I have a Tesla model S so I know a thing or two about not dealing with dealerships.

As for safety recalls, the Tesla recall involved an over-the-air software update for one, and mailing out a new NEMA 14-50 adapter for the other. In neither case did I have to go to the Tesla service center. They later added a titanium shield to better protect the battery but there is no urgent need to bring the car in to have it installed and it can be installed in a matter of minutes.

As far as maintenance, there's also many things electric cars don't have. They are extremely simple mechanically, with vastly fewer moving parts. There are only about a dozen moving parts in the entire drivetrain, including the electric motor.Dealers will lose a lot of money on service because there are far fewer things to break or the parts are more reliable due to being fully electric.

While the tires and suspension are the same, most other things are not and service makes most of its money off of the big periodic service changes at 30, 60, 90 and 120K miles where things like timing belts are replaced and other big maintenance items. It should be far more reliable and there's far less maintenance to perform with an EV.

1. Brakes on electric cars will last far longer since most braking will be regenerative. On my Tesla I use the brake pedal far less than with any other car I've driven.
2. No oil changes or oil filters
3. No belts to change
4. No spark plugs
5. No complex transmission. No clutch, torque converter, transmission fluid, radiator, etc. No transmission fluid or filters to change.
6. No engine air filters
7. Much lower chance of an oil leak since there are far fewer components that need oil.
8. Air conditioning system is completely sealed, no compressor/clutch mounted to the engine block and required flexible hoses. Much lower risk of it leaking or the compressor failing.
9. No oxygen sensors, exhaust systems, catalytic converters or smog equipment
10. No valves, camshafts, piston rings, timing belts or chains
11. No spark plugs, distributors, ignition coils and associated hardware
12. No throttle body, mass airflow sensors, etc.
13. No fuel injectors, fuel pump or fuel filter, no fuel tank, charcoal canister.
14. No belt-driven alternator with brushes to wear out
15. No starter motor and solenoid to wear out
16. No hydraulic power steering pump or fluid (though many cars are now moving to electric power steering).

Instead, my Model S has:

1. water-cooled induction motor. The induction motor contains no permanent magnets or brushes, simplifying assembly/disassembly if it should ever have to be done. There are no friction points other than the bearings on each end of the shaft and those are sealed and lubricated for 12 years. The 416HP 443 ft-lb torque motor is the size of a watermelon, far smaller than any ICE engine of comparable power. An induction motor is stupidly simple in design and should last forever.
2. water-cooled inverter for driving the electric motor. Again, these tend to be extremely reliable with no moving parts.
3. water-cooled charging inverter(s) under the rear seats, easily accessible. Again, these should be extremely reliable.
4. water-cooled/heated battery pack, hot swappable and easily accessible. Again, this should last a long time. Warranty is for 8 years, unlimited miles for 85KWh battery. In the case of the Nissan Leaf they are having a lot of issues in hot climates because of the lack of proper battery cooling support, other car manufacturers are not having issues. Even at 50,000 miles people are finding the loss of range to be fairly minimal.
5. single speed 9.73:1 gear reduction transmission between the motor and differential consisting of only two gears internally. Part of the same module that holds the inverter and electric motor. This is as opposed to the many mechanical and hydraulic parts in a typical transmission.
6. heat pump system with a sealed compressor with sealed tubes, no flexible hoses carrying freon. This is a more complex since it also interacts with the water coolant loop. The cooling needed for the electric motor and inverter is much less than is needed for a gasoline engine due to much higher efficiency. The sealed electric compressor is a lot more reliable since there's no seals to leak or clutch to fail. It's more like a compressor on a home air conditioner or refrigerator which tend to last an extremely long time.
7. Electric power steering, easily accessible for repair if needed.
8. A heavy duty power connector for charging. If it needs to be repaired it is easily accessible to replace.

My Tesla is also far easier to work on if it needs it than an ICE car. Everything is readily accessible since there's no big engine and transmission in the way. The electric power steering, heat pump compressor, etc. can be accessed just by removing a single panel under the car and/or removing the plastic bin for the frunk under the hood. The entire drive train can be replaced in a matter of a few hours since it's a single module with the differential, gear reduction, electric motor and inverter. (they install it in under 5 minutes at the factory (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?... )).

The suggested service interval is 12,000 miles or 12 months. Most of it involves inspections. They top up the washer fluid, replace the windshield wiper blades and cabin air filter, rotate the tires and do a wheel alignment and wash and vacuum the car. Perhaps the only major thing they might have to do is flush the coolant at some point and flush the brake fluid. Firmware updates are automatically handled over the air though if it is in for service they will load the latest software onto it. The car can also be diagnosed remotely in many cases.

For example, mine was one of the early cars that received a defective 12v battery. Tesla contacted me about replacing it before it failed. Almost all of the issues I have had where my car has been brought in for service were for squeaks and rattles which were addressed in later production cars. By now all of the issues I have seen were addressed so new cars coming off of the production line will be even more reliable. Having a VIN in the low 5000s does have some drawbacks but Tesla has been very proactive at fixing issues discovered in their early cars.

Another thing, if you go to a Tesla service center you will see that the floor is white and the techs aren't nearly as grubby as a typical mechanic. Most stuff is far better protected from the elements than in a typical car.

As the owner of a Tesla I agree. The roads and freeways in my area are in terrible shape. The problem is that for most EV owners doing this would be difficult since there's no way to differentiate power drawn by the vehicle vs power drawn by the rest of the house. In my case I have two meters installed so I get a lower rate so this is possible.

I imagine that this would be difficult with most of the free public charging infrastructure as well unless the power usage was fully monitored. Also, for Tesla there's the supercharging stations which are free to use.

