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Comment by bronz | Hacker News Reader

im sorry to break this to you but electric motors are more reliable than combustion engines. they require less maintenance and last longer because of their inherent advantages. and the number of moving parts and lack of explosions/chemical reactions is basically why. you call my argument stupid but you fail to raise a single valid argument against it. all you can say is that modern engines do pretty well, which has nothing to do with how they do compared to electric motors. in fact im pretty sure the reason you resort to name calling is because you know youre wrong...

and brake lines still require less maintenance for the same reason that pads and disks do. balls in your court.

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Well, you're kind of ignoring the main point of my argument: current ICEs are sufficiently reliable that when something breaks on a modern ICE car, 95% of the time that component is completely unrelated to the engine. So even though electric motors are even more reliable (I agree, they are), this only gives you a reliability increase of 5%.

This is basically Amdahls law. Improving the part that causes 5% of the problems will at most solve 5% of your problems.

Edit: and you're wrong about the brake lines. Those need servicing because of surface rust, which happens regardless of how often you use them.

And funnily enough, brake discs can have shorter maintenance intervals the less you use them: again, surface rust. If you're driving in wet weather in a normal car, heat from braking dries your discs up. That doesn't if they're not used that much.

my original comment and your response are about how EVs and ICEs stack up, not whether or not ICEs are sufficient. anyway, using the brakes less can only be good. they arent used seldom enough for rust to be a problem. ive never heard of anyone having that problem. and stressing the brakelines less often can only have a positive effect on their reliability. but anyway this claim that 95% percent of when something breaks down its unrelated to the engine is just obviously silly. a very quick search reveals that it isnt true. catalytic converter replacement and oxygen sensor replacement are the two most common repairs for cars seems to be the consensus. and neither of those are present on an ev. all the other items that come up are engine related or ICE exclusive. replacing spark plugs, loose gas cap, gaskets, coolant sensor. this is not surprising. if you can find an analysis of the distribution of different car repairs that says otherwise then go ahead and post the link. a very large percentage of repairs are ICE exclusive, so EVs are more reliable. and even if ICE components only accounted for 5% of repairs, they would account for 90% of repairs that cost a ton of money to fix. transmission, fuel, exhaust and engine. good riddance.

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