Who's Going To Repair My Electric Car? 

A set of jump leads walk into a bar...... And the barman says I'll serve you but....... DON'T START ANYTHING!

What’s the first sign of madness ? Suggs walking up your driveway..

A bloke rang me up the other night and said "I'm the dandy highwayman who you're too scared to mention, I spend my cash on looking flash and grabbing your attention!" I tried to tell him he had the wrong number, but he was adamant.

I asked a scuba diver why they always fall backwards into the water. He replied that if he fell forward he would still be in the boat.

We're in Sheffield and had a charging problem with a 2015 Zoe. Took it to local Renault dealer, who quoted around £4,500 to fix the fault. Had the car taken a mile down the road to Mam Tor Automotive, a HEVRA garage. They stripped the car down, diagnosed the actual problem and fixed it for £1,300. Luckily we'd taken out an extended warranty, and they paid for it.

As a scarecrow, people say I’m outstanding in my field. But hay - it’s in my jeans.

What has four wheels and flies? A garbage truck.

I own a car repair garage 30yrs. I am level 4 EV qualified. We have been a member of HEVRA for 9 months. I have stripped and repaired a leaf battery HEVRA helped us all the way through it with correct information I would do one now without an issue. We are now at the EV stage where we were when fuel injection first came out! HEVRA are here to “hold our hands” through in depth EV repairs which I explain this to our EV customers but you’ll find a lot of garages don’t want to make “false promises” and let the customer down. You going to have a look around at the moment but 2/3yrs from now you’ll find a LOT more HEVRA members will be a lot more confident. I’m on a training course with cleverly EV early April and hands on course inc Tesla I actually think your near us by your accent Cleckheaton area.

Not E. V related but my brother-in-law was an independent Jaguar specialist (now retired) . When he started to deal with post 2005 Jags, cost him £17,000 (15 years ago) for the computer to read the codes and be able to do things like reset the brake calipers on electric hand brake models etc. As well as other stuff that could only be done at that time with this specialist kit plus a £4,000 per year subscription for the software updates to keep current with all models.

My son is a vw trained mechanic and he advises people to go to a specialist independent garage not a main dealer. The stories he tells of the service provided by some main dealers is shocking.

I bought a Corsa e 20 plate , and for 2 years it was fantastic, however it went in for a service and software update and when I had it back it had lost 25 miles of range , I drove it for a few months and it didn't regain it's lost 25 miles , I took it back to the vauxhall main dealer who kept it for 14 weeks changing this part and that ... . Triggers broom ... When I eventually had it back the service manager told me if it's not right now , don't bother coming back as we don't know what's wrong with it !!!!!! I opened a case with Vauxhall head office .. who were absolutely useless I lost all confidence in electric cars because in my experience it couldn't be fixed . I am now back to a diesel.

2 fish in a tank... one turns to the other and says, "How do you drive this thing?"

What's the difference between light and hard? You can go to sleep with a light on.

Here in Norway most garages repair ev`s but thats because we have so many ev`s on the road.

Man walks into a bar...ouch! It was an iron bar.

Main dealer just fire the parts cannon,you are correct,keep fitting part until it fixes the problem,good video,thanks.

Ahh, the good old ‘parts darts’ that garages play if they don’t know the problem… Shocking!

I got rid of my Audi etron because my local Audi main dealer was less than useless. I may have kept it had there been a decent alternative service agent.

I am a mechanic and have owned a Leaf and now a brand new MG4. My car has been in the dealership for two weeks with a charging issue. I am not trained on the electric side and would not dream of touching that even if it was out of warranty. Lots of specialist equipment and training required. The thing is good workshops will catch up. Just like you said we all used to deal with points plugs and condensors. Everyone was lost when fuel injection and ECUs came in. The experience and knowledge will trickle through its just going to take time. At the moment out of warranty the dealer is still the best place for a broke EV. That will change in time. There a loads of switched on techs out there who will learn quickly.

What's green and hairy and goes up and down? A gooseberry in a lift.

