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... all BMW, Audi and my current Merc for the same quality reasons as you ...

In reliability tables now they tend do do badly.
  1. Subaru 90.66%
  2. Tesla 90.55%
  3. Kia 89.35%
  4. Porsche 89.16%
  5. Citroen 88.22%
  6. Peugeot 88.03%
  7. Mazda 88.01%
  8. Toyota 87.74%
  9. Jaguar 87.72%
  10. Land Rover 87.63%
  11. Honda 87.56%
  12. Lexus 87.17%
  13. Alfa Romeo 86.86%
  14. BMW 86.69%
  15. Nissan 86.54%
  16. Volvo 86.48%
  17. Hyundai 86.36%
  18. Cupra 86.28%
  19. Suzuki 86.26%
  20. MINI 86.26%
  21. Mitsubishi 86.09%
  22. Dacia 86.01%
  23. Skoda 86.00%
  24. SEAT 85.84%
  25. Mercedes 85.55%
  26. Vauxhall 85.50%
  27. Audi 85.43%
  28. Renault 85.30%
  29. Volkswagen 84.80%
  30. Ford 84.58%
  31. Fiat 84.13%
  32. MG 82.01%
It is not clear what the percentages relate to.

However it demonstrates that even the least reliable of cars are very close to the most reliable.

In position 5 - Citroen - 88%. In position 28 - Renault - 85%..

Conclusion - any small differences in reliability are probably inconsequential compared to the other considerations in car purchase - eg: price, performance, gizmos, distance to dealer etc.
 
Battery swapping would increase the cost of EV's due to the additional equipment needed. The practicalities of it dont add up. You cant simply slide in and out a battery pack of these weights without some serious engineering in both the car and the site equipment. The problems associated with connecting and disconnecting the high voltage/high current cables would be a nightmare. The battery condition could also be a very major factor, your 99% health battery gets swapped out and one with only 70% health due to abuse gets loaded = not a happy bunny. Many EV's have the battery as an integral part of the structure EG Tesla, VW etc.


It wont happen.
Most PHEV batteries also connect to the engine cooling system just to add to the complexity. I used to think that a standardized battery swapped at filling stations was the best way forward, with larger vehicles taking multiple units, there would be lots of advantages - till I worked on the cars - it's not.
 
In 2006 I went to buy a car. I looked at a Renault Scenic and a Skoda Octavia, and decided to buy the Scenic as the design suited us better. A week later I read a reliability table by chance - the Skoda was 5th out of 157, the Scenic 151st. The Scenic was a brilliant design, but gave us endless automatic gearbox problem.
 
Most PHEV batteries also connect to the engine cooling system just to add to the complexity.
I'd have to disagree with you on this one, theyre connected into climate control generally either with refrigerant directly or by water / antifreeze via a heat exchanger. My i3 has refrigerant lines directly into the battery and the AC compressor runs when rapid charging.
I used to think that a standardized battery swapped at filling stations was the best way forward, with larger vehicles taking multiple units, there would be lots of advantages - till I worked on the cars - it's not.
Agreed
 
... all BMW, Audi and my current Merc for the same quality reasons as you ...

In reliability tables now they tend do do badly.
  1. Subaru 90.66%
  2. Tesla 90.55%
  3. Kia 89.35%
  4. Porsche 89.16%
  5. Citroen 88.22%
  6. Peugeot 88.03%
  7. Mazda 88.01%
  8. Toyota 87.74%
  9. Jaguar 87.72%
  10. Land Rover 87.63%
  11. Honda 87.56%
  12. Lexus 87.17%
  13. Alfa Romeo 86.86%
  14. BMW 86.69%
  15. Nissan 86.54%
  16. Volvo 86.48%
  17. Hyundai 86.36%
  18. Cupra 86.28%
  19. Suzuki 86.26%
  20. MINI 86.26%
  21. Mitsubishi 86.09%
  22. Dacia 86.01%
  23. Skoda 86.00%
  24. SEAT 85.84%
  25. Mercedes 85.55%
  26. Vauxhall 85.50%
  27. Audi 85.43%
  28. Renault 85.30%
  29. Volkswagen 84.80%
  30. Ford 84.58%
  31. Fiat 84.13%
  32. MG 82.01%
Except, as mentioned, that's not a reliability chart, it's a satisfaction chart. Owners were asked over 36 odd categories. Reliability could come 10th or 2nd but it would be cancelled out by a positive response to a majority of the other 35 questions.

