Q: We’ve purchased a second-hand Skoda EV and have been offered a service plan as a monthly direct debit. It looks relatively cheap, and I wanted to know if these are good value as EVs have different service requirements to ICE cars? – D Hurley, Co Cork
A: Obviously, there’s a straight cash value answer to this. Skoda offers used-car inclusive servicing packages starting from €13 per month, so over three years, that will cost you €468.
Now, on average, a minor service for an internal combustion engine (ICE) car can cost as little as €130, sometimes even less, or it can cost €250 or more.
So this gives us a rough bandwidth of servicing costs over three years of between €390-€750. Generally, within a three-year period, a car will also need at least one “major” service, which can cost anything from €300-€500 or more.
Add those costs up and the Skoda package, working off the €13 per month cost, seems decent – it’s not an out-and-out bargain, but it’s also not a rip-off.
However, as you point out, an EV has fewer moving parts than a combustion engine car. You will not need to buy a set of new spark plugs, an oil filter, or even an air filter, and definitely not any oil top-ups. So shouldn’t an EV service be basically ... free?
Well, no. EVs are at the cutting edge of technology, and keeping that running properly doesn’t come cheap.
All the major car brands have extensive training programmes for people who aren’t really mere mechanics any more, but electrical technicians. Put it this way – we often hear complaints from within the motor industry that when new apprentice technicians reach the end of their training courses, often they are poached out from under the noses of garages and dealerships by the likes of Dell, HP, and even the aerospace industry. That’s the level of training and ability we’re talking about here, and that costs money.
If an EV is mechanically more simple, though, why do we need such highly-trained technicians? Well, an electric motor is pretty simple – just one moving part and we’ve been making them for two centuries now, so they’re pretty well understood.
That’s about the only bit of an EV that’s simple, however. Batteries are enormously complex and expensive, and they also come with the bonus of 400 or 800-volt high-tension cables and enough kilowatt-hours to stop your heart pretty quickly if you mess around with one. So again, technicians need to be skilled and trained to manage that. Then there are the sensors, cameras, radars, Lidars, all of which go to feed the various high-tech safety systems, and all of which – if calibrated incorrectly – could represent a significant road safety hazard. Managing all of this requires training and expertise, and that’s before we get to the kind of software genius needed to deal with a recalcitrant infotainment system.
[ Can software updates make my EV better?Opens in new window ]
EVs have their consumables, too. Brakes and brake pads, for a start, and while it’s often thought that electric cars don’t need to use their brakes as much because of regenerative braking, their high kerb weights and consequent inertia can make for very high pad and disc wear when they are called into service.
Tyres, too, can take a bashing and many service plans now also come with the option of including tyre replacements. Given the hugely expensive price-per-corner of modern low-profile, low-rolling resistance tyres, that’s a big potential expense which can be accounted for.
There’s another thing to consider, though, and it might be the most important one of all. Right now the used car market is proving resistant to EVs.
That’s likely to persist for some time yet, as used car buyers tend to be far more conservative in their purchasing habits than new car buyers, which means you need to keep an eye on your EV’s potential residual value.
With battery condition and history being one of the most important things to consider when it comes to a used EV purchase, it might prove to be invaluable to be able to show a potential next owner a sheaf of documentation showing that not only does your car have a full-service history, it has a full Skoda main dealer service history.
A few years ago, a survey by car history checking site Motorcheck found that where ICE cars were concerned, a full-service history could bump up the used value by as much as €1,500. With electric cars, that number might well prove to be much higher. That makes the service plan look like a sensible choice.