Cleevely Ev are your best bet and James runs a youtube channel covering their work , perhaps a collaboration with them ??

Weldbank Garage Chorley are HEVRA and have worked on my i3 and Model 3

Bigger concern is that there is a shortage of technicians going into the job, Main dealers are only taking on apprentices to meet tax/penalty levels, not enough to cover the numbers leaving the trade. plus they dont pay them enough while training ( and in the early years)

I bought a Leaf with a broken heater and searched for an EV garage, I came across the HEVRA website, picked the nearest on, which at the time was in Leicester 60 miles away. I took it there and eTech Midlands fixed it with no fuss, and at a good price. Marvellous.

I have had a nissan ev for coming up to 5 years now and have had a absolutely no problem with it. To celebrate the 5 th anniversary I thought I would get the car some sort of present. The trouble is I don't know where is the best place to attach the leaf blower.

Been a member of HEVRA for over 5 years, on a technical level they support members with highest possible professionalism.. We repair EVs, not just servicing and MOTs. We also repair ICE cars, most traditional garages prefer to do easy money jobs ie, brakes, servicing. We get ICE customers calling us telling us other garages ‘haven’t got the equipment’ to carry out more tricky work, often after carrying out an MOT and failing the vehicle, then being unprepared to complete the job. Ultimately garages are selective about what work they wish to carry out. The garage trade is experiencing huge shortages in qualified technicians. Many are leaving the trade and youngsters are just not interested. It’s not an easy job anymore. We wish more garages would embrace EV’s, however without the technical support of HEVRA we would not be able to carry out some of the EV repairs we have done over the past few years.

We can and do work with HEVRA on some complicated faults. It's entirely down to any garage to choose the work they do... Try calling a garage and ask them for the cost of a head gasket replacement on a common car. You'll find a lot of garages no longer want to get involved in that kind of work. It's not an EV specific problem, but there are less garages to choose from

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this repair problem. Another reason for people being reluctant to buy EV the average person can’t afford a new car with warranty and an 5-8 year old one with 60-90k miles on the clock is the norm. People are afraid of a large repair bill from main dealer. Ev will become throw away items like phones and that isn’t good for the environment. I have a Honda E , Honda have stopped making them and il extend the warranty for as long as possible. After that who nows. It’s going to take a brave independent dealer to train and equip for EV.

What's got two legs and bleeds? - half a dog!!!

Very valuable information. It has changed my thinking about going for a few year old Tesla. I'll stick with my in-7-year warranty MG for the time being.

There’s enough mistrust over new EV’s. “Ordinary” folk in the second hand market will be even more mistrustful, not having a local “fixer” garage they can rely on. One glimmer of hope though is that local colleges are now adding EV training to their automotive courses.

Hi EVM, getting any car fixed these days is a nightmare. Main dealers - forget it, they are useless! I’m 58, and am used to getting under the bonnet. A colleague of mine has a 2009 Golf 1.6TDi, he went to 3 garages who ripped him off and didn’t fix the fault. We fixed it on my drive for 3 hours work and some oven cleaner; yes, oven cleaner. The Golf kept going into limp mode, the problem was carbon build up in the EGR cooler, a pain to get to on the VW 1.6 TDi engine, we jacked up the front to put the car at a backwards angle, removed the front facing EGR pipe, and poured oven cleaner in with a funnel and a short length of garden hose, let it react for 2 hours, then flushed it out with water from a hose. No garage would do this, saying the EGR cooler must be replaced; an absolute bitch of a job that would effectively write the car off. Car is now just fine. Top tip, don’t buy a modern diesel if you do mainly short journeys - they are filthy things! Me? I got a BMW i3 in 2019, love it, faultless in 40k miles, cheap to run, great to drive.

