All three of those properties do apply to a Nissan Leaf. There are third party batteries and you can replace individual cells. But the lack of integrated cooling that enables this means the battery doesn't last. Better to get a car where the battery lasts the life of the vehicle.
> defective parts usually break in boring ways
I think this is far more true on an EV than an ICE. Batteries generally fail very predictably and are generally still usable even when degraded.
>There are third party batteries and you can replace individual cells.
I think one could argue this but the fact is that any one of those cells can destroy the battery, giving you thousands of little time bombs stacked on top of each other. The labor to change one cell is also approximately as much as to change the entire battery on any EV, and labor is a huge part of the cost of replacement. Nobody is going to take an EV apart to just change one cell. On the other hand, people do often take whole engines apart to change seals that cost $20.
>But the lack of integrated cooling that enables this means the battery doesn't last. Better to get a car where the battery lasts the life of the vehicle.
Better to not get an EV if you want it to last or even be a collector's item. "Life of the vehicle" can mean "practically as long as you feel like fixing it" if the design is good.
> Batteries generally fail very predictably and are generally still usable even when degraded.
We don't know how unstable these EV batteries will become in 10, 20, or 50 years. An ICE car would not explode or burn down after such a long period, even with the heaviest use and abuse. But an EV can easily do so. Then there are the flooding and accident risks. I am seriously nervous having old lithium batteries in my house inside of old consumer gadgets, and those are tiny. EV batteries magnify that problem 1000x.
> Nobody is going to take an EV apart to just change one cell. On the other hand, people do often take whole engines apart to change seals that cost $20.
Hobbyists regularly do both. Professionals charge thousands to do either.
> Better to not get an EV if you want it to last or even be a collector's item. "Life of the vehicle" can mean "practically as long as you feel like fixing it" if the design is good.
Neither are going to be a straightforward to keep running 50 years from now as a car from the seventies, but a Tesla is going to be far easier to keep running for 50 years than a modern gasoline car. 1/10th the number of moving parts, far less wiring, far fewer computers, far fewer part count, et cetera, far less regular maintenance, et cetera.
> We don't know how unstable these EV batteries will become in 10, 20, or 50 years
Yes we do.
> An ICE car would not explode or burn down after such a long period, even with the heaviest use and abuse.
Yes they do, and at a higher frequency than electric cars do.
> I am seriously nervous having old lithium batteries in my house inside of old consumer gadgets, and those are tiny. EV batteries magnify that problem 1000x.
No they're not. EV batteries are properly managed, unlike random gadgets. They're safer, not more dangerous.
> defective parts usually break in boring ways
I think this is far more true on an EV than an ICE. Batteries generally fail very predictably and are generally still usable even when degraded.