I’ve known numerous people who have changed their own batteries. Only one person I know changed his own transmission. Damn thing still doesn’t go a single day without falling back into limp home mode.

Thanks. One can only hope the repair costs of the other ICE vehicles increases.

The biggest cost difference is availability of non-OEM parts for repair, which is a lot lower for EVs which is likely due to their market share.

Mitchell found 84.74 per cent of parts on BEV repair estimates went toward OEM parts, compared with 61.44 per cent for ICE vehicles. Electric vehicles were also less likely to have damaged parts repaired rather than replaced outright: just 14.81 per cent of BEV parts were slated for repair, versus 16.6 per cent for ICE vehicles.

A popular ICE vehicle frequently has inexpensive non-OEM parts that are compatible across multiple models and model years as a side effect of retaining successful designs to reduce costs. For example, the last time I looked up a replacement disc brake caliper for a popular sedan I owned it has tons of options and many of them crossed multiple manufacturers in addition to models. Many newer cutting edge EVs had custom or uncommon parts because they were breaking new ground on design due to weight and form factor constraints of their new technology.

This article is basically pointing out that EVs have become common enough that they are becoming comparable in price when they are damage in collisions, which removes one thing that was dragging down their advantages in being far less expensive to maintain and use.