Had similar experience down here in the south east. Bought an EV after huge amounts of research, using your channel and many others, so I was pretty much expert by the time I bought it. Went to my nearest HEVRA garage, spoke "ev" at them and despite many certificates, including from HEVRA all over their wall they had no idea what I was talking about! He didn't even understand what HEVRA was when said as a word not the letters, bizarre! Ended up going to main dealer to be ripped off instead. Cleevely coming this year and there is another HEVRA place nearby but I'm not optimistic after hearing about your experience. This is no joke and sadly I can't think of one...I'll get back to you....😂👍

Very good point EVM. When all theses ex-company cars or salary sacrifice low cost lease cars come flooding onto the market, I suspect the government thinks there will be a ready market for them. However used car buyers are not going to be queuing up the buy these cars if main dealers are effectively the only option for repairs and servicing.

My experience with main dealers concerning EVs: plug in diagnostic tool. List of tick boxes appear. Replace ALL those parts, regardless if all those parts are faulty. Give you a huge bill. Cross your fingers everything is now working. If not, rinse and repeat. Shutting the boot on your i3S whilst saying you have an EV your aren't worried about did make me raise an eyebrow. If you ever want a chat about my 8 month i3 trial, happy to oblige.

Two seagulls on a perch. One says to the other, can you smell fish?

Actually a very useful video 👍and an important discussion started here. Even some main dealers are not organised. There's a lot if opportunities there for independent garages to take a lead. I'd not hold my breath on government help though. Quite a good read, some useful information and experience below. Well done for the having a go at raising the issues indeed.

Very good point on repairs. I had to get my leaf flat bed transported to Cleevely for repair. They were brilliant, but it makes the same point as your video.

I took my electric motorbike (Zero S) to a tyre specialist for a new front tyre. I'd been using them for years for my various cars and bikes. As soon as they saw that the bike was electric they said that they don't work on EVs and couldn't help me. I said something along the lines of "you're replacing a tyre, not going anywhere near anything electrical".....but they were adamant that they don't work on EVs. So I took the bike elsewhere but they lost a customer that day. I won't be using them again for any of my vehicles.

I don't know about in warranty EV's or even new ones? Just bought a 2020 Kia E-Niro 4 and it's brilliant, except a few times now the Turtle mode has kicked in - which is slightly worrying when 2 times the battery had charge of 70% and 52% respectively. It only cones on for about 15 seconds, but why at all? The other time was when I was going to charge it, it was on 10% battery and 27 miles, then at a roundabout it cut out completely and I had to turn it off and on again! Looking on forums from 2020 to 22 there were people experiencing the same problems, even some on the motorway and the thought of having to stop on a smart motorway to turn it off and on again terrifies me! These people got Kia to look into the problem, which very often meant a 10 mile drive and if nothing was replicated - back to the customer went the car! I guess the warranty doesn't matter so much if the dealer garage isn't going to fix it!? As far as I can work out some Kia dealerships ordered a whole battery, some tried to update the BMS for only a temporary fix, but a few owners (thanks to Car Scanner etc) that cell No. 58 suddenly drops its voltage every now and then - so I'm now left with running the car with Car Scanner on to see if it will record cell 58 dropping off when Turtle Mode kicks in - because I don't trust Kia to be able to sort it out themselves! Some Kia's were bought back from owners and I'm worried I have one of these cars!

I used to work for Mercedes at one time. We only had one guy in the shop who was qualified to work on electric vehicles (Hybrids at the time) because of the safety concerns high voltages engendered. I'm hoping things have improved since then (2016). It’s a really hot day & a man walks out of his shower naked. He turns to his wife & says, “Phew it’s so hot I think I’m just going to spend the rest of the day naked!” Then he looks at his wife with a grin and asks, “hey, what do you reckon the neighbours would think if I went out to mow the lawn like this?” His wife looks him up & down & says, “That I married you for your money!”

I live on Shetland and last year I bought a Zoe. I think I took a risk buying a Zoe because of my location. I have a great garage who are set up for EV and who I think will do their very best if my car needed work. If my car needs to go to Renault I have a big problem. It costs up to about £400 for a return journey with my car to the mainland. Just dropping it off would require 2 days off work (14 hour ferry) and to pick it up again another £400 and 2 days if the ferry wasn’t fully booked. It is the same for many ICE cars who don’t have dealerships in Shetland too. I have wondered what the situation would be buying a BYD without a dealership. Would I be no or little worst off being on Shetland? I wonder how well set up Norway are for EV repairs. EV Man I would love to see videos from you in Norway exploring the EV future!