Most road wear and tear is due to the heavy trucks.

Sounds like the story a friend of mine told me. His company decided to manufacture a product in China. All of the prototypes and early production runs were great. Then they had the company do a big production run and all of the products were missing their electronics (and the Chinese company claimed that they fully passed their Q/A testing). The mistake they made was to pay up front. The company does most of its manufacturing in Mexico since it's easy to fly down there and make sure that things are being built properly.

A friend of mine who works on designing drivetrains at Tesla said that the problem with parts from China is consistency. Often the quality will vary from batch to batch and they'll make substitutions, not seeming to understand that it's not acceptible to do this. You can tell them all you want that you need a certain quality leve, it doesn't matter. Chinese steel is notorious for not being consistent. Once manufacturing is underway they'll make substitutions whether you want them to or not. Ofteh the first parts are great but then they'll start making changes and substitutions where quality suffers, often in order to cut cost, but also often due to their own suppliers trying to save a buck.

Another friend of mine works at a company that decided to manufacture a product in China. All of the early production runs were great and met all the requirements. Then they did a big production run and the products came back having passed the Chinese Q/A even though all of the electronics were missing. Their mistake was that they paid up front.

Unless you have very tight quality control over the Chinese manufacturer you will be screwed.

Tesla also manufacturers more of their own parts than just about any other car manufacturer. They do their own casting, injection molding, etc. The biggest component they don't make (yet) is the batteries which are made by Panasonic who makes the best batteries.

Not at all. As a Tesla owner I can charge using any J1772 charger with a small adapter in my glove box. I can charge at just about any RV site and can use most 220v outlets and 110v in a pinch. Tesla's grid has been wildly successful so far among Tesla owners.

The Tesla charging grid has done quite well. Tesla's supercharger network is currently the only way to drive from San Diego to Vancouver or from LA to New York or along the eastern seaboard. Neither ChaDeMo nor SAE have anyting even close. The Tesla charging network is also expanding at a very rapid pace. By the end of the year most major routes will be covered. Where it needs to expand is along the not so major routes.

I had no problem driving from the Bay Area to Reno and am planning a trip up to Seattle in a few months which shouldn't be a problem.

Tesla can also easily make an adapter for the SAE combo plug since their signalling is compatible, the problem is that there are very few SAE charging stations, far fewer than Tesla superchargers. ChaDeMo is also extremely spotty in terms of where it is located. You might find it at Nissan dealerships, but it's in no way a network with stations placed along major routes.

For 95% of my driving it takes me 10 seconds per day to charge. It takes 5 seconds to plug in at night and 5 seconds to unplug in the morning to a full battery (in my case I usually charge it to around 60-70% for my daily needs). At home it takes 5 1/2 hours to charge from empty to 265 miles of range but that time is almost always irrelivant since it occurs while I'm sleeping or doing other things. The only time I go into a gas station is to buy a snack and use the restroom. I have found generally on road trips the amount of time it takes to charge at a supercharger hasn't been a big deal. The money I would spend on gas easily pays for a nice meal or two and by the time I'm done eating the car is ready to go. My only complaint is that they need more supercharging stations.

The problem is that the amount of equipment needed to control the current takes a significant amount of space. Each supercharger is basically 12 charging modules hooked up in parallel. The car comes with one and a second one is optional. For example I have two in my car to handle 20KW of charging. The superchargers are fairly large, maybe half the size of a large home refrigerator with a big loud fan on it for cooling. They basically bypass everything in the car and go straight into the battery.

Actually Tesla does adhere to the standard for communications though their connector is different.

Tesla's superchargers use the same signalling standard as the J1772 combo plug. The car tells the charger what voltage and current to put into the battery so the charger is not tied to any one type of battery.

Most other automakers don't really want to sell EVs, plus they tend to have a big NIH syndrome. Just look how well they're implementing support for the combo plug. As far as I know, the only companies that make money selling EVs are Tesla and Nissan (which pushes ChaDeMo).

There is no cost to the taxpayers. The cost of charging is built into the price of the car. As it is, electricity is dirt cheap for supercharging. It probably cost them $5 for a full charge or less and most owners don't charge at the superchargers all that often since they are located such that it's more convenient to just charge at home.

In my case there's one a few miles from my house but I rarely use it. It's just more convenient to charge at home rather than wait to charge at the factory.

It's $2000 and you can buy it at any point through their web site. Most people are buying the 85Kwh battery which includes access to the supercharger network. The $2000 is also there to help offset the cost of the extra hardware that is installed in the cars. Originally you would have to pay $2000 when you got the car to have the extra hardware installed. I think Tesla found that most people want this and that it's simpler to just always install the extra hardware.

As the owner of a model S the other standards, including the J1772, are indeed clunky. Tesla has managed to create a connector that is smaller than J1772 yet handles more power than any other DC charging solution out there. The same connector is electrically compatible with both J1772 and the J1772 combo plug.. Tesla has a patent on the connector as well since its design also makes it really easy to insert the connector since it basically funnels it into place. Having RGB LEDs on the outside funnel part of the connector is also rather cool. It indicates how fast it's charging (based on how fast it throbs green) or if there's a fault (if it lights up red) or if charging is delayed (blue). The connector that plugs in also has a button on it that pops open the charge port door. The connector also locks inside unless the owner has their key fob so somebody can't just pull out the connector or steal the portable charging cable.

Tesla has promised that the supercharger network is free for the life of the car. Considering that a full charge is probably under $5 it's not hard to build that into the price of the car. Access to the supercharger network cost $2000 for the 60KWh model and is included with the 85Kwh models. Typically owners don't use it all that frequently since it's just more convenient to plug in at home.