Electric Vehicle (EV) may require less maintenance, but do not be fooled into thinking these types of cars are service-free.

So, what do you have to maintain under the hood of an EV? (Or wherever else place they keep these things?)

Let us look at the top five EV maintenance needs. Ranking in order of the cost on overall ownership of the car.

5. Tyre Tracking

Keeping tyres aligned is common to all vehicles, and it matters more to EVs, due to the swap of the heavy transmission and engine for a massive battery that puts a lot of load on tyres. Plus, EVs have killer torque, which can twist those tyres hard and that tends to shred tyres as well. You want to keep an eye on tyre tracking and get maximum tyre life by regular check-ups on all four corners.

We checked with Tesla, a leading electric vehicle manufacturer, and they say to check tyre tracking every 6,250 miles.

4. Braking System

Electric cars do their braking via regeneration the electromagnetic resistance that puts the power back in the battery. This point is not about the pads and rotors, although we’ll get to that, but the fluid that puts pressure on the pads to the rotors. Maintaining this is key because if it gets full of water or gets stagnant and polluted, it does not work right.
Some of the time, it will also depend on how you drive and where you drive. So, if you use the braking system quite a bit, and you do not want it to go wrong when you need it, check this one regularly. The majority of EV manufacturers recommend every two years or 25,000 miles.

3. Coolant

In an electric car that’s right, there’s no engine, but there’s a cooling system – you don’t want to see a fire you can grill a steak over coming out of your EV. It needs its coolant replaced every four years or 50,000 miles.

2. Brake Service

Now we are talking pads and rotors, the friction parts. There is comparatively, much more time in them compared to a combustion car because most of your braking, as we mention before is done by the drag of regeneration when you lift off the accelerator, but it’s going to vary widely based on how many miles you drive what style of driving you do, what terrain you drive in and over and what regeneration settings you like to select on your EV

1. Battery

The main maintenance item on any EV is the part that puts the E in front of the V. The electric cars main, or motive power battery is the heart of your car’s range. Therefore, its liveability, as well as your car’s residual value, needs to be taken care of, just like a regular combustion car.

EV batteries do not so much die as they fade away. If you are going to leave it on a drive, for a couple of weeks, it will discharge its power if there is no connection to a charging point.

EV batteries can suffer when sitting too long in overly hot or cold temperatures or just being parked. So, it needs an electric connection to manage outside temperatures below 0° Celsius or above 32°C.

As our top five explains, an EV is a lot easier and cleaner to maintain than dealing with fluid and oil changes, but that does not mean they are service-free.

You’re welcome to come and speak to our ‘smart’ guys at Mr T Autos to help you keep on top of servicing and maintaining your EV.

Call us on 01628 788 880 or book via andy@mrtautos.co.uk or message us on our Facebook, Google or LinkedIn