Cleeverley did a great everything electric podcast almost 2 weeks ago- we need people to take plunge and train. One of the ones in skipton serviced our eNiro which was great (70 plate) but replaced the original pollen filter that Kia keighley had charged to do on 2 previous services - it was filthy. We stopped using Kia Keighley as for 2 years in a row the told us it had had the engine oil and filters done. The second time I asked if the timing belt was ok and even got them to tell me they had seen it and it was fine!

Good luck to anyone buying one of the latest imports - from companies with very little dealer back up.

MG the same, no idea what was wrong with the car, advised to start replacing random parts to fix window replacement recalibration, ended up being camera was fitted a few mm out, took a independent specialist to find the issue. Dealers struggle with knowledge and experience in these cars.

Even under warranty, if I bought a Tesla it’d be almost 50 miles to the nearest service centre. (And I’m not in the middle of nowhere-in a city with a motorway and main line rail connection)

Agree with your observations , would love for u to get an old Model S , would make great content and highlight your observations and perhaps solutions , believe would be a popular series of videos from buying to running , fortunately live 40 mile from Cleevely whilst not ideal it’s ok

My i3 developed a charging fault and there were two Hevra garages or the main dealer, close to me. One of the Hevra garages took on the diagnosis and repair, but there was a substantial wait for the part around £1000, which could only come from BMW. The garage said parts were a problem from all manufacturers. They fixed the car, but the bill was large ,£1800.

I work for an independent garage (doing advertising). We sold a Tesla which went wrong within our warranty. Tesla charged over £500 just to diagnose. The owner will not touch EVs now. I think this is the real reason why car insurance has gone up so much this year, costs to repair (if they can find someone to do it) are massive & EVs are getting written off.

