Ahhhh, the airport that looks and feels like an ikea store and where most folks are drinking beer at sunrise. I like that one.
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Yeah, I just can’t get amped up over that.
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I have a Renault Zoe, which does about 4 miles to the Kw. I pay 8 pence per KwH for charging at home overnight, so my “fuel” cost is 2 pence a mile. (British pennies, worth a bit more than American cents.)
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I understood that reference!
A French workmate was driving me around Paris to see the sites. I was shocked to see him literally push cars at least 6" when parking in this one spot near the Eiffel Tower. Both the one in front and the one behind. And did it again when we left.
It’s just how it’s done, he said.
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Wonderful. It’s why no Parisian ever left their handbrake fully on in the old days (unless they were parked on a hill) - just enough to bite. A firmly engaged handbrake would result in more damage to one’s car.
PS sights not sites - or were you visiting things like building sites? 
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Apparently there is talk that EVs will go back to using drum brakes, for this very reason. I guess that’s the sort of thing that will take years to shake out.
My wife is horrified by NYC parking into a tight spot.
Not sure why body work would cost more on EV? I have a VW ID.4 and had to fix a side mirror. Seemed similar costs to other VW. Is it just Tesla that is more expensive? That rings true; our friends who have both old and new Teslas complain all the time about how they have to have their car towed to the shop.
On the other hand, what will happen to the battery after 10 years or so? I decided to lease so I can just hand this one back.
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My first car was a 1979 VW Rabbit diesel. The bumper was a traditional hunk of metal with rubber thingies on the corners. In 1986, I got rear ended by a relatively new Camaro.
My VW’s bumper was unscratched. It had flexed in a bit on its spring and popped right back out (is what the tech later told me). No damage.
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Pepperidge Farm remembers chrome plated bumpers made of steel!
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Not sure if it’s about the body work specifically but this chart, and the report that I linked to upthread, indicate that collision repairs (which might include components besides body panels) are most expensive for Teslas specifically, but also more expensive for electric cars generally (even excluding Teslas) than they are for ICE cars generally.
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Tesla is just not set up for bodywork at all. They farm everything out to a third party, and those body shops know that Tesla will agree with whatever nonsense the body shop says and pass it on the the customer, with a markup.
My wife damaged the bumper on her Model 3. Tesla wanted almost $4000 for the repair. We went direct to the body shop who did the repair for $600.
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I wonder how much of that has to do with the “luxury” level of the car vs just the ICE vs EV. Presumably, the ICE number is including all ICE cars from the most basic discount cheap ICE to the $100K luxury car. I would assume the repair costs on a sub $20K ICE car are lower than on an over $60K ICE car. If for no other reason, than the cheaper car is just totaled and not repaired more often. Plus, the cheap one will have less tech in it.
I’ve seen stories about “EV’s are too expensive for Hertz” before and it always bothers me that the comparison is “EV to ICE”. Better might be “Tesla’s are to expensive for Hertz vs the rest of their fleet”. As Tesla’s do seem to have a higher overall cost. But, even that may be incorrect, since didn’t Hertz have a specific Tesla and Uber program, which is a different business plan that just renting to people on vacation. There’s also the category of car. It would be more informative to know how the Hertz Tesla business costs vs ICE costs compare for both the same category and business model, vs how the different business models compare to each other.
It would surprise nobody that renting a Tesla to Uber drivers compared to renting a sub compact hatchback or sedan to vacationers have different maintenance costs.
Maybe that difference is lost in the reporting or maybe it’s been selected out, there’s no way to tell from the reporting.
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I once had an old Volvo with large rubber bumpers that were mounted on two horizontal shock absorbers and thus extended about 3 inches in front of (and behind) the car.
I rear-ended a Vauxhall (GM) estate. No damage to me. No externally visible damage to him. Opened up his rear tailgate and the inside floor had been rolled up about 4 inches like the beginning of opening a sardine can.
That Volvo also had what looked like scaffold bars running horizontally along the middle of the doors.
“You want to ram me? Help yourself.”
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90’s era and earlier Jeep Wranglers, didn’t even have the rubber thingies. Just a chunk of metal connected to the frame pushed out beyond the front and back.
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A rental company’s business model is different from a normal user. Hertz, Avis and the rest will buy new cars, rent them out for the first year or so, then sell them into the used car market. The profit is basically the up front cost, overhead and maintenance vs the rental income and eventual sale price.
Renters are notoriously less careful with rental cars, which would bump up maintenance costs. If the resale value of a vehicle type is lower than expected that will significantly reduce the profit as well.
All to say that the cost/benefit of an EV in the highly specific rental market might be very different from that of an end user. Our gas car is a former rental we bought from Avis 13 years ago which is still going strong 175000 kilometers later with minimal repairs other than regular maintenance. Nobody wants to rent a 14 year old Hyundai, but it works for our purposes (at this point teenager transport).
Thankfully the EV market has expanded beyond Tesla. I’ll always be thankful to Tesla for forcing the other automakers to stop stalling at take EV seriously, but I’m about ready to stop dealing with people equating EVs with Teslas exclusively.
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Another co-worker in Brazil was showing me his new Jetta. I asked him what he towed with the trailer hitch (I had both a small RV trailer and a boat at the time).
“I don’t tow anything.” he said. “It’s for protection.”
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Elon Musk is Tesla.
That fact alone should be enough for everyone to dump every EV his company produces.
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