Tesla is the cheapest car brand to maintain long-term, as indicated by Consumer Reports data
Tesla owners have to cough up the least amount of money for maintenance-related costs, according to a Consumer Reports analysis cited by a recent Tesla tweet. While this may come as a shock to EV naysayers who are firm in their belief that EVs are inherently unreliable and expensive, in reality, this finding is nothing out of the ordinary.
As a matter of fact, EVs have far fewer moving mechanical parts when compared to their ICE counterparts. As a result of this, ICE vehicles require frequent and often expensive services, while EVs barely require any. Over the past few months, we have extensively covered several ultra-high mileage Teslas, including one with over 430,000 miles on the clock, and the owners had only one thing to say - their EVs required almost zero services, and were still on their original battery and motors.
In Consumer Reports' data on the cheapest car brands to maintain long-term, Tesla ranked at the very top, followed by Buick and Toyota, with Land Rover lurking around at the very bottom, which should not be a surprise to anyone, considering the luxury brands are seldom associated with cheap running costs. For a detailed look at the chart, Tesla's tweet has been linked below.
Tesla vehicles cost the least to maintain per Consumer Reports pic.twitter.com/cc324ajyE2
— Tesla (@Tesla) August 7, 2024
Now, of course, this may not be everyone's experience. It is undeniable that Tesla vehicles often have poor fit and finish, and the company has issued several massive recalls for similar reasons. However, this is entirely Tesla's shortcoming and not due to the nature of EVs by any stretch of the imagination. EVs and ICEs also have a few commonalities in terms of periodic servicing, such as replacing the air filters, occasional tire changes, brake-pad replacements (far less frequent, thanks to regenerative braking) and it never hurts to have your vehicle inspected now and then.
Just recently, Tesla published a report that indicated even after clocking 200,000 miles - a typical total mileage for a car's lifetime - the Model S and Model Y lost only around 12% and 15% of range on average, which proves EV batteries can easily outlast the car itself, an extremely impressive feat, essential to minimize the car's carbon footprint (while being light on the owner's pockets).
Paired with impressively low maintenance costs, ever-increasing electric range, and impressive long-term reliability, there is barely any reason to not switch to electric, especially as affordability inevitably improves.
Yup. This is my service history since September of 2021 when I took delivery.
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) August 7, 2024
Our Model Y has never seen a service center. pic.twitter.com/1DlFEEKYMr