2018 Tesla Model S 43k miles - Part 2 - Follow on from earlier today. This is long guys but if you’re thinking of buying a used Tesla Model S you’ll likely be interested. So, I was on my way to Glasgow early morning six weeks ago and behind a wood lorry waiting for a straight to overtake in my super-fast Tesla Model S 75D when I heard this very loud bang. At first, I thought a stone must have been thrown up and hit the windscreen, it was still pretty wet and dark so I couldn’t really see all the screen that well. But a few minutes later I started to feel really cold, it was around four degrees outside. I then realised the bang was an electrical one and that the heater was knackered. From previous experience with Tesla service in Glasgow, you can’t speak to anyone, all done through the App. I could book it in for a diagnostic check, one hour’s labour, £165 plus VAT so £198! Ok, the car was just over five years old, but it had only done 42k miles. This car was around £70K new, would you have bought it expecting the heater to go bang after 42k miles? Tesla Glasgow weren’t really interested when I physically went to speak to them, you get nowhere through the App. One comment I had was that “ they don’t know how much the heater was on during the 42k miles”! Yeah, I really like to spend my winter days and nights sitting in the car to keep warm! Anyway, after a bit of hassling they were actually able to diagnose it over the air. It would need a new PTC heater and fuse, £1500. I think £198 an hour is exorbitant so I decided to look for a cheaper garage that could fix electric cars. Philips garage in Glasgow had good reviews so called them. They said they could do it but that it is difficult getting parts, it took ten days from Tesla, seemingly they come from Holland! I had looked up RU-vid and saw a series of videos on how to replace a PTC heater and fuse on a 2018 Tesla 75D, sent these to Philips Garage and they said, thank you, that would be helpful. Turns out it wasn’t, the PTC heater wasn’t in the place in the videos, after they’d already spent a couple of hours digging. It was to get worse. I was hanging around Glasgow waiting for them to call saying it was fixed. It was dropped off at 9 o’clock, they called at around half three to say they had “good news and bad news”. The good news was that they’d replaced the PTC heater the bad was that they couldn’t replace the fuse as it needed the main battery to be dropped from the car as the fuse was located under the battery, this is a fuse for the heater remember! They didn’t have the specialist equipment needed to drop the battery out safely, it would have to go back to Tesla for that. Cost for Tesla to replace the fuse, three hours labour, £594 plus £48 for a fuse, total £642. As you can imagine my respect for Elon Musk’s and Tesla’s engineering skills went out the window. Have you ever paid £642 to have a fuse replaced! Turns out the Philips garage spotted my front tyres were shot on the inside edge so after a bit of searching I opted for Autotec in Port Glasgow and ended up with four new tyres and a Hunter 4 wheel alignment. Not cheap, but at £1120 was a good bit cheaper than anywhere else. Whilst waiting to get the car booked in at Autotec I noticed a sign saying they did electric car repairs, wasn’t on their website, they’re having it updated. Turns out that the owner Robert actually has two Tesla model S’s himself and a Porsche Taycan. Obviously does well but in fairness Robert’s there with a boilersuit on all week working alongside the six or so mechanics he has. So, could they replace the fuse? They didn’t have the specialist bit of kit to drop the battery, would cost around £3500 Robert reckoned but they would find a way. I asked how long it would take, four hours he thought. Car went in and they got the fuse fitted at a labour rate of £70 plus VAT, total cost of £336. Around half the price of Tesla. A very nice guy is Robert and as he said he looks after around twenty Tesla’s so I’ll be going there in future. Another cautionary note. I had taken out an RAC all singing and dancing warranty, Platinum Plus and Maintenance, for two years (£1000) when I bought the car from Motorclass in Wigan, a pretty useless garage by the way, not at all impressed. In the RAC small print it doesn’t include diagnostics or replacing fuses. Also, they only cover a labour rate of £45 an hour outside London and £65 for London. What planet are they on! To add insult to injury they were only prepared to pay one hour’s labour for the PTC heater replacement. The warranty is a complete rip off, so buyer beware! So, I have to say most of my first year’s sayings have gone down the pan in this one repair and I’m thinking that it may have been a better idea to have gone for say a KIA EV6 with its seven-year warranty and at least I’d still have had a couple of years full warranty left. I guess the reality is, plan for the possibility of spending most, if not all, of the savings you make on running costs on keeping it on the road with quite likely expensive repairs. However, if I get to the end of the first year with no more repairs, I guess I’ve still saved around £1300 compared to running the Volvo and it is a cool car to drive, the acceleration is blistering. So, if you own a Tesla in the Glasgow/ West of Scotland area I’d take it to Robert at Autotec in Port Glasgow. You are right Andy in what you say about the lack of independent garages to take your electric car to be repaired and I wouldn’t blame people for holding back until this improves, as it must, if there is to be mass adoption. As you said, Government grants and/or tax breaks for independent garages to get the training, kit and software needed is definitely the way to go and we need to keep pressing government for this. Looking forward to going to Fully Charged again in Harrogate, hopefully you’ll be there as last year on a panel, you’re a straight talker Andy and speak a lot of sense. Cheers Alan

Yes! Please make the high-mileage used EV (Model S or otherwise) video or video series.

An Englishman, Irishman and a Scotsman walked into a bar, the barman says. "is this some kind of joke?"

I loved this video, I live in a Central European country and my only option is the dealer. I drive a little Zoe. This car wasn't even for sale in this country through Renault, I bought it in Germany. Now I'm looking to upgrading it, and the point you bring across is very valid. I guess the EV story is that you in a near future we will not own them, but they'll be subscription based and you rent them for a time period based on dynamic pricing. I tried to replace the 40Kw battery for my Zoe and Renault asked me for 20keur/ I can find cheaper 2nd hand cars. This Ev fairy tale is turning out to a nightmare, so no wonder people are not buying EV and going for Hybrids.