June 2024 based solely on reliability:

Lexus
Toyota
Mini
Suzuki
Mitsubishi
Honda
Hyundai
Kia
Volvo
Tesla

Subaru? Lovely cars but usual electrical issues.
 
lots of third party companies that can rebuild / repair ECU's etc.
That is fine but do not overlook the security aspect, there is more to just fitting a replacement ECU in that it often needs a download from the OEM which requires an account and access codes. An example was a Peugeot we had that started giving all sorts of electrical issues such as would not turn off and the wipers had a mind of there own and this was a module failure. Sourced a module and luckily the guy who was sorting it knew someone at the local main dealer who he does a lot of work for and got the required code for this vehicle and he had an account. It still took ages even when the original code was downloaded as it would not crank or start. The problem or one of them was this module came from a two door and this one had four doors so the module was seeing four door lock motors which just made it stop and shut down. Even when it was running there were issues with the fuel gauge and speedo because they needed some calibration data entered so all in not a simple job. The other issue is the actual wiring interconnects, these are not of a great quality and are often a source of failure on the older motors and changing a loom is not a five minute job, even just the engine loom can take a long time.
 
The practicalities of it dont add up
So you didn't read the article in Autocar I linked to then ?
It's a reality, has been running in China and is just being rolled out in Europe.
It'll only get better and more refined as it's taken up.
 
That is fine but do not overlook the security aspect, there is more to just fitting a replacement ECU in that it often needs a download from the OEM which requires an account and access codes. An example was a Peugeot we had that started giving all sorts of electrical issues such as would not turn off and the wipers had a mind of there own and this was a module failure. Sourced a module and luckily the guy who was sorting it knew someone at the local main dealer who he does a lot of work for and got the required code for this vehicle and he had an account. It still took ages even when the original code was downloaded as it would not crank or start. The problem or one of them was this module came from a two door and this one had four doors so the module was seeing four door lock motors which just made it stop and shut down. Even when it was running there were issues with the fuel gauge and speedo because they needed some calibration data entered so all in not a simple job. The other issue is the actual wiring interconnects, these are not of a great quality and are often a source of failure on the older motors and changing a loom is not a five minute job, even just the engine loom can take a long time.
That's why I said there are third party companies around that will repair / rebuild ECU's. They do this to the original ECU so it doesn't need coding / main deal access.
 
So you didn't read the article in Autocar I linked to then ?
I have seen the info before about battery swap systems and it really will not work for all of the reasons stated. Theres an article in Autocar years ago about Hydrogen, how good it was and it would be the saviour of ICE, look where we are!

It's a reality, has been running in China and is just being rolled out in Europe.
Time will tell, I'll wager it wont happen.

It'll only get better and more refined as it's taken up.
It'll only get better and more refined if it's taken up which is highly unlikely.
 
and ignoring all of the vehicle warnings which in my experience are plentiful.
Very much depends on type of car and age etc. Yes they all (apart from very very early cars) have petrol gauges but that’s the only certainty.
 
But only if they can recover the original image file, in many cases this is corrupt and the checksums fail so you have no choice but to get a clean download.
Not true, most of the issues with ECU's relate to input and output circuitry, these can be fixed with no issues to the coded data. I agree if it's reverse polarity jump start type of situation it's unlikely that they could fix that without access to main dealer tech.
 
Very much depends on type of car and age etc. Yes they all (apart from very very early cars) have petrol gauges but that’s the only certainty.
There isnt a single EV I know of that doesnt nag you to death when range is becoming short. Most link into inbuilt Sat Nav and start to show you where charging points are.
 
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