My 18 year old Jazz sailed through its MOT again on Wednesday with no advisories. Had to have a new back end of the exhaust about 6 years ago and a new battery a year after, otherwise nothing spent beyond oil changes. Mind, the radio doesn’t work. No does the Aircon, but when a car gets to a certain age these things aren’t worth the trouble of fixing. Looks like that certain age for a Tesla is 9 years.
This is one of the big issues with the move to electric. There are many millions of people in the U.K. who run cars that are very old at minimal cost and they are often their main cars. This option won’t be available in many years to come. EV’s will be fine for those of us who have lease cars or can afford to buy a new one every so many years, but what about those who don’t have these options and whose budget for their main car is a couple of grand max? Either they run the constant risk of having to scrap the car when the battery gives up or suffering dreadfully depleted range. These folk are also less likely to have their own charging facilities at home. Hopefully technology will evolve by then and it won’t be an issue.