I can see a massive opportunity for the next generation of mechanics, if only land wasn’t so dammned expensive so the incumbents could face some competition

My experience with main dealers over the past 20 years is that most are rubbish. Main dealers use technicians and NOT mechanics. Last year our KIA lost power and would not accelerate. Main KIA dealer found small leak in radiator so replaced under warranty. I did say that wouldn't cause the loss of power and I had scanned the car with a £30 scan tool that said MAF sensor fault. KIA dealer assured us the MAF was fine which they were correct. Got car back with same fault, no acceleration above 40 mph. Took the car back and the "Master Tech" looked at it (I think with his eyes closed). KIA dealer said possible leak on a hose that they refitted. Car collected but with same fault. I took the air intake off and noticed the intercooler as bowed. Surprise surprise it needed a new intercooler fixing the fault. With EV's you will have to go to the main dealership because so many systems are linked to the High Voltage battery which only the main dealer can touch or you void your battery warranty. Porsche Taycan's have cabin heater failures which all cars will have but the battery coolant is linked to it. £2500 plus to fix at Porsche if car is out of warranty (3 years). Ioniq wing mirror camera over £4000 to replace so Audi will be more. EV's are a main dealers wet dream as they know you have to use them. KIA are £160 per hour labour so Audi will be more and Porsche / BMW will be eye watering expensive.

Thanks for highlighting this issue. I also thought that there were local garages that fixed ev's.

A Sandwich walks into a bar... the barman says sorry we don't serve Sandwiches

Huge opportunities here for some independents, also we need a huge training program for the technicians, not just the parts cannon guesswork operators.

thanks for the info

I currently own a 2016 Model S 85D. I bought it from a used car dealer with 232,000 miles on the clock. I have a friend with a local garage and he’s fine looking at my EVs. He’s looked after my Zoes, Kangoo ZE, and the Model S. I guess he is used to working on all sorts as he happily fixes Jensen Interceptors, TVRs, MGBs, Chevette HSRs etc My Model S has now covered 259,000 miles and been pretty straight forward to look after. Tesla Bristol have had it in at very little cost to me apart from when they did the MCU2 upgrade and David has done other bits like lower front arms. (Tesla were the cheapest for the parts).

It's not a training or equipment issue at all. The reason why no independent garages want to work on Teslas is because the part supply is so so so poor. Tesla fight against the right to repair principle and conspiracy theorists will tell you that they actively restrict part supply outside the main dealers. Anyway, garages don't want a dead Model S sat in their garage/parking lot for weeks or sometimes months. Having worked in the motor trade for decades including prestige main dealers and family run independents, I know this struggle too well!

Excellent topic. I’m looking at 6-8 yrs old EVs at the moment. You’ve brought up a very valid point which might influence my choice of manufacturer!

00:20 “ … that I’m keeping an ION … “ Goes perfectly with “Going OHM”😂

Good points. There is an understandable wariness by small garages but most of the tasks they're likely to be asked to take on would be well within their capabilities. It's mostly fear of the unknown. I have actually had good experiences with my nearest Tesla Service Centre and their pricing is actually comparable to most other garages ... aside from the hourly labour rate of course ... which is where all main manufacturers/dealers really fall down from the customer perspective.

Had to go to hospital today as tripped up over a box of Kleenex. Luckily my foot wasn’t broken but did suffer soft tissue damage😅 (this is a terrible joke as requested at end of video).

YES! I'd like to see a review of a used Tesla Model S, please! I've considered that car for a while and would welcome your insights.

This has opened my eyes to a potential future problem re repairs. So far I've only had headlight bulbs fail in my 6.5 year old i3 which I can replace myself but I'm not confident anyone other than an expensive BMW dealer would be able to help me out for a more complex diagnostic issue ...

Own a Renault kangoo ze and the heater failed phoned a lot of local garages to no avail ended up fitting it my self did make me think wot if I can't fix it who do I go to...fingers crossed no other failures

most garages charge lots for ev servicing- my first car in 2012 said we have done your oil and filter with our peugeot ion

I work in the vehicle repair industry and we train those who work in body repair shops. The complications brought to the process by the vehicle being an EV are significant add and body repair shops need to make significant alterations to accommodate the dangers of handling And working safely with evs. Especially where the battery pack is integral to the vehicle's construction. In this case when it is removed the body may have to be supported by special jig. This alone makes it expensive for smaller independent companies to do even the most basic work on these cars.

