Friend was in the local Ford dealer in the UK getting his daughters Mustang serviced, it had taken them 8 weeks to get a service slot and when he asked the Service Manager why he said 30% of his workshop is booked up replacing batteries in Mach Es nearly all on warranty.
How can manufacturers or finance companies sustain these costs?
I'm sort of connected to the EV line of business. First off ... the delivery schedules are insanely short ... the car manufacturers are in fear of losing market share, so they decide on launch dates that are tough to achieve.
For these EVs, there an entire supply chain to BUILD. Batteries are made of chemicals, many of them, and they are specialty chemicals, very few companies in the world that know how to make them so they work in the batteries. Because of fast track launch dates, all these chemical plants have to be built in VERY SHORT time frames. Quality control, cost control and schedule control are all challenges, especially when they will pick companies that make all kinds of promises to build on time, on budget, but don't have the capabilities to deliver. So now, everyone is rushed ... and that will inevitably impact quality. In a battery, quality means (1) safety, (2) battery capacity and (3) battery life (or number of charge cycles before the battery is cr@p). Doing things quickly may mean the chemicals going inside the battery are not 100% to spec, or the actually battery cell assembly has defects (remember they make millions of cells PER DAY, and if one tiny thing goes wrong, you compromise the battery).
In the end, simply put, speed to market is being prioritized, and that introduces significant risk of quality issues. That is what you are seeing.
