Stanton said:
I would buy that theory if it were a clock-radio, but not a car. Since you mentioned it, I have a theory about infant mortality vs. "wear and tear". For example, back in the days of cassette decks, etc., there would come a day when that piece of equipment would eventually "wear out" and/or need some sort of maintenance; now that we have solid state devices like iPods, etc., if they make it past the first few months, they're probably good for a LONG time. Unfortunately, I put the Leaf (and really any vehicle) into the former category. Again, I'm not convinced anyone but Nissan will be qualified to to fix these things for awhile, and we all know how expensive it is when your car goes in the shop.
Even ICE cars nowadays use LOTS of electronics, too, not any different than EVs: navigation, radios, backup cameras, cruise control, ABS, traction controls, etc.
The main difference between ICE and EV cars are in the mechanical components in the ICE vs the electric motor, inverter (with built-in regen) and charger in the EV. The battery is a big difference, too, of course. But it doesn't count in the warranty picture because it's already covered under the 8-year warranty.
So, if your logic is that you normally don't buy extended warranty on the ICE cars, but you would on EVs due to the new EV technologies, then really what you're talking about is buying extra warranty on the motor, inverter and charger. You wouldn't be talking about all the other electronic stuff I mentioned earlier because they exist in both ICE and EVs just the same.
I would surmise that the motor will outlast the life of the car battery. So really, all you're talking about is the inverter and the charger. If the charger ever goes bad after 3 years when the basic warranty expires, I'm hopeful that there will be third party charger offerings by then with much higher capacity than the current meager 3.3kw charger that I would probably want to upgrade to anyway.
So the only left that's really different between an EV and ICE that is a new unknown/unproven technology worthwhile of extended warranty consideration is the inverter with built-in regen. I'm willing to take a chance that if the inverter works for the first 3 years, it'll continue to work for the next 2-4 years just fine.
The whole point I'm trying to make here is that modern ICE cars have just as much electronics and new technologies built-into them, so if you argue that you can trust the technologies that are in ICE cars but not in EVs, I don't buy that because most of them are the same and used in both except for the EV major components I mentioned above like motor, inverter and charger. Out of those 3, only the inverter is the one I'm slightly concerned about.
Now, if you're talking about the Volt or Priuses (when they first came out), those are different animals and I would agree that I'd be more inclined to buy extended warranty for those because they definitely are more complicated than just an ICE car or a pure EV combined, with technologies required to switch back and forth between the two.