12:00 So basically we need Cleevely EV to start setting up / franchising at staging posts across the UK. Could be a good base point for their mobile service to be closer to a home base for those harder to fix issues. I know that wouldn't be cheap but maybe the UK EV community could look to support that though some kind of crowd funding investment in the whole scheme to get it going.

And main dealers are only going to want to keep 'their' customers happy. ie. those who are buying a new/new-ish car from them. I've known them inflate the problems well past the value of the car, and like Mr Ben, the salesman appears from nowhere to show you a newer car as a replacement.

You raise a good point EVM. There’s still a long way to go in getting an established network of garages that can diagnose and repair the more complex issues on an EV. I’ve not spoken to any mechanics directly, but if the funding was made available how many would actually WANT to retrain to focus on EVs. Our local garage does a great job maintaining my wife’s 17 yo SLK , but I get the impression he’d tell us where go if we brought our Ioniq in for him to resolve an issue. I think I might ask for his thoughts on the matter…. 🤔 What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef..

It's got to be something to factor in to your decision, but like with charging infrastructure it's still early days and there's ultimately less to go wrong. I deliberately went for a high volume EV as there would potentially be more repair or after market options than something low volume. But it's also getting harder to get ICE serviced, and there's part supply problems regardless of platform

My biggest complaint with EV's is the inability to change a battery cell or module, and having to replace the battery pack. That's like being unable to replace a piston but needing to replace the engine.

I took our Leaf for a service at a HEVRA approved garage. He did repair and diagnose issues. His main issue with EV’s was the cost of the specialist parts and he personally would stick to his diesel!!! You’re 100% correct we need government intervention to up skill garages. Now’s the day time to do it before the millions EVs being sold now need a non dealer network

Yes does make you think? Had a leaf for 4 years from new without any problems. Changed it for a new MG4 because the leaf had a 40 kWh battery and MG4 has a 65kWh. Not had any problems and used to take my Nissan for a service only once a year back to my same dealership because a good company, round trip of 80 miles to Canterbury from Gillingham Kent. But this makes you think outside the box ? Bob Blood 😊

It’s a big problem Andy Had a Auris hybrid non starter and eventually found a HEVRA garage to look at it . Took two months and £2000 to recharge the battery cells . Friend has a 16 plate Golf GTE at a VW main dealer that requires the hybrid battery replacing . Good news under warranty (just) . Bad news up to 12 months wait for the part 😮

In my mother's town there's an accident repair centre that we take our cars to for their MOTs, and before buying the Leaf (and now Fortwo EQ) we asked about getting repairs done, and they said for the most part it's just a normal car, it's only the HV stuff that's different. They have all the equipment to be able to do it, but because it's not their main line of work the waiting time could be horrendous.

Very informative video. Thanks.

Good topic - thank you. Selfishly I’m only 30 miles from Cleevely in Cheltenham for my MG ZS EV.

Valid point... I'm hoping someone in the comments gives us insight around your area. In USA and Norway many small shops are "EV certified" Classic example of issues are cell replacements or rust in battery casing (€1 part can be replaced but a dealer would scrap the entire pack or module) good luck

The thing about this is the demand. Since so few ev have problems and the ones on the road are new it's not profitable to run a garage just for that yet. Where I live only the official Renault dealership can fix related to ev motors or diagnostics, luckily for us they accept any ev and not just their own brand

Fortunately, my franchised dealer is within walking distance from my house, so I'll stick with them.

Reminds me how back in 2009 I had to drive 30mi to a completelly different part of London to a scetchy MOT centre where they agreed to MOT my EV. They were then shocked how easy it was for them to do it and started accepting EVs. Same then happened few years later in Barcelona. Funniest was that they almost failed me as there was no exhaust to measure the emissions and it was not allowed to pass call without emission test. 30min of the mechanics arguing with their bosses and ITV (MOT) cert was done... They also had back then forst EV charging stations but since there were no other EVs apart of mine, none of those chargers worked. I tried to contact the ES EV charging company few times. They promptly did responded to me just mere 3 years later...

