- Keeping an EV in tip-top condition is cheaper than a gas car.
- Owners say they had to pay less than they thought initially.
- However, an EV needs more time in the service department.
We’ve known for a long time that electric cars are cheaper to run than comparable combustion vehicles. Thanks to lower maintenance costs and fewer things to go wrong, an EV can save owners thousands of dollars every year–as long as it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to charge it, that is.
Now, though, thanks to new data from CDK Global, we can see just how much cheaper it is to repair an EV compared to a gas-burning car. The company’s recent “EV Ownership Study” polled consumers between December 2024 and January 2025, according to Automotive News, and found that EV owners mistakenly believe that it would be more expensive to run a battery-powered car than one that burns fuel.
After a few service visits, the mentality shifts, though, with 53% of non-Tesla EV owners saying it costs less to service their car compared to a gasoline vehicle, while 41% of Tesla owners felt the same.
The CDK Global study also found that EV owners increasingly tap into the service departments’ mobile vans and pick-up services. Last year, 19% of EV owners who needed a service visit opted for mobile service, up from 14% in 2023. Meanwhile, 9% of owners had their cars picked up by the dealership in 2024, up from 6% a year before. As a result, the number of people who took their cars to the dealership went down from 86% in 2023 to 83% last year.
This is good news, but it’s not perfect. The study revealed that it takes more time to get an EV fixed than a gas car, with Tesla owners saying they had to wait 23% more time to get their cars back from the service compared to a gas car. It’s worse for non-Tesla owners, who reported they had to wait 34% more to get their EVs back.
“We know dealers are prepared for EV service, but our most recent findings show EV owners are waiting longer to have their cars serviced and it’s taking multiple visits to have their issue resolved,” said David Thomas, director of content marketing and automotive industry analyst at CDK. “The fact that these numbers are getting worse is not a good sign, as more non-Tesla EVs are on the road than ever before.”
| 2024 | 2023 | |
| Same day | 28% | 40% |
| The following day | 29% | 21% |
| Two days | 21% | 22% |
| Three days | 14% | 9% |
| Four days | 4% | 4% |
| Five days | 2% | 2% |
| Over five days | 2% | 2% |
Source: CDK Global EV Ownership Study
In 2023, 40% of EVs that had to go in for a fix could be picked up by the customer on the same day, but that number has gone down to just 28% in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of EVs that were fixed and could be picked up the following day went up from 21% to 29%.
What’s more, 85% of EV owners said they had to go to the dealer in the first year of ownership for some kind of repair or maintenance. The good news here is that just 13% of owners said they had to pay for their service, while 16% said their service appointment was for a recall.
With more and more non-Tesla EVs hitting the streets as sales continue to rise, it will be a challenge for traditional automakers to step up to the challenge of servicing the EVs they sell. In Tesla’s case, it has its own service departments that only deal with Tesla EVs. At almost any other dealership, though, technicians have to know how to deal with gas cars and EVs, so it will take some time until legacy automakers get things sorted.
