Even those who earn 20,000 yuan per month cannot afford car repairs. Why is new energy vehicle maintenance so difficult?

Over the years, with the rapid popularization of new energy vehicles, intelligent new energy vehicles have become the first choice for many people when purchasing cars. Especially recently, the trend of equal pricing for gasoline and electric vehicles has become an irreversible general direction, which has further led to a sharp surge in the sales of new energy vehicles. However, as the number of new energy vehicles keeps growing, the problem that new energy vehicles are affordable to buy but unaffordable to repair has once again drawn public attention. What on earth is going on here?

1. Can't afford to repair a car even with a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan?

According to reports from China Newsweek, the sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles has now surpassed that of fuel vehicles, and the gap between the two is still widening. However, in the sales process of most models, lower operating costs than fuel vehicles are still regarded as one of the core selling points. Apart from this basic cost advantage, as the annual sales of new energy vehicles increase and their intelligence level continues to rise, a growing number of car owners are complaining about the high maintenance costs, cumbersome after-sales problems and persistently high insurance premiums.

A few days ago, J.D. Power released the 2026 China New Energy Vehicle After-Sales Service Satisfaction Study, pointing out that behind the continuous rise in domestic new energy vehicle sales and rapid technological iteration, there are still a large number of pain points to be urgently addressed in the after-sales system. The most prominent one is that the average accident repair cost of new energy vehicles is about 1.7 times that of fuel vehicles, and the statistical range from the China Automotive Maintenance Industry Association is 1.6 to 2.3 times.

Coincidentally, according to previous reports from Economic Daily, by the end of June this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China had reached 48.97 million. While the car ownership is climbing and the demand for maintenance is expanding, consumers' complaints about "expensive and difficult maintenance" of new energy vehicles are also increasing, which is called "growing pains" in the industry. Minor faults often cost thousands of yuan, and major repairs can even be half the price of the car... In mid-July, reporters visited multiple auto repair shops and interviewed car owners, auto enterprises and maintenance technicians, finding that "expensive and difficult maintenance" of new energy vehicles is becoming a new source of anxiety for many car owners.

Due to the differences in powertrain structure and the number of maintenance items, the maintenance cost of new energy vehicles is usually lower than that of fuel vehicles. However, a survey conducted by global automotive data and analytics firm J.D. Power on domestic car owners whose vehicles are 2 to 12 months old shows that in the case of minor scratches, the maintenance cost of new energy vehicles ranges from 5,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan due to the need for sensor calibration, while that of fuel vehicles is only 2,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan. In the event of a severe collision, the repair cost of a new energy vehicle may be close to or even exceed the price of a new car, while the maintenance cost of a fuel vehicle is between 50,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan. In addition, the long maintenance cycle further exacerbates user pain points. For example, the maintenance of the high-voltage system of some new energy vehicles requires a queuing period of several weeks.

2. Why has the maintenance of new energy vehicles become so difficult?

Earning 20,000 yuan a month, you can't even afford to repair your car. This is not an alarmist statement, nor a joke, but a cruel reality that many new energy vehicle owners are experiencing. In the past, we thought that a car was just a means of transportation, and repairing it when it broke down would never make people feel so much financial pain. But for new energy vehicles, the situation has changed completely. What is the reason behind this?

First, the underlying logic of new energy vehicle maintenance has changed. Traditional auto repair is to fix the faulty part directly: if the engine makes abnormal noise, you disassemble it to check if the problem is with the valve or the piston; if the transmission stutters, a certain gear or clutch plate inside is worn out, you just replace it. Therefore, traditional auto repair is usually carried out at the component level, and experienced mechanics can almost accurately judge the problem just by listening to the sound with their experience and intuition.

But today's new energy vehicles are different. To pursue extremely high safety and improve production efficiency under the pressure of cost control, automakers generally adopt a highly integrated integrated design. The most typical example is the "gigacasting" trend led by Tesla, which has been followed by many domestic new car-making forces later. This design directly presses dozens or even hundreds of components into a huge aluminum casting. The advantages of this approach are obvious: the body is lighter, stiffer, has better torsional resistance, and the production cost is greatly reduced.

But from the perspective of maintenance, this is almost a disaster. A single component cannot be disassembled and repaired separately. Even if there is only a slight deformation or crack in the rear floor panel caused by a minor rear-end collision, which can be easily repaired by hammering and sheet metal processing in traditional auto repair, it is impossible to repair now. The entire rear floor assembly can only be cut off and replaced with a new one. This "replace only, no repair" logic directly leads to the persistently high maintenance price. From an economic point of view, this means that the costs reduced at the manufacturing end are completely transferred to the later after-sales maintenance end, and the money consumers saved when buying the car is paid back with interest when repairing it.

