Here's a story from late last year that just "crossed my desk." The gist:
US body shops seem to be scared of EVs, so an unusually large number of them are totaled after even minor collisions. Partly because of battery fears and partly from low demand for used repair parts*, recyclers don't see enough profit in EVs to keep them around. So they're being shipped overseas, notably to Eastern Europe. A lot are ending up in Ukraine, where repair shops aren't afraid to work on them. The example the article uses is a Tesla Y, but a chart in the story shows that the largest number of totaled US EV models arriving in Ukraine in October 2023 were Nissan Leaves. Chart: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/uk-ev.png It's also interesting that the only *new* EVs imported to Ukraine in any real numbers that month were Volkswagen ID4s. Full story: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/the-reincarnation-of-totalled-teslas-in- ukraine/ Shortcut: https://v.gd/dCw1nJ *I wonder if some of the reason for low used parts demand might be the automakers' programming their vehicles' computers to reject non-factory parts. But that's pure speculation as I'm not an industry insider. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Reporter (to Mahatma Gandhi): Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western Civilization? Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/