OT:
cwerdna wrote:I'm going to start a separate thread about automotive durability and reliability testing, along w/figures, if available. I recall this article for ICEVs:
http://blog.caranddriver.com/how-powert ... f-engines/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yrw5fXMa78" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that I posted in another thread mentions how Nissan loaned this AZ company the NV 3500 van and they were putting on 7500 miles/week, 80K miles in 3 months. They showed a van w/557K miles.
Thanks for that! I just watched that video and I'm blown away! Here are a few quotes from the video:
Nissan Newsroom Commentator wrote:Nissan loaned "Above and Beyond" an NV-3500 High Roof that would be put to the test on the company's most severe delivery route. In the heat of Arizona, the NV-3500 went into service traveling to a copper mine twice daily, 365 days a year.
Jim Bowman: President of Above and Beyond Delivery wrote:We put it on the longest-mileage route we had. The mines are dirt inside. They're haul roads, so dirt roads, so these things get caked with dirt every day that we wash constantly. Uh, they're rough. Uh. It's a, it's a very high stress environment. If a vehicle's down, it's not making money, so the reliability was, uh, just a massive advantage.
Nissan Newsroom Commentator wrote:During the test, the NV-3500 traveled more than half a million miles in 32 months. There was only one unscheduled service downtime: to replace an alternator at 382,000 miles.
Jorge Aguirre: Operations Manager of Above and Beyond Delivery wrote:The other vehicles we used, we knew that at 100,000 miles we had to replace three certain things. It was the engine, the transmission or the, uh, throttle body on that vehicle.
Nissan Newsroom Commentator wrote:"Above and Beyond" measured the operating cost of the NV and concluded that the vehicle delivers. So much so that they are transitioning to an all-Nissan cargo van fleet.
The takeaway here is that at least Nissan is able to build an unbelievably reliable ICEV today that can last for an incredibly long time. With the notable exception of battery capacity, EVs really should have an advantage when it comes to long-term reliability, as both three-phase induction machines and synchronous machines and their drive electronics have been proven in factories around the word for many, many decades.
If you compare the LEAF to the Tesla, there is a big difference in the reliability and durability of the drivetrain. It seems that Tesla is running everything right on the ragged edge of what is achievable and the components simply are not holding up. Nissan, on the other hand, has been quite conservative with their design and the reliability of the major drivetrain components has been quite phenomenal. We'll see how long it takes them to get the durability of the battery to a more-acceptable level.