What about the other components?

With high quality from top to bottom, but not much range: my MINI Cooper SE. It has the benefit of inheriting the proven EV technology BMW developed for their expensive i3, but the SE is more affordable due to its traditional steel body vs the i3's lighter carbon-fiber plastic body. Also, there's no EV that's more fun to drive than the MINI Cooper SE, thanks to its small, lightweight 114-mile battery.

If you read the other InsideEV forums, you can read about the VW ID.4's programming problems, the Hyundai Kona Electric's reputation as Consumer Reports' "Most unreliable EV", the Chevy Bolt's battery problems, and the Teslas, the EVs with the most recalls. People love their Rivians, but who knows if the company can make it over the hump to stay in business? There aren't many people contributing to the Porsche Taycan forum, but, surprisingly, many of them are submitting complaints rather than praises.

You still have some time to get the current MINI Cooper SE before MINI stops making them in the UK. The follow-up 2025 Chinese replacement may not get here thanks to the 27% import tariff on Chinese vehicles. To get around that tariff, it's rumored that in 2027 BMW will send Chinese parts to their UK MINI factory and assemble the Chinese SE there for export to the US. However, being assembled outside the US, it won't qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, like EVs made by Chevy, Cadillac, Ford, Tesla and other US-based companies do.

 

If you look at the Hyundai Kona forum, you'll see a lot of owners saying the "Least Reliable" label is unfair. I don't put a lot of miles on my car, so I may not be the best source of long-term reliability data (I have about 13,400 miles on the car after 3 years), but I've only had one minor problem, with the latch on the charger cover. But I think in general, if a company is known for crappy quality on ICE cars, it would be silly to expect them to suddenly improve when they make EVs. EVs are inherently low-maintenance in terms of powertrain, but there are certainly other things that can go wrong.

 

Well the Kona started out with a brake issue, then a motor issue and then a battery issue. So compared to other vehicles, they left something to be desired. However, Hyundai does offer a 5 year warranty in the states, and when they first came out, a lifetime traction battery warranty for the original owner in the states.

That being said, cars are generally very reliable. If you dig deeper into the Consumer Reports reliability statistics, for a four or five year old car the average percentage for a particular issue is between 2 to 4 percent. What Consumer Reports needs to do is list the percentage for each issue for a particular model. The good, bad and the ugly rating that they use is not very helpful.

As far as more issues with an electric car vs ICE, the jury is still out. However, I would expect more electrical issues simply because these cars often have more electrical sensors and bells and whistles. If you run into a sensor issue, I wouldn't expect to get out of the dealership for less then $500.

So if I had to guess, I would say the electric vehicle will have an equal to, or be more reliable, then a ICE vehicle with an equivalent number of sensors, but less reliable then an ICE vehicle with minimal sensors.

 

The Truth about all the current crop of EVs is that they have scarce repair parts, and "downtime" can be lengthy.

In the Tesla case, service out of warranty is crushingly expensive.

In the case of my 2019 Niro EV the glacial pace of compliance from KIA corporate soured my outlook, and lead to selling off an otherwise satisfying ride.

 

My son's 2018 LR RWD M3 Tesla has been out of service since Dec 25, will be 4 months tomorrow. Waiting for parts and service from Tesla to install a new traction battery. It is out of warranty but fortunately covered by insurance, as the battery was damaged by some road debris that he ran over.

In Vancouver, where we live there are a zillion Teslas. But only 2 Tesla service centres jammed up with cars undergoing service, and huge backlogs and wait times, just to get an appointment. Sure doesn't say much for the dealer-less sales and service model.

 

I had my Kona EV for 3 years, and underwent numerous recalls incl a traction battery replacement. It was never out of service for more than 1 day. And was given either a loaner car or a ride to and from home when needed. Sure can't complain about the service from Hyundai for that car...

I will say, too, despite some of the comments above, that the Kona EV was actually a great car, in all respects. Any problems were handled by Hyundai with no inconvenience or cost to me. I too, don't understand the CR rating, as any issues were easily resolved under warranty so really nothing to complain about. This is/was in great contrast to my son's Tesla, whose had many, many issues (incl beyond warranty) with his car, and still ongoing, now waiting for his battery replacement.