Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

evclinic.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 548 posts

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#31

Post by alephnerd »

dmix wrote: post #29
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Nissan is a bit underrated here. I’m leasing an Ariya which has been great (including its charging curve, which is better than much of the competition) and feels more premium than you’d expect from the brand (to the point that the top trim is sometimes referred to as a “baby Infiniti”) with things like dual pane windows to cut down on road noise, as well as a proper heat pump where many still only have resist…

> The 2026 Leaf takes many of the Ariya’s good qualities and one ups them at one of the lowest price points in the industry. Still costs $30k+ USD for base trim. Chinese cars are going for sub-$20k. Few governments want a repeat of the Japanese disruption of US/European car manufacturing, so they were banned before getting the opportunity.

Household incomes are also much lower in China compared to Western countries. The kind of upper line BYD EV model that would appear to be a discount to a Western buyer is fairly unaffordable in a country where the median household incomes are around Yuan 2-3k (US$300-500) a month.

A US$15,000 car is equally as unaffordable for most Chinese just as a US$100,000 car is for most Americans.

Heck, the median household in China only spent Yuan 4k (~US$550) a year [0] on transportation and telecom (the Chinese government chose to club both into a single bracket) in 2024 - meaning at least 50% of Chinese households cannot afford the vast majority of EVs domestically sold in China.

[0] - https://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202501/t202501...

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#32

Post by barrenko »

0_____0 wrote: post #18
marssaxman wrote: post #15

> BMW has over-engineered the They have over-engineered the everything , because that is what BMW does. That is what they have been about for the last thirty years.

After reading the blog post I had the same thought. Doing an oil change on my F650GS motorcycle required removing the plastics, draining the oil from both the top and bottom of the motorcycle, removing a plate on the side of the engine after install the BMW specified oil redirection funnel, extracting the filter and reinstalling. The oil funnel had a legit BMW part number. Most of us either just made a mess or used a…

It's basically the plot of the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#33

Post by dghlsakjg »

mannykannot wrote: post #10
jkterhune wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PHEV in the title is plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Different from a pure EV.

Does that make a difference in this regard? If so, how, and is it an unavoidable penalty for PHEVs? I can see PHEVs having a complexity penalty from having an IC engine over and above the EV components, but that does not seem to be the source of the problems here.

I would say so for this particular failure.

The issue in this case has everything to do with the electronics design and close to nothing to do with propulsion.

The issue described is happening because German car makers love to put generic parts inside proprietary modules that cannot be repaired, and require extensive OEM tooling to replace. This kind of dumb shit happens on ICE cars and EVs that follow this design paradigm.

As described int the article the actual failed piece is ~$50 if you can replace just that pyrofuse. BMW doesn’t allow tha though. So you have to replace the entire module

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#34

Post by Panzer04 »

JSR_FDED wrote: post #2

This is exactly why I’m so uninterested in driving en EV. I usually word it as “I don’t want to drive a computer”, but the reality is that I don’t want to be on the wrong end of the power imbalance that comes from this amount of complexity.

EVs are not complicated.

Modern carmakers might make them complicated, and you're well within your right to avoid those, but in general electronic propulsion is pretty simple. The problem is car manufacturing is a very expensive industry that's extremely difficult to disrupt, so incumbents aren't really worried about staying ahead of hungry competitors.

Go look at small-scale PEVs - ebikes, scooters, unicycles, etc. A huge, huge range of players making every possible variation under the sun, with simple designs and extremely low costs. This is what the car space is missing out on, because of regulations etc owing to their larger size and much higher danger levels that entails. I suspect many places have regulations that largely exclude smaller, simpler cars from being viable as well.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#35

Post by nicoburns »

jfoster wrote: post #8

I think it continues to be under-appreciated how much of a lead Tesla still has in EVs. Even BMW can't make something that is practical. First people said "competition is coming" for about a decade. Now the competition has finally half arrived, but it's still so far behind. Perhaps the closest is BYD, but most BYD drivers would prefer to be driving a Tesla.

Lots of the traditional car manufacturers now have good options: Renault, Nissan, Kia, and Hyundai's EVs seem to be particularly well regarded. I'd definitely opt for any of those over a Tesla given Tesla's reputation with regard to quality and repair costs.

If you ignore cost, then Tesla's cars are probably still better at this point, but the gap doesn't seem that large.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#36

Post by TeeWEE »

jfoster wrote: post #8

I think it continues to be under-appreciated how much of a lead Tesla still has in EVs. Even BMW can't make something that is practical. First people said "competition is coming" for about a decade. Now the competition has finally half arrived, but it's still so far behind. Perhaps the closest is BYD, but most BYD drivers would prefer to be driving a Tesla.

The BMW neue klasse is far superior to the latest Teslas.

Both in software hardware and handing.

https://youtu.be/P-H-GJaGiUg?si=eq8YWy8gyJ5YS99X

I think it even surpasses Chinese brands.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#39

Post by bri3d »

jfoster wrote: post #8

I think it continues to be under-appreciated how much of a lead Tesla still has in EVs. Even BMW can't make something that is practical. First people said "competition is coming" for about a decade. Now the competition has finally half arrived, but it's still so far behind. Perhaps the closest is BYD, but most BYD drivers would prefer to be driving a Tesla.

My understanding is that Tesla 16V LV batteries have a similar crash lockout in the BMS that also requires workarounds to reset: https://openinverter.org/wiki/Tesla_16v_li-ion_battery
Post reply on HN