Second, a technically monopolized closed control system has also taken shape. For new energy vehicles, the core three-electric system (battery, motor, electric control) is its heart and brain, which is the core competitiveness of automakers and the moat of their technology. To protect these core technologies and prevent technology leakage, most automakers have implemented strict closed control over core components such as the three-electric system and the intelligent driving system.

How strict is this control? Simply put, third-party repair shops cannot get the maintenance authorization for core components at all, and even the decoding authorization to diagnose faults is firmly locked in the hands of automakers. When a new energy vehicle breaks down, only the 4S store system authorized by the automaker can read the fault code through the internal system and carry out subsequent maintenance operations. If a car owner wants to go to a roadside repair shop for a lower price, the result is often like this: the mechanic looks at all the electronic components and encrypted systems on the car and has no idea where to start. They want to repair it but have no authorization; they want to replace parts but cannot get original parts, and even cannot diagnose the fault.

This technical barrier is essentially a kind of monopoly, which directly forces consumers to get their cars repaired only in the 4S store system authorized by the automaker. The 4S store system itself has high operating costs, coupled with the automaker's absolute control over original spare parts, the price is naturally high. Consumers seem to have choices, but in fact they have no choice: either accept the high repair fee of the 4S store, or the car can only be left unused. This passive situation makes consumers completely lose the bargaining power in the matter of car maintenance. The closed control of automakers seems to protect core technologies, but in fact it turns the maintenance market into their own "private plot". This model can bring high profits to automakers in the short term, but in the long run, it is undoubtedly overdrawing consumers' trust.

Third, the lag of the automotive aftermarket leads to insufficient maintenance supply. After decades of development, the maintenance of fuel vehicles across the country has formed a very mature and complete industrial ecosystem. From roadside family-run shops, to chain maintenance brands, to the 4S store system, they are clearly stratified, with mature technology and wide coverage. No matter it is a minor problem or a major fault, you can find a corresponding maintenance channel.

However, the maintenance of new energy vehicles is still a new thing, and the development of the entire automotive aftermarket is seriously lagging behind. The technology of new energy vehicles is highly advanced, integrating technologies in multiple fields such as electronics, information, and intelligent control, which puts forward extremely high requirements for the professional competence of maintenance personnel. It is no longer as simple as tightening screws and replacing parts. Instead, maintenance personnel need to understand circuits, programming, and intelligent control. This technical threshold directly blocks most traditional repair shops.

At present, the number of repair shops across the country that have the maintenance capability for advanced new energy vehicle technologies is very small, and they are mainly concentrated in first-tier and second-tier cities. For most ordinary car maintenance stores, the only operations they can perform are the most basic ones such as repainting, replacing tires, and replacing wipers. Once the problem involves the core three-electric system or the intelligent driving system, they are at a loss what to do. This leads to an awkward situation: consumers cannot find a reliable repair shop when they want to repair their cars, and a large number of maintenance demands are accumulated in the 4S store system. However, the 4S store has limited reception capacity and low maintenance efficiency, so the price naturally rises accordingly.

Fourth, breaking the maintenance dilemma is the real direction. In the long run, the sustainable development of the new energy vehicle industry must not turn the aftermarket into a dead end. If the current maintenance dilemma is not broken, the problem will completely erupt when this batch of new energy vehicles comes out of the warranty period on a large scale and enters the second-hand circulation link. No one will take over new energy vehicles whose maintenance cost is as expensive as buying a new car, the residual value rate will plummet, and in turn, it will adversely affect the sales of new cars.

Therefore, this is not only a matter for the maintenance industry, but also a matter for the entire new energy industry. Where is the key to breaking the situation? It lies in promoting automakers to open up their entire systems to third parties. It is necessary to force or semi-force automakers to open a certain degree of maintenance authorization, diagnostic protocols and core component circulation channels through the strong intervention of laws and regulations or industry associations. Automakers must not be allowed to turn the three-electric system into a completely closed black box. At the same time, third-party maintenance chain giants must also speed up investment, establish a special new energy maintenance training system and standardized maintenance workshops. The insurance industry also needs to get involved, promote the pricing and claim settlement standards of new energy vehicle insurance to be linked to maintenance costs, and force automakers to improve the design of vulnerable parts and maintenance convenience.

Only a well-developed and fully competitive automotive aftermarket can bring down the persistently high maintenance costs. Only by breaking the monopoly, promoting the flow of technology, enabling third-party repair shops to make profits and have the ability to repair cars, can consumers afford to repair their vehicles.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Jiang Han's Vision Observation", the author is Jiang Han's Vision Observation, and it is published with authorization from 36Kr.