost of main dealer servicing, and it will also provide you with greater parts cover, and it is more likely to be honoured than a manufacturer’s discretionary warranty.
This means as a consumer you are then freer to choose the better car (condition and value for example) over the one that hopefully has the manufacturer’s extra cover, again saving money that can offset the cost of purchasing a better 3rd party warranty.
So in summary we believe the main dealer’s over-priced and insisted upon servicing is possibly the biggest con in the motor trade, and hopefully the information in this article will help EV consumers make a better and more informed choice on the cars they buy and the money they decide is right to spend on routine servicing.
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