My Nissan (eNV200) has developed a light ratchetty noise when moving off in the morning. A fairly classic 'That's not right.' that goes away with a few on and offs. The local larger Nissan garage seems to know what it is doing but is expensive, and I'm not entirely convinced their mechanics are EV committed. Your video was nicely timed as I'd already contacted Cleevely mobile, who as you note advertise that they cover the UK. I'm fairly sure it's not the EV part that's wrong, quite possibly ABS so I think it may be cheaper to fix than having to go for a wallet-ectomy at the main dealer. ..Joke well here's one I actually made myself. Question. How many SAS does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer. Maybe one maybe six, you probably won't find out, but it might be a good idea to be out of the house when it happens.

I'm with you regarding a local specialist. I only take my Q5 there and wouldn't touch an Audi main dealer with it.

A couple of years ago I wanted my aircon checking on my Hyundai Ioniq. I ended up going to the main dealer because nobody else would look at it. Not much has changed.

I have actually seen two garages in north wales with large banners outside, we service and repair Electric vehicles 😊

Maybe if you bought the Model S. your journey through keeping it on the road would highlight this problem further, and get more people involved in finding a solution, maybe HEVRA would start to seriously consider the tiering of the garages. I think I believed like you that all HEVRA garages did repairs, but was seriously worried about testing it. Great thought provoking video, thank you

Thoughtful video!

Seen a dinky Leaf on a low loader, loaded behind a massive excavator. Looked like it was sat there thinking “I’m a digger!” Not specifically a joke but self musings that crack me up. Seriously though, for any small issues mostly run of the mill servicing etc, my local MoT station & garage have already said they’re happy to serve. They have another garage nearby which looks after some fleet hybrid taxis. I’m hoping this bodes well for more expertise to naturally spark. If there’s money to be made . . .

We have one of these garages by me, I never even realised they may only do basic things

Another great video, trying to pre-empt or foresee problems with faulty EV's. Something that I hadn't thought about and one case where an extended ( manufacturers ) warranty might be worth it. I see you've got some interesting followers below, I'm accustomed to reading T's and C's, but not checking out the T's and B's!!! Obviously YT Spam!!

Fair comments there. It's a lot that don't do repairs beyond shared ICE parts. You can however diagnose a Tesla very deep by itself on the service menu. Might be worth doing one and fix yourself. Main issue are heater, 12V, and air suspension.

Interesting question about local EV repairs. I checked HEVRA for Derby city and 2 garages are listed, however 1 looks like they will only touch hybrids based on their website and the other gives a description that suggests they maybe only want to deal with Stelantis group EVs. I could be wrong of course, I only read the websites and didn’t call them, but initial investigation is a bit concerning.

I've been lucky with cars for decades and only had cars that had very few faults. Two cars were exceptional and had well over 250k miles with zero faults (LS400). I put that down to the fact they were always serviced to the manufacturer schedule. 80k miles into my first EV and its never had a service because it doesn't need one apparently. So far, luck is on my side. Fingers crossed it doesn't need fixing until there are garages around to do it because I expect it to last at least 250k miles. We always keep cars for at least 10 years. I hope I'm not delusional.

I'm lucky , in the Midlands I have 2 trusted garages, as you say Matt Cleevely , and closer at Warwick, Ecofix, both good.

A brilliant and clear explanation why I will not be considering an electric car for at least twenty years ( and I’m 75 years old ).

I have been living 17 years in the French Caribbean and for many years my car was a PSA 106 electric (with 3 children at the back !). Sadly no PSA "dealer" was willing to deal with it so I did all the maintenance and even some repairs alone, including changing the electrolyte, re-initializing some data, changing some power electronic components, etc. However, previously I had a faulty Renault Scenic AWD and my Renault dealer has never been able to fix it, so I would say sadly old cars are not always easy to keep alive.